BUSINESS DESCRIPTION

Darden Restaurants, Inc., is the largest publicly traded casual dining company in the world, serving almost 300 million meals a year at 1,139 restaurants in 49 states across the United States and Canada. Total sales for fiscal 2000 exceeded $3.7 billion.

Darden's flagship brands, Red Lobster^® and Olive Garden^®, hold dominant shares in the seafood and Italian segments of casual dining. Two emerging concepts, Bahama Breeze^® and Smokey Bones BBQ Sports Bar, ^SM are at promising stages of development. Darden is based in Orlando, Florida, and employs more than 122,000 individuals. Darden's employees are working to create a culture of continuous improvement in leadership development, hospitality excellence and culinary innovation, supported by a fundamental commitment to workforce diversity.

Darden became a publicly held company in 1995 and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DRI.

C O N T E N T S

Darden Restaurants At-A-Glance / Foldout Some Appetizing Facts / Letter To Shareholders / The Main Course - 4 Reasons / Financial Review / Corporate Responsibility / Board of Directors and Corporate Officers / Shareholder Information