Does Olive Garden Have Free Wi-Fi?
If you're working, studying, or engaging in an activity that involves a laptop, parking yourself somewhere that has free Wi-Fi can be convenient. Besides libraries, people often choose coffee shops or cafes, frequently opting for well-known chains like Starbucks and Panera where Wi-Fi is readily available across every location. With its nearly 900 restaurants, you might wonder if Olive Garden is also a viable option. Is it a reliable choice for Wi-Fi access?
One customer posed the question to Olive Garden via Twitter, to which the restaurant responded, "Some have free Wi-Fi and we're working on rolling out free Wi-Fi to all of our restaurants. Call your local Olive Garden to ask!" This exchange was back in 2015, but it seems Olive Garden is still in the process of accomplishing the aforementioned free Wi-Fi rollout. At least it's easy to find out whether your local Olive Garden offers it simply by looking under the amenities section under each location's page on the Olive Garden website. Free Wi-Fi is available in many Olive Garden locations in major cities like Los Angeles and Phoenix, but not all restaurants have it.
Etiquette for using Olive Garden's Wi-Fi
If your Olive Garden has free Wi-Fi, by all means, use it — that's what it's there for. However, you should be mindful of how long you sit there. Coffee shops and cafes typically have a lot of little tables suited for individuals, whereas Olive Garden's seating is designed for multiple people to enjoy a meal then leave once they're finished. So, while using Olive Garden's free Wi-Fi is definitely permitted, it would be considered rude to take up a large table and sit there for a very long time, especially if the restaurant looks busy.
As you may have seen on TikTok, Olive Garden isn't afraid to ask customers to leave if they've clearly overstayed. This usually happens when customers take advantage of the unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks, so if you really want to use the Wi-Fi and don't want to get kicked out, make sure to actually order food and don't just eat the unlimited breadsticks. Just as you would buy coffee if you sat at Starbucks, it's proper etiquette to do the same at Olive Garden.
The reasons Olive Garden may have decided to offer free Wi-Fi
Because the restaurant isn't exactly set up for hanging out all day with your laptop, it might seem unnecessary for Olive Garden to offer free Wi-Fi, but there's a probable reason the chain has been trying to implement it for so long. Free Wi-Fi is known to lead to more business because people like having the option to connect to it. For example, when Panera introduced free Wi-Fi, sales went up by 15 percent.
At Olive Garden specifically, the availability of free Wi-Fi may also encourage customers to download the Olive Garden app or fill out the Olive Garden's guest survey that's promoted on every receipt, since connecting to the Wi-Fi will lead you straight to the restaurant's website. More app downloads and customer feedback via the survey directly benefit Olive Garden, so even if a lot of people aren't coming to the restaurant just to work on their laptops, the chain has excellent reasons to make free Wi-Fi available at many locations.