Olive Lounge — Restaurant in East Devon

First of all let's dispense with the negatives.

Our table was booked for a Saturday evening : 19:30 - table booked 19:20 - arrived early, but turned away as table wasn't ready for another 30 minutes with no offer to sit at their small bar to wait. 19:50 - got our scenic front of restaurant table 20:20 - took our order for drinks 20:30 - took our order for food 20:58 - starter arrived 21:25 - main arrived 21:55 - finished at the restaurant

Overall the service was incredibly slow. The waitress wasn't very attentive. We would have liked to have known in advance if the service was going to be delayed.

It took so long that I went up to the bar to pay the bill. I was aware that the lady was tallying up their customer's bills, but it would've been nice to have been acknowledged.

Cant fault the food which was amazing. We ordered the Turkish Kofta starter. Our mains, Pan Fried Seabass Fillet and their Seafood Paella.

Unfortunately the service let down the whole experience. Which is a shame because it's a rather quaint little restaurant.

If you'd like to dine in a timely manner, then this place may...

This is a very good restaurant! Briliant communication during the booking process and a great welcome and it's dog friendly if you let them know in advance. My lady made the better choice of starter with the Seafood Gratin which was excellent; my own Crispy Pork Ribs were very tasty but not quite as good. For mains my Beef Rib was amazing and melted in the mouth matched with a great mix of griddled veg and a truly amazing sauce - Buster licked my fingers dry of that sauce with his taste! My lady went for the Signature Paella which was immense. She's not a fan of large pieces of onion or peppers but, such was the flavour of the food, that she's looking forward to visiting again as soon as we can. We live in Cornwall and were visting Exmouth to see my lady's mum in a nursing home there but older sister also lives there so we hope to be back again soon. The quality of cooking, flavours and service have to make it both highly recommended and...

Went to this place twice during our week long visit, staying at Devon Cliffs/Sandy Bay. My photos show our bill, cod in lemon sauce, pork tenderloin, pork belly and the beef lasagne (in a massive dish I might add). There were 4 of us, despite what the bill says. We had beer and wine and 3 puds on this occassion with bread and oil to start. Mine was the lasagne with salad (and a side order of chips, not shown) -it was truly massive and I couldn't quite finish it. Very tasty meals and we found it easy to park on the Thursday we visited (15th June 2023), about 6.30pm.

☆☆☆☆☆ Highly recommend this place. It was clean and tidy, and the lady owner was very pleasant and chatty. Nice relaxed atmosphere with some 'oriental' music playing in the background.☆☆☆☆☆

On the previous occassion I had the paella special - very, very tasty but again, it was massive and I couldn't quite finish it (which is why didn't have it the second...