"We serve only Meditterranean food mam", the lady on the telephone warned when I called to book a table. "Perfect!" I said, "Table for two, please. 7:30 tonight. And where exactly are you located?"
"Wood Street mam. On Richmond road, take the last right turn before Shoolay circle "
A friend of mine has been raving about this restaurant called "Olive Beach" that he had been to, and I was eager to try it. Olive happens to be one of the renowned brands of restaurants in the country. This one I hear, is co-owned by singer Sagarika. So we went there last saturday night.
Now picture this: A candle-lit courtyard. White sand and pebbles. A large, circular, rustic mirror on the wall. Cherry trees. Cozy tables, cushioned chairs & couches that look ohh-so-inviting. Relaxing jazz playing in the background.
Ok, you can come down to earth now. That was a preview of Olive's courtyard. It was love at first sight! You gotta see it to believe it!
If you choose to sit inside, the decor is no less impressive. The color choice is elegant - mostly white and blue. Most of the light is from candles. The electrical lights are inconspicuous and are placed at the strategic spots. Fat candles and jars placed on pseudo window sills give the place an exotic feel. Low, long benches serve as bar stools at the bar where an eager-to-please bartender dishes out a range of aperitifs, cocktails and mocktails.
The menu looked interesting, especially the appetizers. Olive's signature appetizer Mezzanine sounded promising, so we ordered that, along with a couple of drinks.
Just as I was preparing myself a traditional olive oil & crushed pepper dip, the appetizer arrived. A neat row of nine ceramic cups on a long wooden platter, each cup containing a dip. The plate of bread and crisps that comes with the dips is rather scrimpy. But not to worry - a bread basket with an assortment of breads is complimentary and goes very well with the dips. Every dip is unique: baba ganoush (eggplant), cilantro, sundried tomatoes, sweet red chilli, chickpea, black bean,tzatziki, butter and hummus. Delicious! We devoured it in minutes. Needless to say, my olive oil dip lay untouched :)
For the main course there was a choice of Mediterranean entrees, home-made pastas (which the waiter mentioned was a favorite), Grills with a wide choice of sides, and pizzas. We tried the Verdure gratinate (Grilled marinated vegetables with parmesan) and Gnocchi Formaggi. The veggies was way too cheesy I thought. The Gnocchi was just perfect. The portions are not too large, but then considering the amount of bread n dips we had eaten, we were glad they did not serve too much.
For dessert, ordered the Chocolate mousse. Expected a divine treat, but naah, I've had better. Probably I should have picked Olive's signature Chocolate Fondant. My bad.
And now the wallet factor. What do you expect? Ofcourse it's expensive :)
A couple of cocktails, an appetizer, two entrees and a dessert left us poorer by Rs.2600. But look at it this way - you're paying for experiencing a southern European beach sitting right here in Bangalore!
PS: If the last argument doesn’t convince you, go there atleast for the appetizers. They come with enigma's moneyback guarantee!*
* Terms and conditions apply ;-)
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12 comments:
chocloate mousee had me drooling.. nice post abt the speakers.. i hav come to know from good speakers that all do a lot of preparation. even rehearse the jokes/ anecdotes
sounds interesting. am sold on the money back guarantee :)
will check the place out sometime
hmmm, now where does the beach fit in?
itchingtowrite:
yup that's right abt preparation. i heard that some important speeches are prepared as early as 6 months in advance no matter how brilliant the speaker!
vipul:
hope you read the fine print below :D
manuscrypts:
The Mediterranean area is mostly coastal, right?
I read it all, with tongue hanging out just reading about it. But the part where the tongue was hanging out the most was ... Rs. 2600. Wow ! Wow !
Wow!!! A very impressive review. Now, I have to try out this place. Am all curios about it :D
Seems like a perfect place for a cosy dinner for two ;)
the place sounds intresting... but 2600, got my tongue out !! but shud try it out once ... hmmm.. i remember u had promised me a treat .. :-p
ok gotta try the place if it s tat gud... and chocolate mousse ... mmm thinkin abt tat makes my mouth water!!!
After picking up a copy of India Times' much ballyhooed food guide, which would be of more practical use if the authors had concentrated more on quality of food as opposed to which spots are most trendy, it's obvious Olive Beach is considered one of the better retaurants around here, as the prices suggest. Hopefully they're a little more consistant than Tiger Bay, home of the ghost mussels (open shell, presto, no mussel) (decent lobster though).
these guys have surely not messed with the food and the ambience, maybe the beach piece is a bit exaggerated.....an area they need to brush up on is guest relations, etiquette and racial bias (prevention!)....they allow PFO's (people of foreign origin) to bypass their "strict" dress code, while disallowing PIO's (People of indian origin)! The manager, Anthony, has a certain inadequacy in his professional training, on managing guests "who do not fit the desired profile" of this joint...well cheers AD and all the best, am sure one customer less does little to your populous following..
Some places leave a mark on you because of the great food, some for the great ambience and some for the great service. A friend & I went to Olive Beach with a lot of expectations after hearing about it from a mutual friend.
As we entered the restaurant we were promptly showed a place to sit which initially looked nice & private. We soon realized that the table was very close to the kitchen - so waiters frequently entered & left the kitchen. The noise from the kitchen was also disturbing (yes, we did book a table in advance).
We still didn’t mind it cos' we heard this was the place to have one of the best Continental / Mediterranean food in Bangalore. With a lot of gusto we ordered our food & drinks (mezzanine platter, gnocchi, spinach with couscous). Though the potato in the gnocchi tasted slightly stale we ignored it and continued with out dinner. Over all the food tasted ok but nothing to write home about.
The regular interruptions from the kitchen continued and in between that, a waiter broke a plate right in front of our table. That should have been a warning of what was to come I guess. Also we didn't find the service as good as other restaurants in Bangalore. Our waiter was nowhere in sight when we were done with our main course. We had to wait nearly 10-15 mins just to get our bill.
Unfortunately that was not the end of it. I woke up at around 3.00AM and ended up puking for most of the early morning. Since I am not from India, I thought it was just my stomach. That view soon changed, when my Indian friend suffered the same fate later that morning. He is the kind of man who can eat anything from anywhere of the street. I left India a day after but it took both of us nearly a week to recover.
Unfortunately, I will always remember Olive Beach for one of the worst experience ever. The only plus that came out of the experience is my friend can no longer boast that he can eat anything of this planet!
I'm surprised to see the bit about the bad service and the 'aftermath' of a meal at Olive Beach!I frequent Olive with all my clients and family and cannot think of a single occasion when we've had cause to complain...of foreign origin or not,the staff (especially Amar, who we've come to recognize now!)have been nothing but charming and accommodating even when we've arrived unannounced on a busy night...!
Also,having a bit of a medical background,I do have to add that any form of food poisoning manifests only after a minimum of 12-18 hours from the time a contaminated food is consumed...so perhaps what was experienced was just the result of a hectic schedule or something consumed previously...
Suffice to say that its thumbs up all the way for Olive from me and all my clients who ensure they do at least one meal here when they visit!
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