Olive Beach
Ratings
Food 7/10
Ambience 7/10
Service 6/10
Price: Rs. 1000
Description
What is it about Italian restaurants that makes ordinary people suddenly start to act snooty. Olive Beach is a delightful restaurant with a lovely mediterranean ambience complete with large sunny open spaces and rough-hewn whitewashed walls. But sit down to a meal and you will find yourself surrounded by strangers who have suddenly started sipping their tea with their little fingers fully extended.
But I am getting ahead of myself.
Olive Beach is actually an interesting Italian themed restaurant, right angled pinkies notwithstanding. The decor is minimalist – white walls, high ceilings, enough open space to allow each table to breathe and lots of tiny candlelit alcoves for privacy.
The food is, in general, good, well concieved Italian fare with enough authentic imported meats and cheeses thrown in to justify the price of the meal. It is not my favourite Italian restaurant but it is up there in the top 5. The pizzas are good in a traditional hand tossed kind of way. The antipasti is unusual for the most part and where they lapse back into the familiar (their bruschetta for instance) is fresh and tasty.
This restaurant is part of the Olive franchise that already has established itself in Mumbai and Delhi (so you can see where they get their Page 3 attitude from). I have attended a couple of their Sunday brunches which tend to be very long drawn out wine guzzling affairs – but at which the menu is generally interesting. They also have a regular flea bazar where they host local crafts at several different stalls all around the restaurant with the Italian equivalent of street food – which can be interesting if you are into crafts and crowds (but not otherwise).
All in all, this is a place worth going to once for the atmosphere. Whenever I have visited I have got the impression that there is too much going on. To the point where it distracts from the food itself. Regardless, this is a good restaurant and one of the better places in the city for Italian food.
Getting There:
Olive Beach is situated on Wood Street in a lovely colonial building that has been tastefully re-decorated. Wood Street is currently a one way so be sure you are heading in the right direction.
Recommendations
The pizzas are good as are the anti-pasti. They sometimes have cured meats and sausages straight from the Mediterranean which is always worth a try. If you are there in the evening, do try a cocktails – they are usually good.
Ideal For:
A quiet meal – when they are not hosting one of their Page 3 affairs or lots of air kissing, when they are.
I remember the first time I went there, right after it opened. Salads were good, mezze platter was interesting enough with the innumerable dips, the steaks were minuscule but good (I inhaled the first and ordered a second) and the dessert was stand-out. Been back only a once after. Must try the brunch.
But what are your top 5 Italian restaurants? In no particular order, iTalia, Sunny’s, H&S & Olive. Can’t think of a fifth.
They are all in my top 5. But you forgot Grasshopper. Granted its more continental than Italian. Also Citrus at the Leela is actually a very good Italian restaurant when it stops acting like a coffee shop.
Grasshopper is more fusion/nouvelle Asian/Continental/Bistro food, no? I had done a review here.
Citrus, yes. It’s good. And their pizzas are better than most.
BB: And you forgot fiorano?
Absolutely. Another one of my favourite Italian restaurants and further proof that Italian is the most popular non-Indian cuisine in Bangalore. And don’t say Chinese because in Bangalore most of the Chinese restaurants are actually Indian restaurants with Chinese names.
May I humbly submit::
1. T’chi.
2. Shanghai Club.
3. Schezwan Court
Trust you to pull up the exceptions. But even then there are only 3 against the 5 we have established for the Italian side of the balance sheet.
I need to try Tchi. Will do so this coming week.
Olive beach is so not Italian, yes it does have Italian as part of the menu, but there is so much going on. Also almost every visit there I find something new on the menu, unlike a lot of the restaurants mentioned above who have been serving the same fare for god knows how long. Its my favourite restaurant by far in Bangalore, and one that only gets better.
OMG Anonymous, Nakul is right, dont brand an exceptional and progressive restaurant as Italian, seems to me you only ordered whatever little Italian they had on the menu. Aftyer repeated visits I have found nothing remotely Page 3 about it, its a fantastic crowd, and so into their dining. I would rate Olive Beach amongst my 5 Favourite in South Asia, and I am a corporate who does dinners all over the region. Hats off to these guys for pulling off a fantastic effort, even though they maybe still in a market not quite ready for the finer things.
Wow that’s high praise. I don’t really think I will go that far but it is a nice place. We must have been there on different days though Rohit. I seem to have been plagues by the P3 crowd whenever I was there – or maybe I am a P3P myself but I just don’t know it.
Hi Anonymous,
I really do enjoy the food at Olive but I wish they would give up on the singing
Don’t know when you went there AF, but in the last 6 months that I have been visiting Olive Beach, I have found it to be leagues ahead of the other restaurants on your list. I do find your ratings ‘off’ in that respect. Another thing, there is a lot more non-Italian food on offer. It’s the best Foie Gras, Duck and Steak anywhere in the city, and so much more reasonable than stuffy hotels.