InspectLens

Olive Garden

Olive Garden's Florida stores average -0.48 high-priority violations per routine inspection relative to their county baseline (95% interval -0.57 to -0.39), below the county baseline. Rank 2 of 16 casual-dining brands, counted from furthest below the baseline.

-0.48vs county baseline, 95% interval -0.57 to -0.39
0.65 vs 1.13raw high-priority violations per routine inspection vs the baseline its stores face
80stores in 34 counties, 419 routine inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26

The food: where these dishes come from

Olive Garden is known for fettuccine Alfredo. The stories are about the dishes, not the brand, and live on PlateTales.

By fiscal year

0-0.69FY2016-17: -0.61 (n = 115)16-17FY2017-18: -0.52 (n = 91)17-18FY2018-19: -0.69 (n = 118)18-19FY2019-20: -0.65 (n = 140)19-20FY2020-21: -0.45 (n = 139)20-21FY2021-22: -0.53 (n = 136)21-22FY2022-23: -0.60 (n = 131)22-23FY2023-24: -0.49 (n = 140)23-24FY2024-25: -0.46 (n = 141)24-25FY2025-26: -0.49 (n = 138)25-26FY2026-27: -0.34 (n = 50) partial year26-27*

Relative to the county baseline, first visits of routine inspections. Open circle and * = fiscal year in progress (data as of 2026-11-09). Hover a point for n.

Most-cited violation codes

Citations per 100 routine inspections, Olive Garden vs all Florida inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26 (n = 419). Descriptions are DBPR's.
CodeDBPR descriptionOlive GardenFloridaRatio
36Floors properly constructed, clean, drained, coved54.439.91.36x
22Food contact surfaces of equipment and utensils clean41.543.60.95x
23Non-food contact surfaces clean35.123.61.48x
14Food contact surfaces designed, constructed, maintained, installed, located30.546.90.65x
03Food Out of Temperature30.135.00.86x

Outcomes

7.6% vs 19.6%routine inspections that needed a callback visit, vs all Florida (raw)
0.00% vs 1.01%routine inspections ending in an emergency order recommendation, vs all Florida (raw)
100%of 79 stores with 2+ inspections score below their county baseline after shrinkage toward the brand mean

Emergency closures

No Olive Garden store appears in DBPR's weekly closure extracts (2025-12-29 to 2026-11-06).

Other casual-dining brands

Ranked casual-dining brands, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26.
RankBrandvs county95% intervalStores
1Chuck E. Cheese-0.69-0.86 to -0.5359
2Olive Garden-0.48-0.57 to -0.3980
3Buffalo Wild Wings-0.36-0.49 to -0.2462
4Chili's-0.34-0.43 to -0.25139
5Hooters-0.27-0.42 to -0.1248
6LongHorn Steakhouse-0.23-0.35 to -0.1181
7Applebee's-0.19-0.31 to -0.0788
8Sonny's BBQ-0.12-0.28 to +0.0465
9Outback Steakhouse-0.08-0.23 to +0.06101
10Texas Roadhouse-0.08-0.26 to +0.1147
11Red Lobster+0.07-0.14 to +0.3056
12Ruby Tuesday+0.12-0.14 to +0.4031
13Bonefish Grill+0.19-0.04 to +0.4549
14Carrabba's Italian Grill+0.30+0.16 to +0.4568
15Beef 'O' Brady's+0.48+0.30 to +0.6788
16Miller's Ale House+0.78+0.55 to +1.0368

Store-level matching: a store counts for Olive Garden when its DBPR business name matches the reviewed aliases in InspectLens's brand list. Co-branded units (for example KFC with Taco Bell) are not counted for either brand.