Olive & Sea — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

This restaurant is strategically located overlooking the water on the second floor. The view is amazing. It is very easy to find the restaurant, and they offer valet parking. We had our reservation for four people. We were greeted by the hostess with a warm smile, and proceeded to seat at our table. Our waitress, Mai, was great except toward the end. She was very attentive, yet not intrusive. We like to order many dishes to try them out and get the full experience of the restaurant, so there were some winners, and some absolute losers. What I do have an issue is that half way through the meal, I had issues with 4 of the dishes thus far and coincidently the manager had approached our table to ask how things were. I explained to him in details the issues I had with the dishes and he said “I’ll check on them”. He never came back. He never offer to re do any of the dishes, and we were charged for all the dishes, even the ones we did not eat due to issues. Beware of their customer service. Now onto the food. 3 dip appetizer with hummus, eggplant, and tzatziki. The bread that it comes with is perfect and fresh. The hummus tasted great. The eggplant dip was bland. The tzatziki had huge chunks of cucumber so I could taste was cucumber, nothing else. Not a fan. The Greek salad was 80% bell peppers, it did not taste of any lemon, Kalamata olives or oregano. It had maybe 3 tiny crumbles of feta and it was also bland. The grilled octopus was perfectly cooked and seasoned, a true winner here. The smoked duck pizza was amazing, strong smoked flavor, the dough is the real winner here, perfection. The filet mignon skewer was perfectly cooked medium rare and the lamb meatball skewer was perfectly seasoned with a strong lamb flavor. The chicken schnitzel was burnt and inedible and came with za’atar fries which didn’t have any za’atar on them. I specifically told my server we could t eat the chicken because the breading was burnt and bitter, she did NOTHING about it. For drinks: the Mexican mule was good. The aperol spritz was unbalanced (mainly tasted like pure aperol) and the hibiscus refresher was actually fantastic. Given the quality of the food, i consider the price point is high. the menu descriptions are fantastic but unfortunately the flavors do not live up to those standards. it is a great place to have a drink with a view. i do not recommend olive & sea for dinner, and i would not return given my experience...

It was at first a little challenging to find the restaurant. We knew that it is inside the Hilton on the first floor, but we went through the main entrance and then we had to walk through long hallways to get to the elevator that brings you to the restaurant. We didn’t know that there is a side entrance we could have taken, that brings you directly to the restaurant. We were greeted by the hostess (she was friendly, but smelled as she didn’t shower. I think management should pay attention to those things). We got an outside table for four people on the balcony overlooking the intercoastal, which was very beautiful and romantic. All the outside tables are recommended unless it’s too hot then you can sit inside which has a lovely decor! The only thing I would change outside is the lighting. I would have preferred it to be a little bit more cozy and not as bright and then maybe some table lamps. The service was prompt. We got our water right away and were able to order drinks and appetizers. We didn’t know but the friendly and attentive waitress Alina told us that on Mondays they have craft Martini specials for $10 and their Mezes are $3 instead of $8! So we tried the hummus, baba ghanoush and labneh which were delicious! The bread that came with it needs to be better though! It was kind of stale and did not complement the yummy spreads! we also tried the top shelf craft martinis that were very tasty! Then we had the whole Branzino, the gulf snapper, the swordfish skewer and the Shawarma burger for the main dish and all was tasty, especially the sauces that came with the skewer! Those were super aromatic! As a side we had the roasted cauliflower which was absolutely delicious! All was priced well but for the price of the swordfish, they should give you more than 4 small pieces. The atmosphere was very nice and quiet enough so that we were able to have a nice conversation with each other. Will definitely go there again! And then I will try the Israeli wine I saw...

Was waiting to try this place for a while . Went on a sat night with my wife. Had reservation for 8:15 didn’t get seated until 845. While waiting for the table we had some cocktails in the outside terrace so we didn’t mind too much about the wait . Manager was apologizing for the wait and offered to pay for our appetizers which we thought was nice . After we got seated (which was outdoor even that our reservation was for Indoor but whatever we were hungry ) it took 20 min before anyone came to our table to to take an order or simply just greet us 🤷🏽‍♂️. We put our order in and got our salads order which was good . But that’s all that arrived to the table after over 1hour of waiting for appt and main course . I can’t believe how such a place can have such bad service . Place that charge such high prices should have outstanding service . The table next to us had to serve themselves tap water cause there was no one around to do so from the staff . Asked to speak to a manager and after 10 min still no one showed up . Tried to get the Attn of the host but she was too busy talking to one of the staff members . We ended up leaving. Hungry . after all we got served in over 1 hour and 20 min was few salads . Too bad cause I feel like the food would have been good we just didn’t have a chance to try it . Our server made a lame excuse that it’s because there was a big table ( which was true it was in the privet dining room ) but I expect such establishment to be prepared as they knew in advance that there will be a big party in the privet dining room . Will probably...