"Tell Me When" — Woman Discovers You Can Buy Olive Garden Cheese Graters
Published Oct. 10 2023, 9:59 a.m. ET
The only thing better than getting all the cheese you can ask for on your Olive Garden salad or soup is being able to grate the cheese yourself at home, with the same tool. And apparently, now you can do just that. A TikTok user, @bo_gjerness, whose name is Bo, says in a video that when she went to Olive Garden and asked if she could buy the cheese grater we all know and love, she was told they do sell them in-house.
I mean, OK, you can certainly buy a handheld cheese grater from Amazon or a department store. But would it be the same as the one from Olive Garden, where a server is only too happy to continue to crank the handle of the grater until you say “when”? The answer is no, it isn't the same. And now, other people want to buy a cheese grater from Olive Garden too.
A woman says that Olive Garden sells its cheese graters.
Bo says in her video that she went to Olive Garden for her birthday. While she enjoyed her never-ending pasta meal, she asked a waiter if they sell the cheese graters they use at every location. And, Bo says with sheer glee, Olive Garden does sell the very same graters they use for customers. But that isn't the best part for Bo specifically.
“Tell me ‘when,’” Bo says in the video, as she holds up the cheese grater and cranks the handle. “And here’s the best part. They gave me some cheese to go with it.”
In the caption of her TikTok, Bo declares that she is “literally obsessed with it.” And, I mean, can any of us blame her? Who wouldn't want an Olive Garden cheese grater?
What Bo doesn’t say in her video, however, is that she didn't even have to pay for the cheese grater, even if Olive Garden sells them. She replied to a comment from someone who asked how much it was, “I think he said like $15, but he gave it to me for free as a b-day present.”
While it's true that some of us might already have an Olive Garden cheese grater by, ahem, other means, it’s a game-changer for many to learn that you can buy one from the restaurant the next time you go to a location to eat.
Still, one individual commented under the video, “I have one as well, it just showed up in my purse after dinner lol.”
Other customers have gotten Olive Garden cheese graters for free too.
Bo’s story about her Olive Garden cheese grater may be the first some have heard of this being a thing, but she isn't the first person to get her hands on one. One TikTok user commented, “One time I went to Olive Garden and the dude just gave it to us when we asked. He was chill af and did not care about his job lmao.”
And a former employee shared, “I worked there years ago and I would give them away.” Not all heroes wear capes, I guess. And even so, $15 isn't bad if you absolutely had to shell out the cash, should you have to pay for it instead of getting one for free from an employee.
Someone else shared yet another story of an Olive Garden server being more than generous with the cheese grater: “I went with some friends once and I asked the waiter if I could have it and he just left it on the table for me.”
Like I said, you can absolutely buy a handheld cheese grater similar to the one you’d find at Olive Garden. But there is something so satisfying about getting the actual Olive Garden grater from a restaurant.
And this is true whether or not they actually charge you for it.
