Nursing student goes to Olive Garden for unlimited pasta to study. Hours later, people call her selfish: ‘As an Olive Garden server I would actually cry’

Every time Olive Garden reintroduces its Never-Ending Pasta Bowl deal, it generates plenty of buzz among carb fans.

For a set price of $14.99, Olive Garden says diners can get “endless combinations of pastas, sauces and toppings, bowl after bowl.” Noodle choices include fettuccine, angel hair, and more, while customers can add a sauce and a protein topping for an additional one-time price.

Customers also like taking it on as a challenge, seeing how many bowls they can stomach before they’ve had enough.

For one nursing student, however, the deal presents another opportunity: being able to study at a restaurant for hours without getting hungry.

Nursing student uses Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta deal to study

In her clip, which got over 8.6 million views, TikTok creator and nursing student Ashley Pham (@ashleyy__pham) films herself studying while eating several bowls of pasta.

The sped-up video shows books, notes, and highlighters spread across the table as she works through her study material and multiple pasta refills.

“Olive Garden. Unlimited Pasta. No Time Limit. Studying for Nursing,” she wrote in the video’s text overlay.

“Accomplishing all my goals at once,” she added in the caption.

She gets backlash in the comments

Viewers in the comments section, however, did not all think the situation was fair for the server whose section she was sitting in.

“As an Olive Garden server I would actually cry bc we have to stay the whole time our tables do and only get three tables,” one commenter wrote. “I hope you tipped well!”

It’s likely true that Olive Garden servers typically get a set number of tables at a time. It’s corroborated by several servers in online forums.

“People do this and then leave a 10 dollar tip… don’t gaf bout the server,” another said.

Others had a different perspective.

“I was once a server. Idc do this.. the point of a restaurant is to sit down, enjoy and take your time. If you want to be in and out then go to fast food. Some of these commenters are entitled,” one viewer wrote.

“Server here! You never know how long someone will stay! Stop putting expectation on your customers, aka people you DONT KNOW!!! If they’re a paying customer they can stay as long as they want,” another added.

“Remember to tip yall waiters good,” a third advised.

Pham responded, writing, “She was the sweetest! she got tipped well w/a splash of nursing knowledge!”

Even Olive Garden dropped in on the comments. “Study sesh [pasta emoji] edition,” it wrote.

How do Olive Garden servers feel about Never-Ending Deals?

Judging by how Olive Garden servers talk about these types of deals online, they don’t like it very much.

“Worked at Olive Garden in college,” one former server wrote on a r/olivegarden thread. “Quit after less than 3 months entirely because of the never ending food offers. Work a lunch shift for 4 hours and walk with $22 because I had 10 tables with unlimited SSB? For context, before Olive Garden I held my previous Job for over 4 years.”

“Back whenever I was a server, we hated when people would come in for unlimited soup, salad and bread sticks or never ending pasta bowl,” said another in a separate thread. “Because you’d have to run your a– off and the bill would only be $20-$30 bucks. So you’d have to work like crazy and then only get $3-$4 tip.”

@ashleyy__pham

Olive Garden and Pham did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This story is republished with permission. It originally appeared on Subplot News.