Olivea — Restaurant in Ontario

My husband and I are so disgusted with our experience here that it really is sad. We can not believe that our encounter was so terrible . First of all we had to wait for the waitress to clear and clean the table outside even though it was not busy. One would have thought that she would have prepared earlier as there were not many customers. I even had to ask her to wipe one of the seats as there was residue food remaining upon it. Next when she arrived we had ordered our drinks only to find that the water that she had brought us to the table was warm, with two glasses and no ice. Bearing in mind that it was today Sunday in July with soaring temperatures this was really shocking. When my husband had requested ice she brought a small glass and no more water which we had drank as we were hot and thirsty. We ordered the squid which I have to say was delicious. However we were not offered any bread which one would have expected considering it being an Italian restaurant and the squid was in a sauce. When we had requested it she brought it when we had eaten the starter and she had the audacity to ask if we wanted to keep our dirty plate to use the bread to mop up the dregs of the squid, even though it was too late. When we did receive the bread instead of basket she brought it in a saucer and there were three tiny slices. When our main course had arrived it was so bland and sparse. Mine was supposedly an Italian Sausage with pasta. I had 3 tiny slithers of sausage in a terribly barely heated sauce that was disgusting. My husband's was even worse as he had ordered the pasta with veal and when it arrived it looked like tiny sprinkles of ground meat that again was very limited. His again was not hot and there was no sauce to speak of let alone hardly and food on plate.. We had both tasted each other's s dishes and we gagged and spat them into the napkin. When we complained to the Waitress she did not give a dam and brought us the bill which we paid. Mean while, as we were leaving she began discussing us with a regular customer in a loud voice. We could not believe how offensive she was as they started staring and pointing at us as we walked away. I am of Italian origin and spent some time in Italy and I have never been treated so badly by so called Italians in my life. If this establishment was actually in Italy it would not be open for long as real Italians would never ever eat here. Italians are usually hospitable, welcoming and generous however this can not be said about this restaurant and to be honest it begs the question who are their Clients? Perhaps mostly Canadians that think this food and service is the norm in Italy, thus they know no better. Perhaps also some Customer just do not have standards and are of the opinion that this is a proper Italian restaurant. To be honest I am doubting if it actually is real Italian or perhaps they have become so Canadianized that they just do not care or thinking that no one will notice. Judging by some of the reviews I think this could be so. Unless half the reviews derive from the friends and relatives of the owners which explains why there are no bad reviews. which is very suspicious. My husband and I will never return here nor will we ever recommend such a revolting place. I would not mind if the prices reflected the bad service from a rude, insulting, very lazy, slow dispassionate waitress, and of course food that does not resemble nor taste at all like that of Italy but tragically they do not! Over priced, horridly hardly warm food, bland and sparse, absolutely outrageous and guess what ?? WE ARE NOT TOURISTS WE LIVE HERE WHICH MAKES IT WORSE, AS ONE DOES NOT KNOW...

Absolutely one of the worst dining experiences ever. If you want to waste your time and sit and wait for your food for over an hour for mediocre pasta and service, be my guest.

Walked in for dinner at 7:45pm on a Friday evening without a reservation - there were multiple empty tables and so we were seated right away. Given that the restaurant was not full, and it was getting late, we were not expecting how the rest of the evening would turn out.

We were quite hungry after a long day and quickly placed an order after being seated. We even told our waitress that we'd like to rush our order if possible since it was getting late and we wanted to go home and rest. Waitress took down our order, then proceeded to provide us with table bread. At this point it was about ~8pm.

We sat and sat, and literally did not hear from our waitress for a whole hour. By 9pm, no one ever came to check on us, and no one walked by for us to flag them down to check up on our food.

Finally, who I believe was the restaurant manager, came by and apologized that they apparently forgot to put in our order, and would get that done right away, and should not take more than 5 minutes for our meals to be finally ready.

5 minutes later and no surprise our food was still nowhere in sight. Our waitress came and said another 5 minutes, and also said she would speak with her manager to see what can be done. No surprise that 5 more minutes later, we still did not get our food.

In total, we waited 1.5 hours for 2 plates of pasta...... and the manager offered us a 40% discount. I'm sorry, 40% discount off of a $30-$35 plate of pasta after waiting for 1.5 hours? Never in my entire life has a restaurant provided such cheap compensation for such a grave mistake. Establishments in Toronto would have offered proper compensation once wait times for food was over 30 minutes.

In 1.5 hours I could have just done my own groceries and cooked my own pasta and it would have tasted better than the extremely subpar dishes we had. Not only did we have to waste 1.5 hours of our life sitting and waiting, but we also had to pay them to cook us this disappointment?

I am not sure if the employees assumed we were students or tourists due to us being an obvious visible minority, and took advantage of us, but it's incredibly disappointing and disrespectful to expect us to wait 1.5 hours for our food and still be expected to pay for overpriced americanized pasta. Never,...

Do not recommend for celebrations like a birthday, anniversary, or engagement!

Hey! I wanted to share my experience at Olivia in Kingston. I was recommended this location by my sister so decided to add it to my wife's birthday trip. I made sure to make a reservation 2 weeks in advance and I even mentioned that it was a part of my wife's birthday celebrations. We got to the restaurant and was greeted by the staff who noted that it was my wife's birthday as per my notes . Which I was happy to hear. We were placed on the patio as it was busy indoors but we didn't mind. We got a mocktail blood orange and the sprite cocktail which was a 4/10 and pricey. We didn't mind spending a little extra as it was a special occasion. We ordered the gnocchi and the steak with spaghetti. These meals were very well done and reasonably priced. I would give both dishes a 7/10. In between the manager came out and wished my wife a happy birthday, which I was shocked to be honest as we usually don't see that extra step taken. Our waitress was here and there and really mia. We wished she took care of us better, it was a Monday night. She finally came back and we ordered the Tiramisu. She brought it out right away without any candles or anything and then handed us our bills. My wife went to the washroom and I asked her why they don't do any celebration for bday and she said she didn't know. I later spoke to the manager who advised she forgot to mention it , I feel very disappointed as they could have done something for my wife at that point . Just something with a candle to make it more memorable. We even bought dessert from you guys. We have been to nicer restaurants in Toronto like Jacob's and black and blue who go all out for birthdays but we just asked for a simple candle.

Overall food was okay, service was alright but I wouldn't recommend this place for celebrations. Go to jacks across the street or the keg, they will make sure you have a...