The Olive Grove — Restaurant in Cambridge

We used to enjoy this place a lot. The food is still tasty, but the portions are smaller than they used to be. I made the reservation with enough time in advance since we were 11 people, and I wrote that we were celebrating a birthday and a graduation. That aspect was never taken into account. Before they used to have a small detail on the house like a desert or something. There were many mistakes during the dinner, which is not the main problem because we are all humans. It was mostly the waitress's attitude. She was never apologising. Instead, she was acting with a grumpy, defensive attitude. I am on a no-sugar/ carbs diet, so I ordered a Cuba Libre drink with Diet Coke. They probably did it with Diet Coke but added a considerable amount of sugar. When I told our waitress, she said, "Cuba Libre's original recipe has sugar in it”. I am Cuban, and this drink doesn't include sugar; plus, I was ordering Diet Coke. Same with the main dish I asked for, not pita bread or wedge potatoes; she mentioned they can add more greens. They removed the potatoes, included the pita and didn't add more green. But it wasn't just me; my husband ordered Earl Grey tea, and he got chamomile. When he mentioned it to the waitress, she said: “ I said chamomile when I brought it to the table”. She probably did, but it was so noisy at the restaurant that no one heard that, and he was the only tea missing, so he assumed it was what he had ordered. Cappuccino was on the menu. Four people from the table felt like having cappuccino. The machine was “broken”, but they could do espresso if we wanted. These are just a few examples. It is a pity because we love the food from this place. But the last three times, the services have been...

Lovely interior and very luxurious looking restaurant however the food and service was not quite on point.

Calamari was great, however it came with such a small amount of sauce so I asked for bit more and I realised they charged extra fee for that which I don’t quite understand. Prawns saganaki was good too however not much prawns in the dish.

Mains were very disappointing, pork chop looking amazing but most of the part is over cooked and therefore very dry. The sauce definitely does not go well together either, should be rather like Smokey bbq or something very moist sauce.

Mixed grill was the same, mostly all overcooked and gets very dry half way through. Nothing special with sausage, chicken was better than lamb as it was super well done cooked, kofta not very juicy, definitely needs more seasoning.

Not sure if I should have tried other mains but clearly grills are having big problems. Other Mediterranean restaurants have far better quality of meat and cooking techniques. Now I understand why some people got disappointed of the foods.

Service was quite slow and two young boys were very inexperienced and unprofessional. Especially one with very informal outfit was horrendous, should fix the attitude and looks absolutely lost all the time.

Willing to give another try for this restaurant at some point as it just needs bit better service and...

Search Google Images - "The Olive Grove Cambridge". Now search Google Images for "liminal spaces". You will find a match.

The atmosphere and general design is particularly cold. The partion of people, the choice of wood for tables and chairs, the immediate dirt visible on the blue velvet like benches, and glaring stains on the white tables - the whole place is just not a vibe.

Two of the staff definitely didn't contribute to it either. I'm not sure I saw them smile once the entire time and after each interaction with one they'd converge meeting the obnoxiously large 'bar' area and talk quietly - loud enough that you could hear something, but quiet enough that you can't make out what. Felt sus. The lady working there however was very friendly, props to her.

Food was good though, get takeout if you can lol.

On that note, they said they didn't serve some foods after 6pm, yet people came in to collect food that they said they didn't serve. Checking on Deliveroo, it was available. To make that clear, I could quite literally sit in the restaurant, ask to order an item of the menu, get told no, proceed to order it on the app for collection and then collect it at and then sit back down at my table.

They played some good tunes too like Kendrick 'Not Like Us', but not exactly contributing to...