For my next visit for the Restaurant Week, I picked Olive Beach. Olive Beach is one of Bangalore's most loved restaurants, both by the locals and expat crowd. The lovely romantic ambience, (usually) friendly service and delicious food crown this restaurant as a top favourite amongst many food lovers in Bangalore.
I hadn't been to Olive Beach in a few years and I thought it was about time that I visited the place. Also, their menu looked attractive and had more of a variety in starters and main course relative to the other restaurant's menus I checked out. I wanted to try out everything on the menu, so I decided to go with a bunch of my friends, so that all of us got a chance to sample everything.
Olive Beach's decor is really something to talk about, especially at night time. Everything from the blue gate that leads you to the restaurant, to all of the scented candles placed meticulously around, the soft lighting and lovely green everywhere makes this rank very high as far as ambience is concerned. The entire ambience creates for such a warm welcome that you can't help but just be wowed by it.We went on a Friday evening at 8 pm, and the restaurant already seemed half-full. I walked in and was greeted warmly by the gentleman at the reception. Upon confirming that I had booked a table for the Restaurant Week, the server who was appointed to guide us to our table immediately flashed a frown that never left his face for the entire duration of our meal.
We ordered our starters first, and decided to take one of each, as that was what we had decided. Our server said that we had to order all the 3-courses upfront as it would take time (that didn't make sense to me, how does ala carte work here?). We ordered all the 3-courses like he asked us to, and he left grumpily. I found the server extremely rude in the manner he asked us to order upfront (we had no idea that that was the concept) and he seemed really impatient and irritated when we were discussing who would order which main course/dessert (there were many options and each one had their own preference).
Our starters soon arrived and we couldn't wait to dig in. I ordered the
Potato and Cream Cheese Chowder with sauteed bacon, scallions, carrots and sweet corn (anything with bacon does me in very easily). When I first tried the soup, it didn't taste anything extraordinary, but after having more of it, the cheese and corn tasted lovely and the bacon was super yum. This was a decently sized portion, so fills you up quite quickly.
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| Potato and Cream Cheese Chowder |
Our next starter was
Tuna and Egg which was served with nicoise olives, baby potato chips and fresh arugula leaves drizzled with a 5-herbed vinaigrette. Despite the small size, the cut of the tuna was divine and went beautifully with the herbed arugula and the egg. We assumed that the egg was hard boiled by the way it looked, and when we poked it with our fork, that lovely yolk oozed out to coat the arugula as well, offering a party of flavours in our mouths with the tuna. The potato chips were a little too soft for my liking.
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| Tuna and Egg with arugula |
The next starter was the
Wild Green Filo Pie where the filling of spinach, mustard and radish leaves were sauteed with garlic, almonds and feta and baked in filo pastry sheets. This wasn't too memorable in terms of taste, as I was really hoping the punch of the mustard or the saltiness of the feta would hit me, but never did. The light filo pastry sheet and the almonds in the filling added nice texture to the pie.
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| Wild Green Filo Pie |
Our next starter was the
Baby Mushroom Tart Tatin, which was slow poached mushrooms layered with a creamy, herbed goat cheese mixture and mushroom ragu in handrolled pastry. Mushrooms and goat cheese generally pair well and this tart didn't disappoint at all. The taste of the goat cheese was highly discernible and blended well with the mushroom ragu. The tart could have been crispier though.
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| Baby Mushroom Tart Tatin |
Our final starter was the
Smoked Chicken Salad in a hummus yoghurt dressing served with apple straws, pomegranate and walnuts. I have always been a fan of the chicken and apple combination, so I knew I'd like this salad; I just wasn't sure about the hummus dressing on it though (I never considered fruits dipped in hummus as an idea even). My doubts were put to rest when I tried this salad and fell in love with it instantly. The different combination of textures and flavours in this dish surprises you and you're bound to love it. The meatiness of the chicken, crunchiness of the walnuts, tartness of the apple, sourness of the hummus yoghurt dressing and bite of the pomegranate made this a highly memorable salad for all of us.
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| The super yummy Smoked Chicken Salad. |
Our general reactions to the starters were mixed, but we liked most of them. We geared up for our mains and they soon began to arrive. Again, we took one of each, and I decided to go for a vegetarian option and the moment I spotted Gnocchi on the menu, I was sold and ordered it immediately. This turned out to be decision I regretted.
I had ordered the
Gnocchi Alla Romana, the Roman style of gnocchi preparation which was a baked dish made of semolina, Parmesan and cornmeal. It tasted abysmal. There was no seasoning, no flavour to it and the dish tasted plain awful to me. I passed it on for the rest of my friends to try, and they concurred. The gnocchi was served with grilled asparagus and artichoke, but they offered little redemption. What I wanted was the traditional gnocchi stuffed with potato or any other vegetable, and I received something I didn't like. I decided to speak to the chef and he told me that this was the Roman style and that this was the way they served it. He was highly courteous and offered to replace it with another dish, and I decided to go with the risotto, that was also on the menu.
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| Gnocchi Alla Romana |
My bigger problem was with the fact that the gnocchi preparation/style wasn't mentioned clearly on the menu. Gnocchi Alla Romana wasn't clear to me that it would be anything but the stuffed gnocchi pasta. There should be no room for ambiguity in such a case, and I was mighty disappointed with what I received.
My (replaced) dish arrived, which was a
Goat Cheese Risotto with wine soaked pearl onions, spinach and herbs. One look at the dish and I could tell that the rice wasn't cooked long enough. The biggest part of cooking risotto is the constant stirring of the Arborio rice and adding plenty of stock/water to cook it well leaving it just to the bite. This rice was nearly crunchy, not cooked well at all and the flavour of the goat cheese didn't seem to come through at all, making this just as bad as, if not worse than my gnocchi dish. I didn't bother complaining about the risotto as I'd already sent a dish back before and didn't want to make a scene. Overall, I was disappointed with my main course.
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| Goat Cheese Risotto |
Our other main course was the
Moroccan Chicken Stew, which was a stew of marinated braised chicken thigh with chickpeas, okra, pearl onions, and served with minted saffron rice pilaf. The stew was very ordinary and honestly, it didn't leave a lasting impression enough that I could write something here about it. I also found the chicken a little tough and the chickpeas hard, and not soft like I would have liked it to be.
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| Moroccan Chicken Stew |
The other mains ordered included the
Crusted Sea Bass, which was a parmesan crusted fish with mushroom duxelle and romesco and the
Roasted Tenderloin with oxtail and mushroom ragu, pearl onions, green peas puree and fondant potato. The sea bass was lovely with that parmesan crust and the mushrooms went very well with the fish. The tenderloin received mixed reviews on the table and I felt that oxtail and mushroom ragu didn't complement the tenderloin well. I loved the peas puree and fondant potato though.
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| Crusted Sea Bass |
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| Roasted Tenderloin |
Unimpressed with our mains, we looked forward to our desserts with little or no anticipation; but we were pleasantly surprised when the desserts did come along, as they were nothing short of brilliant.
First came the
Warm Apple Tart with green apple jam, candied apples, cream cheese mousse and praline ice-cream. The apple and cream cheese mouse was a delightful combination and the praline ice-cream added the right amount of sweetness and a lovely crunch that went well with the tart.
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| Warm Apple Tart |
Next came the
Lemon Mousse served with a warm citrus cake with vanilla sauce and lemon sable. I LOVED the lemon mousse, and thought it had
just the right amount of tang that made it perfect in every way. But trying to finish it single-handedly might be a challenge, as after a few bites, the collective sourness and tang of the citrus cake and lemon sable begin to take over, making it a little too tangy. The next dessert was the
Brioche Almond Pudding with frangipane, blueberry compote and vanilla gelato. This dessert was nice, but not memorable. The frangipane had that lovely sweet nuttiness of the almonds that matched the sweet tang of the blueberry compote.
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| Lemon Mousse |
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| Brioche Almond Pudding |
The hero of the dessert round was eggless
Chocolate Cake with chocolate cremeux, vanilla cream, cherry and berry sorbet. We simply expected this to be a regular chocolate cake but this cake wowed everyone's tastebuds in an instant. The chocolate cremeux provide for 3 flavours - a lovely sweetness, followed by a slight bitterness and elevated by a salted edge. A hint of chilli was probably the only thing missing. :)
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| The orgasmic creamy Chocolate Cake |
Our 3-course meal finally came to an end and it had its fair share of ups and downs. For me, however, the service (particularly with our server) was very disappointing. He was rude and indifferent to us from the moment we got into the restaurant and was very indifferent throughout. I wouldn't dismiss it as him having a bad day, because he was very friendly with the group next to us, but apathetic only towards us. I gave my feedback in the form given, but I don't know what help that would be of.
My final rating:
Food - 6/10
Ambience - 10/10
Service - 2/10
Verdict - Save your appetite for the indulgent desserts, don't expect the best in food and service!
I've mostly only read glowing reviews of Olive Beach, but my experience wasn't as great as everyone hypes it up to be. The food was merely above average, and the restaurant bill would indeed dent your wallet. If you did try the RWI at Olive Beach, do leave a comment below. I'd love to know how your experience was! :)
Olive Beach is located at:
16, Wood Street, Ashok Nagar, Off Brigade Road, Bangalore
Ph:
080 41128400/+91 9945565483
Parking: Valet available
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