Olive Tree Restaurant — Restaurant in Bath

I booked this restaurant as red the reviews and it has 1 star michelin I booked this as a surprise for my girlfriends birthday we have visited quite a few michelin restaurants around the world We set out for the 9 course taster with wines we got to course 6 and had enough and asked the staff to stop serving as we weren't happy with the food The food we got i'm shocked this has retained there star it was appalling when we told the waitress what we thought in particular the lamb dish she didn't know what to say or do but fair play to her she did eventually deal with the problem and as myself and girlfriend are in the same industry we can appreciate front of house get the brunt of the bad stuff as the chefs couldn't be bothered to come out and face us and if I sent food like that out of my kitchen I'd be ashamed to face the guest as well The food was very basic and bland the young chefs coming out to serve the dishes were scruffy the aprons were not ironed or clean it just didn't look or feel like a michelin restaurant Dish by dish Scallop - scallop beautiful and fresh but the granite over powers the whole dish and you lose all other flavours of the dish Sweetbreads - sweetbreads cook well and truffle nice everything else poor plus this dish wasnt even on our menu it was ment to be white asparagus Smoked ell - only dish cant fault and would happily eat again Bread and butter - don't have to be a michelin star chef to do good bread and butter Beetroot dish - size consistency very poor my girlfriends dish had alot more beetroot in the best component of the dish is the N25 caviar Turbot - bland the only bit of salt we tasted was from the salty fingers but whole dish lacked seasoning Now for the worst one we had but should of been the best the Lamb dish - the lamb fat not rendered well the meat was tough and chewy the mayonnaise tasted like hellmans mayonnaise had no other flavour running through it the celery looks rubbish shouldn't be on the plate wasnt prepared well the artichokes just tasted like lemon water completely lost there own flavour I know you put the artichokes in lemon water to stop them going brown but it just tasted like eating lemon water black garlic wasnt strong enough then the sauce wow I made better sauce in chef college it was split no flavour and just looked as poor as it tasted I know this review might be harsh but being chefs we had high expectations and we could of stayed home and prepared this meal to a better standard and I'll still have £300 in my pocket it ruined my girlfriends birthday surprise we won't be returning and I wouldn't recommend to my friends im sorry

I will gladly call you to discuss this if you send me your number it doesn't let me respond to your reply and yes this review is my option and everyone has an opinion and yes being in the industry i know how much time and effort go into preparing the menu and dishes but in my opinion it wasn't up to standard and I was very upset as I had high expectations and staff didn't really care either and by your response you dont really either as not once you have said im sorry you had a bad experience and I'm sorry for ruining your girlfriends birthday surprise fantastic...

Dear review readers,

We celebrated our anniversary at the Olive Tree and we were extremely excited about this and booked it specifically as it seemed like the best restaurant in Bath, however we were extremely incorrect in this assumption.

As we both work in management in the hospitality industry with over 15 years experience between us we found the experience exceptionally disappointing. Especially compared to multiple other Michelin star restaurants well within the calabre of this venue that we have attended & worked in previously.

Let's start with the obvious, we had the 9 course tasting menu (£155 per person) and we only found 4 dishes interesting and the rest somewhat inedible. Some dishes were completely bland and tasteless and when our chefs in non Michelin star restaurants saw the menu they laughed audibly. The menu clearly wasn't actually taste tested and they just threw truffle and caviar on top of dishes in order to make them seem 'high-class' or 'luxury'.

Next on the menu is the sommelier in the green jacket (who was clearly the manager) who was obviously avoiding us for the night. We just wanted to ask for recommendations about a full bodied red wine, she processed to suggest us 2 light bodied wines and bring us tasters before we could even object. Then when we asked about full bodied wines again, she just said it's 2 pages over and walked away. We were then left to choose the wine ourselves and luckily our gamble paid off as we ended up having a very nice wine (from Uruguay) no thanks to the 'wine expert (sommelier)'.

Everything during the whole process of service felt incredibly rushed. The junior staff clearly hadn't been trained enough which led to them feeling uncomfortable and lost when on the floor. I don't blame them at all, I blame the management as I have worked in this field for many years, it is the managers job to make their staff feel comfortable and clearly the management does not care about the secrice they provide and the customers they are serving. Due to the staff being under-trained we were served new courses of food before finishing the previous ones.

We won't focus on the fact they brought us dirty cutlery 2 separate times and had to replace them. We won't focus on the fact they brought us another table's food instead of ours. We also won't focus on the fact that when we criticized the dishes, our comments got either completely disregarded or they blamed us for not understanding the blatantly bad dishes.

As someone who has previously read reviews of this restaurant, I find it extremely alarming that any review that criticises this place in the slightest gets an abusive response from management. I implore anyone to look at previous critical reviews for clear evidence of this.

I would advise the property to take on criticism as a learning experience rather than just throwing abuse at anyone who calls you...

Long post but hopefully the feedback is useful to the restaurant and all future customers. The food is very good, that's the most important thing. The tastes and new flavour combinations work, and they accommodated our dietary requests without any problems. The thing that lets this place down and what surprised me most was the small touches.

The cutlery = looked very used, it was a miss-match of new and old, which meant for fine dining it looked strange. I know its expensive but to have some cutlery which shows the brand of knives and then others to be very worn, doesn't quite give you confidence in cleanliness

Introduction - When you walk in, you are not greeted properly, no coats taken, no introduction, it was more just this is your seat and we will be back soon.

As we had called up before hand about our dietary requests I make sure that when we are greeted those requests will be reconfirmed with the customer, and that a menu has been amended and you can accommodate. That way we just need to decide between a 5 or 7 course. This gives the customer a feeling like they don't need to worry, and possibly choose a menu which looks better for the dietary requests, when actually it wouldn't matter.

The setting has 3 tables near the entrance, we were sat here and it doesn't give you again a fine dining experience, the lay out could be better. I would suggest turning this into a cocktail/wine bar, have customers sat here before and after their meals. Then leave the other room for eating, this will give a better experience to those left on bench seats and who hear and see too much of the restaurant working.

The toilets - little touches like having toilet paper out of sight, new bins, new toilet brush holders, all these things need updating and being less visible to the customer, if it means more checks by the team then do this, otherwise it feels like you are just in a pub.

The staff - overall accommodating, however there inst very much interaction with the customer, getting to know them, ask how there day is, explain the menu more, and just make it feel like a proper Michelin standard restaurant.

The menu - the food is good as i have mentioned. The menu comes in a nice folder, but for some strange reason in then a horrible plastic cover. In other Michelin restaurants you would get your menu on a card, that you can then take away. These little touches add to the experience you are paying for, its not just the food but being able to show friends and family the menu and how it felt overall.

We have eaten at restaurants including Core, Hide and Gordon Ramsey recently, all of which offer these subtle yet high end service that you expect from a Michelin * restaurant. I hope that this is useful, and if you care to reach out for more, I was there on Sunday 26th May with...