The Black Olive Delicatessen Ltd — Restaurant in East Suffolk

I went into the Black Olive Deli in Southwold today at 16.11hrs and was served by a rather unprofessional young man. He did not greet me being a customer with a good afternoon or how can I help. Just what do you want. I told him I wanted 100grams of salmon pate and mackerel pate. He then said how many portions of Hot Salmon would I want. I never mentioned Hot Salmon for a start off. I had to say that was not what I asked for. He then goes on to pick up the bowl with the Salmon Pate in it another shop assistant passed him a palette knife and a piece of wax paper and he then started to cut into the bowl with it, he slapped it on to the wax paper and scrapped the knife on the paper at the same time. I knew that there was not enough on the paper so he had to weigh it then and add some more, once again slapping it on to the paper and scrapping his knife on it. He then goes on to try and fold the wax paper over, I have to say I have never seen anything like it. He does exactly the same thing with the Mackerel Pate and then places them in two small paper bags. I had to ask him how much it was because he never told me or asked me if it was enough. I paid by card and picked up my two small bags and said to him thank you and goodbye, he never had to courtesy to acknowledge me.

This is not what one expects in a supposedly up market seaside tourist town. I feel that the management should give their new staff an inductions course on how to serve customers and the use of things in the shop before letting them serve customer.

I myself live not far from Southwold and have bought from the Black Olive quite often but, this was not a good experience...

Message to IBS / Gluten sufferers: Don’t even think about it . Message to management: if you don’t have a GF option ready to go , don’t offer it to your customers. I could have enjoyed a much better GF meal across the road. I will never go back in there .I give one star for the Cornish pasties my boys ate which they thought were Okay. My cold Gluten Free pie cost me almost £6 and it was simply diabolical. I asked 3 times if I could eat it right away as we were having an easy lunch at the seafront , they assured it was, and I even noticed a mocking tone from the lady as if I was being stupid by asking . When I opened the “Moo” pie from the factory manufactured cardboard box I realised it was frozen . I had to walk back once my kids ate theirs , then they gave me a chilled one from the fridge. I told them again that on the box it said was supposed to be eaten warm . They didn’t offer to put it in the oven even a bit , I would have been happy to wait !. I ate that hideous pie because at that point I was too hungry to go and hunt for gluten free food and queue to order elsewhere . That pie was like eating unbaked pizza from the fridge , it gave me a stomach ache for the rest of the day… maybe because it was supposed to be cooked???. This is supposed to be a Delicatessen and I was happy to spend my hard earned money in something up to standards, instead I got something worse than what you expect from a...

The sale of Pieminster pies first attracted our attention to this place. So far from Bristol but having these available (I also found out that the Moo & blue had been (temporarily) discontinued). However they also sell some of the best Scotch Eggs - recommend the Chorizo and humongous sausage rolls - again try a few different types. The place to stock up for a beach day, or a drive home. Recent visite (late May 23) saw us try the Bchocolate Honey salted caramels - I'm no chocoholic, but these are the best things I've had in a very long time. Yes they are quite expensive, but post Pandemic, just get them - the box is chock full with no superfluos packaging - pun intended. Sorry no photos, but they were too scrummy...