Olive bar and restaurant — Restaurant in Delhi

Olive is one of the most legendary and long standing , standalone fine dining restaurant in New Delhi. It's located at the mehrauli one style mile area for 19 long years and is going stronger than ever. I was visiting Sabyasachi flagship store , which is located just next to olive and while shopping I felt hungry so what better place to dine in. I had called them to reserve but sadly they never picked both the numbers but that's fine as they did call back (but by that time I was already seated) . So I just walked in and lucky enough got a seat immediately. The restaurant was completely packed that also on a Wednesday afternoon at around 2:45pm ! Not a shocker to be honest as this is the perfect place for a winter lunch in the nippy weather . The outdoor dining is the place to be as the sun falls and the wonderful shade from the trees do make it perfect. I was seated in one of the indoor dining areas and had a great view outwards. Definitely one of the best restaurants especially for ambience and vibe in delhi as this place is just beautiful and exudes class !

I just wanted to grab a small quick bite as my family was still shopping and I had to join them again so I just went ahead and ordered the classic item of olive - the Milano Pizza. Milano Pizzas here have a cult like following and is most probably the most ordered item here.

Before my pizza I asked them my server Tejpal to bring me some breads and the freshly baked breads came in around 10 minutes. The Bread was accompanied with a nice light butter. The bread itself was warm but hard and crunchy , maybe it's a new style of bread as I remember them serving soft breads mostly. Eitherways it was enjoyable and the bread was buttery and salty , which was perfect. I added a bit of the chilli flakes and then more butter and it's just super delicious.

And finally after 25-30 minutes since ordering came in my wonderful Pizza. An absolute humongous pizza , which is both a head Turner and showstopper, this pizza is a piece of art. 18 inches by the diameter and a top a big wooden serving tray this can intimidate most people , but as it's super thin on the crust it's not as "heavy" as one may imagine . I just ate 2 and a half slices there and took the rest home as I knew I couldn't finish it obviously and some midnight pizza is always good. Coming back to the pizza , the crust is perfect . Really thin , crispy and that burnt/charred finish in certain parts is just absolute perfection and I am sure even True Italians would enjoy this Truly Italian Prosciutto Pizza! The toppings are pretty simple - Sun-dried Tomatoes , marinara sauce, some cheese followed by shaved parmesan , Arugula Leaves and of course Prosciutto. Simple ingredients but of super high quality and made to perfection. Every component of the pizza can be tasted individually even in a fully loaded bite and they all just work in absolute harmony. The prosciutto is really high quality with such a meaty taste and fat , it's just too good. The Arugula adds and nice freshness relief and the parmesan is , well parmesan and always enjoyable. The sun-dried tomatoes were the best element in my opinion as they brought in a strong robust flavour which complemented everything perfect. Rating this 5/5, absolutely smashing.

Overall have always had an amazing experience at Olive with their exceptional service , beautiful ambience and lip smacking food. Yes , this institution is old and long standing for a very obvious reason and yes it's pretty expensive. But in my opinion it's absolutely worth every penny. My suggestion is simple one should definitely go and have a visit at Olive , may it be a lazy lunch or a special night of celebration. This pizza cost me just around 2000 with taxes and yes it's...

Winter calls for something special - and nothing like a winter special menu. Olive recently launched its 15 and fabulous winter special menu and I got the chance to devour the delicacies.

The lemon or berry sorbet gintos, butter milk based soup, octopus, burrata, eel, soctch egg to gnnochi, lamb osso buco, bacon wrapped crabs and for the sweet tooth vanilla shortbread to yuzu sorbet... The menu accomodate and would surely pleases everyone palate.

Starting with amuse bouche of preserved nectarine, fermented black garlic, local millet cracker with seaweed salsa, corn and cilantro cracker with sour cheese, house pickled ivy gourd gherkin we proceeded to buttermilk and caramelised garlic veloute served with zarai cheese cracker in earthen cups and that's where it took off... I'll try to leave description of all the appetizers/entrees and dessert below - to admire and drool a little.

My personal favourite were the Spanish style octopus, Moroccan style lamb ossobucco and Strawberry pana cotta with vanilla shortbread - not taking anything away from the other dishes served.

Enjoy reading through the carefully bring together such a large array of different ingredients to compose such delectable dishes...

Amuse Bouche - Preserved Nectarine, fermented black garlic, local millet cracker with seaweed salsa, corn and cilantro cracker with sour cheese, house pickled ivy gourd gherkin.

Soup - Buttermilk and caramelised garlic veloute served with zarai cheese cracker.

Appetiser - Red skin spud crispy spaghetti with local king oyster mushroom, montasio cheese and parsley fondue served with white asparagus shaving and freshly grated black perigod truffle.

Spanish style octopus served with chili pepper mojopicon puree, garlic aioli and pepprika almond crunch.

Local burrata served with picked strawberries, fresh fennel marmalade and parsnip crunch.

Balsamic braised eel served with winter carrot, coffee parsnip, fermented carrot puree.

Whey poached cauliflower served with sesame yogurt, pickled green apple and mascaporne lebaneh croquettes.

Minced lamb scotch egg served with pickled tomato, andaman seaweed, smoked aubergine aioli.

Hand made potato and ricotta gnocchi served with winter mustard leaf, juicy sweetcorn and colocasia crisp.

Prawn Raviolini served with sauteed mustard leaf, sweet corn and creamy saffron bisque.

Confit duck leg casoncelli served with fennel marmalade and chive butter emulsion.

Entree - nigella honey glazed roasted butternut squash served with roasted beetroot and barley risotto.

Bacon wrapped crab with braised turnip and crab jus.

Moroccan style lamb ossobucco served with charred radish.

Dessert - whipped strawberry pana cotta with vanilla shortbread served with etonmess ice cream.

Moringa matcha muille fuille with yuzu...

Never again - It was a special occasion - my birthday !! I wanted it to be special just with close family and friends, just about 10-12 of us. Since the weather was perfect we chose the outdoors. My husband called up to check if they had live music or loud music - since that was an absolute NO for us. The staff told us that they DO NOT have live music and the music that plays is just in the background. We reached well in time and had settled down waiting for others to join in, enjoying the "background music". An hour passed and suddenly the music volume went up. We could barely hear the person sitting next to each other. Twice we requested the steward to get the volume lowered - but he seemed to ignore it totally. The music just went on to spoil our evening. Not the one to give in so lightly - my husband called up the number on which he had made the booking and requested them again - of course, it fell on deaf ears - no one bothered to even pay attention. Finally, I got up and went to the reception entrance to speak to them. I was told that they usually do not have live music but because a certain group had requested they obliged. This got me fuming even more as we had doubly checked before making a booking and the booking manager at Olive had very conveniently overlooked it. I had to raise my voice to be heard and had to threaten to walk out with the entire group to get them into action to lower the volume. Yes, they did get the volume to be lowered but after so much effort - which they should have done right at the first request. The staff certainly needs better training in soft skills and being a little more sensitive to the requirements of guests. They could have requested the other group to be moved indoors or apprised of the no live music/loud music policy. This is the state of affairs at a premium place like Olive !! I am sure others would...