Would You Pay $400 For A New Year’s Eve Dinner At Olive Garden In Times Square?

New Year’s Eve revelers who like the idea of celebrating in New York City’s Times Square, but who don’t so much love the thought of trying to find a public bathroom while surrounded by thousands of drunken strangers, might be interested in settling in at a dining spot close to the action: equipped with toilets, heat, and food, restaurants provide a few more comforts than camping outside all day. But does anyone want to pay $400 for dinner at Olive Garden, just because it’s New Year’s Eve?

That’s a question facing dedicated fans of New Year’s Eve who might be thinking of spending the holiday in the center of the action: the New York Post reports that the Times Square OG’s special dinner costs $400 and includes a DJ, open bar and buffet meal, but doesn’t include free breadsticks or a guaranteed view of the ball dropping.

“It’s a limited view,” the manager of the Times Square location told the NYP. Guests could try to rush outside at the key moment, but that’s an individual decision.

Essentially, you could be in an Olive Garden in Topeka and have the same experience, but just with more potential for people peeing in the doorway of the restaurant all day.

Other chain restaurants in the area are even pricer: Bubba Gump Shrimp has a $799 price tag on its event and offers a somewhat better vantage point, and Ruby Tuesday has tickets ranging from $349 a head to $1,699, again, with no view of the ball dropping.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of such hefty price tags for NYE dinners at chain restaurants, either: in 2013, Applebee’s offered a Times Square party for $375 per head, but that event came with a view.

Olive Garden is charging $400 a person for NYE dinner [New York Post]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist