What Restaurant Tech Leaders Can Learn from Olive Garden’s Uber Direct Playbook
Olive Garden’s compelling value messaging, combined with a full-quarter rollout of Uber Direct delivery, helped Darden Restaurants Inc. top expectations in its fourth fiscal quarter. Same-store sales at the Italian chain rose 6.9%, fueling a 10.6% increase in company-wide revenue to $3.3 billion.
“We had a strong quarter with same-restaurant sales and earnings growth that exceeded our expectations,” said CEO Rick Cardenas on the June 20 earnings call to discuss the Q4 and fiscal year results. “Our strategy remains the right one for the company, and we will continue to execute it to drive growth and long-term shareholder value.”
The Numbers
Darden Restaurants, Inc. reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended May 25, 2025 on June 20.
Total sales increased 10.6% to $3.3 billion driven by a blended same-restaurant sales increase of 4.6% and sales from the acquisition of 103 Chuy's Tex Mex restaurants and 25 net new restaurants
- Consolidated Darden 4.6 %
- Olive Garden 6.9 %
- LongHorn Steakhouse 6.7 %
- Fine Dining -3.3 %
Other 1.2%
*Chuy's and Ruth's Chris will not be included in Darden's earnings until they have been owned and operated by Darden for a 16-month period.
Same-restaurant sales for the fiscal year:
- Consolidated Darden 2.0 %
- Olive Garden1.7 %
- LongHorn Steakhouse 5.1 %
- Fine Dining -3.0) %
- Other Business 0.2 %
The restaurant operator also revealed its 2026 restaurant outlook:
- Total sales growth of 7% to 8%, including approximately 2% growth related to the 53rd week in the fiscal year.
- Same-restaurant sales growth of 2% to 3.5%
Delivery Growth & Digital Wins
With delivery now available nationwide through Uber Direct, Olive Garden saw strong growth in off-premises sales. Takeout sales grew nearly 20% over the prior year.
During the final weeks of the quarter, Darden launched a marketing campaign offering 1 million free deliveries, co-funded by Uber. The result: average weekly delivery volume nearly doubled, according to Cardenas.
Uber Direct, a white-label service that allows guests to order directly from Olive Garden’s app or website, now drives approximately 3.5% of Olive Garden’s total sales, according to CFO Rajesh Vennam.
About 40% of Olive Garden’s to-go customers have tried delivery, and delivery users are skewing younger, slightly higher income, and more likely to be new or lapsed guests.
"Right now the delivery customer has very minimal overlap in dining," said Cardenas.
“We’ve got a lot of consumers that haven’t been to Olive Garden in over a year using delivery,” said Cardenas. “We are seeing higher guest frequency for delivery compared to dine-in guests.”
Darden’s delivery strategy remains focused on Uber Direct, not the Uber Eats Marketplace where Uber usually owns the transaction, customer relationship and data.
“Our priority is to continue to see how Olive Garden and Cheddar’s perform in Uber Direct,” said Cardenas. “Marketplace is something that has challenges for us... that’s why we developed this offer with Uber.”
Cheddar’s has now completed its own Uber Direct rollout, with just eight locations still offline. Paid media and email support began last week, partially funded by Uber.
"We're going to continue to invest in marketing, and you'll see more of that in Cheddar's. You'll see more of that across some of our brands," said Cardenas.
For the time being, Darden is holding off on expanding Uber Direct across its other brands.
Value Without Deep Discounts
Cardenas credited Darden’s consistent pricing discipline as key to regaining share.
“Consumers are figuring out that casual dining is a great value... Consumers want to go out and spend their hard-earned money, and we think we’re taking some wallet share from fast food and fast casual,” he said. Olive Garden’s $14.99 Buy One, Take One promotion was described as both successful and margin-neutral.
New menu testing is underway at a range of price points. “We feel really good about what it’s done to our affordability ratings, which were already strong, and what it's done for those guests’ intent to return."
Management News
After 33 years, Olive Garden president Dan Kiernan will retire August 31. He’ll be succeeded by John Wilkerson, currently president of Cheddar’s.
Darden also highlighted employee satisfaction and retention. Staff turnover hit record lows, and several brands earned high guest satisfaction scores, including Cheddar’s, Ruth’s Chris, and Eddie V’s. Both LongHorn Steakhouse and The Capital Grille won Employer of Choice awards from Black Box Intelligence for Casual Dining and Fine Dining, respectively for best-in-class people practices.
Bahama Breeze on the Block
Darden will pursue the sale or conversion of its remaining 28 Bahama Breeze locations after closing 15 last month.
“These remaining locations and the Bahama Breeze brand are not a strategic priority for us,” Cardenas said.