Olive and Thai — Restaurant in Leeds

Life can seem uncertain sometimes, which is why it’s good to have strategies to steer ourselves back to safe ground. I call this approach “back to basics”, but without the well-known, negative John Major connotation. It’s simple, really. We need good quality air to breathe, a nice bed to crash on, acceptable living conditions, nourishing food, a powerful, riff-heavy Jimi Hendrix guitar solo every now and then, and Keith’s tears on The Great Pottery Throw Down.

As I said before, simple things.

Olive and Thai, a culinary experience like no other, is part of that simplicity I seek out sometimes. Especially when winter reminds us that it will still be kicking around for some weeks to come. An appetite-sating broth, or an aroma-rich curry will do the trick every time.

This is a restaurant that knows how to do the one thing it’s asked to: to provide soul-satisfying food.

We started with finger-licking summer rolls and tempura. The former were a concoction made up of hand-rolled rice paper with carrots, cabbage, and glass noodles. They were served with sweet chilli sauce.

The tempura was golden-fried squid coated in Japanese breadcrumbs. Why Japanese? I don’t know. Tempura is already a Japanese dish, so one might as well cover it in Japanese breadcrumbs.All I can say is that they were delicious. They, too, came with a sweet chilli dipping sauce, plus salad.

And to think that we almost weren’t allowed in! It was a busy Saturday evening in Leeds city centre with plenty of punters choosing to stay away from the elements by rushing into whatever restaurant still had availability. As luck would have it, we were seated next to the kitchen, thus, being exposed to the smells of some of the food we would shortly devour.

My main dish was pad thai noodles with mixed seafood. I love food with contrasts. For instance, the softness of the noodles went well with the crunchiness of the crushed peanuts and chilli flakes inside. The sharpness of the slice of lime I squeezed on top of the noodles was a heavenly match with the sweet tamarind and palm sugar sauce covering them.

Olive and Thai opened in the spring of 2023. It’s easy to see why almost two years later it was hard for us to get a table. It does what it says on the tin: dish out high quality, belly-filling nosh....

My friend and I had our dinner on 21st Oct. The food was great, but the service needs to be improved. We came into the restaurant around 6:40pm. We were guided to a table for 2 on 2nd floor (or 1st floor in the UK). The table is at a dead angle, where we couldn't see any staff without standing up or the staff come to us in purpose. When we came into the restaurant, there was one table of 2 on 2nd floor waiting to be served. We waited for that table to be served and were ready to order. However, when we were ready to order, there was a group of 6 people being guided to 2nd floor. I don't know whether the staff were trained in this way or they simply forgot us, they chose to serve the group of 6 first by taking their orders first, though we came into the restaurant before them. After the staff took orders for the group of 6, they didn't come to us straight away for ordering or gave us a notice. Instead, they sent the orders of the group of 6 to the kitchen and started to serve the food for the table for 2 who came before us, and the group of 6. Our orders were then taken after they served the starters ordered by the table of 2 who came before us. However, because the staff didn't take our orders before the group of 6, we had to wait for an extremely long time. When the table of 6 all finished their food and drinks and even paid their bills, our main dishes finally arrived. My point is that if you put your valued customers at a relatively hidden table, then you need to check them regularly. Also, isn't the general rule of ordering "first come first serve"? If the group of 6 booked the table and you were expecting them to come around the time when other customers would show up, you should be even...

Since we love thai food and this is a new restaurant in town, we had to give it a go. And we were not disappointed! The place looks lovely and clean. The staff is friendly and helpful. We had tom kha soup and duck summer rolls which were both nice. The soup had a nice balance between tangy, salty and a bit spicy. The portion was generous for a starter. The rolls were also nice but I feel like there could be a bit more dipping sauce. For the mains we had gang panang and gang massaman. They were both great! The portions were quite big and tasty. Potatoes in massaman were baked and then cooked, I believe, which gave them a really nice flavour. Panang had just the right amount of spiciness. We also had a virgin pina colada which lacked a bit of taste unfortunately. Maybe a bit less ice would make the taste more stronger. For the dessert we had mango and sticky rice with coconut sauce and vanilla icecream. The rice was something else! Best rice I ever had! The service was really nice, but a tad slow considering the restaurant was quite empty. Nevertheless, we really enjoyed the whole experience. Price was, they are not the cheapest, but considering the location it's quite understandable. I believe this place will become quite a hit and I'm sure they will improve furthermore. That's why only 4 stars for now 😊 We will be back for...