The Olive Branch — Restaurant in Leeds

Edit: I had the tapas as a 2nd try after my previous original review below, and it was really good, avoiding the falafel, but pretty expensive for me at roughly £30 for 5 or 6 dishes, but I guess tapas is expensive if you can eat a lot.

Original review:

I would genuinely actually rather go hungry.

Asked for falafel and espresso, expecting a wrap or an open plated salad with 5 or 6 decent sized falafel.

Received pretty good espresso, but the falafel was presented in a trio of tiny overcooked balls on top of shop bought hummus and with a side of shop bought tsatsiki that had 1 lump of cucumber in it, and some stale bread on the side. The salad was a few lettuce leaves with sugary balsamic goo which is completely the wrong flavour combination... Vinegar and falafel!?? Pomegranate molasses is vinegary, and a middle-eastern ingredient, but again, that does not go with falafel.

As for the taste and texture, it was more like a thrice microwaved onion bahji... It was either shop bought or they used canned chickpeas resulting in deep fried spicy mush. Completely the wrong spices and flavour profile. I usually make my own falafel, so so so wish I had've stayed home!

Staff were really friendly, I feel sorry for them... Good people working in a place like that. There were families also there, and so only kept my comments to a polite minimum, but I couldn't not tell the truth over such an abysmal disgrace.

And all to the tune of just...

The 3 of us ate here for £22 including drinks (soft) and service (optional), 2 starters, 2 main courses and chips with the mon-wed August 1/2 price deal. The calamari and garlic prawns were perfectly cooked, tender and tasty, obviously fresh and good quality. Our main courses of mixed fajita (chicken and lamb) was made up of 2 very large fajitas with a portion of sizzling meat in a succulent fairly/above average spicy sauce (2/5 for spicy heat), my partner, who likes korma, found it right at the edge other spice liking, with mixed peppers, served with extra fillings on the side. The meat was perfectly cooked and tender. I ordered the vegetarian moussaka which was delicious and very filling and served with bulgar wheat, lightly fried and well seasoned, which my 4yo, thought was rice and ate all of it (she previously turned her nose at it when I cooked it for her). A lovely atmosphere, great food, I would recommend a visit anytime, but with the deal, definetly a must in the month of August. We got the last table on a phone booking early 6pm on the same evening, so...

Came here for my mum's birthday a week ago. The atmosphere was nice, good decor and friendly staff. We didn't have to wait too long for food. However the food was mixed quality. The nachos were stale on both the starter and the side on one of the mains. The lamb ribs are so fatty that you can't get any meat off them. (We did mention this and weren't charged for them) My brother and I ordered the steak, which was a sirloin. A little on the thin side, but was a decent cut. However, I ordered mine rare and it came medium/well, and my brother ordered his medium and it came well done, no pink whatsoever. Was very disappointed at this. (I did mention this but I didn't really get a reply). The rest of the food was spot on though. Both the chicken and the fish were cooked perfectly and were full of flavour, all the sides were tasty and presented nicely. Shame to give this place such an average rating but any chef who so obviously over cooks a steak needs educating on how to do...