Olive Grove — Restaurant in Great Britain

We'd reserved a dinner here as we'd seen many reviews and unfortunately did not have a similar experience, largely let down by the service to be honest. We ordered two glasses of red wine (£14.70 for both), the garlic bread which was honestly too salty but still quite nice, and the greek salad that for £10.90 was a really small portion. There were the grand sum of 6 olives in the portion and it was loaded with so many large chunks of really strong brown onion that we left because it really off putting. We were surprised it wasn't red onions to start but fair enough, we still ate around the onions and were having a nice time.

An hour went by and we asked where the lamb moussaka (£14.90) was that we had ordered at the start with the rest of our food, and the waiter simply replied "oh I'm sure it's coming by let me check" and he just never returned. About 10 minutes later another member of staff came asking if we were done so OK to clean the table up, so we mentioned to him again that we were still waiting so again he said he was surprised it hadn't come and would check. We then saw him just tending to other tables not giving us any update. At this point we then found another member of staff and asked and she came and apologies and said our order ticket got lost and so they never made it and would make it ASAP. At this point it's worth noting that we booked a table for dinner at 6pm as we have an 8m old baby and dog so like to beat the rush, and also have an earlier dinner so that we could put our son to bed at a reasonable time. The waitress offered us another glass of wine each as compensation however as my wife is still breastfeeding she didn't want another glass of wine, and I didn't really want another either by myself. I'd much rather just eat as we were starving at this point and so told her no thanks but we would let her know later if we wanted something.

The lamb moussaka finally came at 7.40pm (so 1hr 40mins after we arrived) and it was nice, but lacked a bit of taste. Perhaps a bit more salt needed but we still ate it obviously as our son was now screaming and ready to get out of there. We asked for the bill and asked the waitress to just amend the bill accordingly so that we can pack up and go. She came back and knocked off supposedly 50% off the moussaka and removed the service charge, but to be honest we felt with the general experience the moussaka should have been removed entirely. I brought this to the attention of the waitress who I found out to be the manager (Haley / Kaley?) and she said she didn't think she could remove anymore as we ate it. I explained all the above and how it now being 8pm for us meant we were massively behind on sleep time for the little one so of course we were going to eat it and not now go somewhere else. Adding on the bad communication from the previous waiters, it just ruined the meal for us but she didn't really care. To close the case we just paid and left, but on getting home noted she deducted £6.52 from the moussaka, i.e. 43% rather than the apparent 50%, and service charge is optional anyway so is an empty gesture. Offering the two wines would have been £14.70 off so surely just removing the moussaka would have been fine. Either way, Haley / Kaley dealt with the situation really poorly in my opinion and being such a touristy spot in Brighton you can tell they couldn't care less about service as they know they'll get people coming in no matter what.

In my honest opinion, the food is overpriced and quite bland so I would not recommend...

I have to say the food was great, the service not so much... we was a table of 5 and spent £193 in total for my friends birthday, in particular one of the servers an short older woman with Bob hair cut wearing a pink jacket was quite rude. When she was taking our order instead of her giving us advice which we was looking for on how much to order she was almost telling us we have ordered too much as if we was too fat, two of the 15 of small plates we ordered were bread that comes (very small side and I mean so small perhaps a young child of 5 years of age could of finished it) with oil olive includes within the dish was balsamic glaze. Naturally as we are a table of 5 we asked for more balsamic glaze but everytime we asked the rude woman was bringing us such small portions we had to keep asking for more to the point she came over again and we asked again and she rolled her eyes and with hesitation said yes and went and didn't bring what we asked for. When one of the other waitresses was taking our drinks and dessert orders we were asking where a particular wine was from and one of the guest desserts what type of sauce was on the curros and she was trying to guess and in the end we had to ask her could she go and check as well as were the wine was from. We ended paying the service charge as the food was good and didn't want to make a scene however we paid 3 ways to where the rude woman let's us work our how much we owed and paid it via the PDQ machine. The rude woman came back roughly a couple of mins later and said we didn't pay £3?! Like really that £3 would of been part of the service 🙄 which may i say was poor. I am debating whether I I go back there as I...

Excellent food, great staff good fun

My wife and I visited Brighton for a couple of days to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We chose the Olive Grove using Trip Advisor and were not disappointed. The atmosphere is lively and friendly. Our welcome could not have been warmer and all staff were very welcoming. However, we were particularly taken by Sabrina, a charming, vivacious young Italian waitress who interacted with our Prosecco-fuelled banter with patience, good heart and great 'sympatico'. I don't know what the management is paying her but it is probably not enough. She is worth her weight in gold to them, going out of her way to make our evening the great success it was.

The food was good mixed Mediterranean fare, excellently cooked and relatively quickly served. The winelist, although not overly extensive, offers good choice. The Merlot we had was very good indeed and matched the food well. Notably, neither of us had a hangover the next day, which speaks volumes for the wine.

The restaurant is quite difficult to find being situated in a 'hidden' courtyard half way up Meeting House Lane. If you reach the Riddle and Finns going North, you have gone too far. It is well worth seeking out.

If we had any reservations it is that the lighting could be dimmed a little to provide a more romantic setting for 'young lovers' celebrating their 46 wedding anniversary.

We will definitely go back if we return...