Aceituna Grill — Restaurant in Cambridge

I was looking for someplace to get lunch other than my usual Chipotle, and thought I might take the risk of spending a little more for another kind of rice bowl. Well, after that experience, I will be going back to Chipotle. :/

For this area and Boston in general, their food is very good. But overall, they wouldn't last a week in the Med scene in NYC. Service was terrible, I ordered online with the specific desire of limiting the amount of time in the store. Upon arrival, they made me feel like I was trying to steal food or something as they claimed that they had no record of my order and it wasn't ready. So I had to go all the way back to my office (in the pouring rain) and print out the receipt. As I entered, there was my order sitting on the counter and I still had to wait for it and there was no apology or anything. At any other place they would have at least offered a little extra something to make up for their mistake. But this error and lack of apology has made me decide to not go back.

That bad experience aside, the food is not that great. The chicken had some dark green spots in it and was quit dry. The rice tasted like rice a roni with about the same amount of sodium in it. The rice and lentils had some nice hints of caramelized onion in it but I found some hard pieces of something inside of it and it was cold! This is the first time I've ever had lentils and rice cold!! The tabbouleh was eh, I make it better at home. It was very heavy on the parsley and not much else. I kind of felt like I was eating a parsley salad. No cucumbers in it, though, which was very surprising! Also lacking on the bulgar wheat. The only upside i would say is that it is not very acidic - like most of the tabbouleh is that you buy in the store or that most restaurants carry.

Overall, I would give this place 2 stars - 1 for the soccer they had playing in the restaurant which was cool, and 2 for the fact that they are providing Med food in a market that often has limited options in this area.

Just as a postlude to my note, I now have a very bad stomach ache after eating this food. I definitely will not...

I work in a pretty isolated building in East Cambridge, and the moment we discovered Aceituna was one of the happiest workdays in recent memory. This is my office's go-to catering spot for lunch meetings and conferences, since it always leaves us satisfied and our colleagues impressed.

They make it so easy! You just tell them how many people will be eating, and they'll deliver tin parcels full of Mediterranean morsels right to your conference room. Hummus, baba ganoush, tabbouleh, Greek salad, chicken and beef shawarma, rice, and pita are the staples. Mix and match. You can't go wrong. If you want to end the meeting on a sweet note, don't skip the baklava. It's honey-nutty-flaky ratios are just right.

My biggest piece of advice is to decrease the amount of people you're ordering for by about 5. THERE'S ALWAYS SO MUCH FOOD LEFT OVER. It's delectable, but you can only gorge on so much pita and hummus. Plus it'll cost you even less (just keep the number you told them in mind if you're also getting canned drinks and utensils, since they will count these out accordingly).

Even by ordering for fewer people than we're feeding, we always have leftovers for days. But I'm not complaining. Aceituna, thanks for bringing the Mediterranean diet to the mouths of...

The amazing food at this place has led me to write my first review on Google Maps so that I can share the happiness Aceituna has provided me with.

The only place in Boston that serves authentic Lebanese fried cauliflower!! I’ve been missing this so much and Aceituna Grill made my day. I’ve had fried cauliflower at other places but none were as good or authentic. I’ve seen many people describe them in their reviews as “soggy” or “too burnt,” but trust me, this is how they’re supposed to be. Lebanese arnabit (cauliflower) isn’t battered and isn’t supposed to be half-fried where it barely has any color and is still crunchy. It’s supposed to have that brown/caramel color because it adds depth of flavor to the cauliflower. But if what you’re looking for is raw white cauliflower I’m sure there are many places around Boston that can provide that. But Aceituna Grill are providing authenticity and they took me back to my childhood in Beirut asking my mother for an arnabit sandwich. They definitely have a returning loyal customer in...