Wild Olives 30a — Restaurant in Florida

We dined here in February and had a great experience. Everything was spot-on. This felt like we were in an entirely different restaurant. Service was completely lackadaisical. We had a reservation and were seated in the bar area, which was fine. Then, we were forgotten about while employees hung out around the bar area. Those in the main dining area seemed to be getting attentive and professional service. We were finally approached and a drink order was taken. We received our drinks, and then we were forgotten about again. After 20 minutes an employee (he really didn't even seem to be a server, maybe a bartender?) finally approached us nonchalantly to take an order. We ordered crab cakes and put in our entree orders, as I was afraid we would be ignored again. He said he would put the crab cake order in and we would have those before the entrees. Didn't happen. Every so often he would walk by our table and say, "It should just be a few more minutes for the crab cakes." The wait became increasingly uncomfortable. Finally, 45 minutes later, the crabcakes appeared with our entrees. The crabcakes were fine. The grouper fillets we ordered were very small and not special. The brussel sprouts side dish was just ok. The risotto was sticky rather than creamy. Seasoning was ok. Overall, so disappointed this time. I had high hopes in February when we were here. This was entirely different. Ugh. So much potential for this cozy restaurant. And thing is, the restaurant was not busy! It was a Tuesday night and...

Short story with mixed results. Owning/running a business that lives or dies with customer service, has to pay attention to the little things… It’s my wife’s birthday and she really wanted to dine at a restaurant that has Mediterranean food. I Googled and found Wild Olive. Reading the “About Us” on their website, it seemed like a slam dunk! Walking in, the atmosphere was nice with the main restaurant having all tables free. We elected to skip happy hour and dine in the restaurant. #1) Why did we have to be seated at the smallest table, right next to the bar, right in front of the kitchen doors when ALL tables were available #2) Why did the host/helper/bus boy have to hover on the pillar right next to our table ~ seemed a little creepy #3) One of the owners was present and past us many times and subsequent other tables, without stopping to ask how dinner was as I’d rather have shared these items in person. He did stop and talk to a few people who seem like regulars (hey, my money is just as good)

Our server was really friendly and a delight. The food was very good, worth coming back for at some point.

Again, in the very competitive restaurant business, especially higher end ones, it’s the little things that have...

Worst Experience ever... cant even share about the food because we waited over 30 minutes at our table and no one ever came to serve us! In fact, they came and took away our wine glasses from the table without even asking us if we wanted to order drinks!!!! It was truly unbelievable, I have NEVER EVER had an experience like this in a restaurant before. TOO BAD FOR WILD OLIVES that we had a blogger and influencer from Phillie PA with us who was visiting and we had been dining with all over ALYS, Grayton and RM all week. The hostess who brought us to our table (after waiting 10 min) was extremely rude and when we walked out the door, she had the lack of customer service to wave to us and say BYE BYE as we told her we were leaving because we had not received any service for 30 minutes! I am a SRB resident....and will make sure that I post this on all social media because I do not want anyone to experience the terrible experience we had. BTW...we have been to Wild Olives 2X before earlier in the season... so it's not like we don't know the place. In fact we suggested it to our blogger friend....who also read about it in a local SRB Mag.... and they said they are throwing that mag in...