Experts offer ways to refresh Olive Garden

Fixing Olive Garden won't be a rose garden. But it's certainly doable.

That's the conclusion of five restaurant industry consultants contacted by USA TODAY.

Late last week, Olive Garden's parent company, Darden Restaurants, lost a heated battle against the powerful investor group Starboard Value, which coaxed investors into replacing the restaurant giant's 12-person board of directors at Darden's annual meeting.

Darden owns several familiar casual dining brands — from LongHorn Steakhouse to Bahama Breeze to Seasons 52 — but Olive Garden, with more than 800 locations and $3.6 billion in annual sales. is the core brand that drives Darden.

Starboard executives had previously put out a lengthy report that criticized, in detail, the inner workings of Olive Garden, even blasting the chain for waste by putting too many of its famous — and free — hot bread sticks on customer's tables.

Industry analysts say Olive Garden's problems run deeper. They say the chain can improve by:

• Thinking like Millennials. The chain needs to evolve beyond its Baby Boomer base and appeal more to Millennials by losing its reputation as a place for all the bread sticks and salad you can eat and gaining a reputation as a place for fresh, healthier and more customized offerings, says Christopher Muller, hospitality professor at Boston University. "To save itself, Olive Garden needs to become young again," he says.

• Retraining staff. Olive Garden needs to "reinvent" the work done by staff, says Muller. It should pay more to attract top waiters and waitresses, but make sure they are extremely knowledgeable about the food and its preparation. "For the customer, everything in a restaurant happens within the last three feet (before the food is served)," Muller says.

• Becoming more authentic. Some time ago, Olive Garden reached back to its Tuscan roots to convince consumers it was authentically Italian. Much of that has since been lost. The chain needs to take the next step and bring the brick oven out into the dining room so customers can "see the experience," says David Stone, managing partner at New England Consulting Group.

• Upgrading the salad. This is crucial, says restaurant consultant Linda Lipsky. The iceberg lettuce that is the core of its salad bowl has little nutritional value. The chain needs to, at the very least, switch to Romaine lettuce, or, even better, she says, a combo of field greens and a Mesclun mix "would be a home run."

• Lightening the menu. Although Olive Garden recently added some lighter dinner and lunch entrees, it also needs to offer some lighter versions of quality appetizers, salads, soups and desserts, says Lipsky.

• Updating the image. Olive Garden needs a serious brand makeover, says restaurant industry consultant Howard Gordon, a former Cheesecake Factory marketing chief. To attract a younger, more vibrant customer, the chain needs to focus and enhance the brand message, he says.

• Offering better value. Tom Frank, a restaurant industry entrepreneur who helped to develop P.F. Chang's, says that based on Olive Garden's historical success, he's studied a lot more about what the chain's done right than wrong. But he checked in with a good buddy in Dallas, who used to frequent Olive Garden often, but has recently stopped going. That's because the prices went up, but the value didn't, says Nathan Carlson, who owns an e-commerce company in Burleson, Texas. "TGI Friday's changed their prices, too, but their food is better and now, I just stopped going to Olive Garden."

Shares of Darden fell 2.7% to $47.08 Monday. Piper Jaffray's Nicole Regan cut her price target to $50 from $55, saying she's looking for more "clarity on strategy among incoming leadership."