Olivia's — Restaurant in Hoboken

I’ve only ever written one review before and it was exceedingly positive, so I hope that shows how strongly my wife and I felt about this experience. I’m shocked to see all these five star reviews on here, because our anniversary dinner was absolutely horrible.

The first thing you notice is it is far too loud in there. Mind you, we’re young people so this is typically not something we comment on, but between very loud music, packing tables into the small space, and horrible acoustics, you’ll end up struggling to hear someone screaming across the table from you.

Shockingly, the restaurant seems over-staffed. There must have been 20 employees in the dining area. Even with this, the service was horrible. While our server was very very nice, it was clear he didn’t know what he was doing. We ordered drinks, then he came back before they arrived to take food orders. After the decent drinks arrived, he took our order. We ordered appetizers and entrees. The apps arrived and were nothing special. My wife loved a chip that came with the Mediterranean spread (which is actually just a small jar of whitefish salad and olives), so I guess that’s something.

After a long wait with empty drinks and waters, the waiter finally came back, pen and pad in hand, asking about entrees. He clearly forgot to put them in. He seemed confused when we ordered a second round of drinks. At that point, he must have put our entree orders in, not that he ever said anything or apologized. After an extremely long wait (we had our phones out looking for availabilities at other restaurants) the exceedingly underwhelming entrees arrived. Bland would be an overstatement. We ate what we could and asked for the check. This was the first time we got prompt service all night as the waiter brought the check over immediately. We brought home the sides; maybe our two year old will like them.

We are very tolerant of growing pains for new restaurants, but the club-like atmosphere, forgetting to put in orders, and blah food are just inexcusable. Sadly Olivia’s didn’t just fail to become a new local favorite (we live just down the street), but in almost 8 years of living in Hoboken, last night, our fifth wedding anniversary, may have been the worst dining experience...

I wanted to like this place, but it fell short in just about every metric. I had a very enjoyable cocktail, but it went promptly downhill afterwards. Ultimately, it is the service that makes Olivia’s fall flat. At first, the service was almost abrasive and intrusive, but as the meal progressed, our server was nowhere to be found. Our water glasses ran empty several times throughout the dinner, with many other staff members walking by, noticing, and ignoring this. My guest had to ask for refills multiple times, and many of the people at neighboring tables looked irritated with the service as well, and also had empty water glasses. The Mediterranean plate appetizer was fair, but had a laughable portion size for $24. Had the spicy vodka rigatoni as my entree, and was beyond disappointed with the dish. The vodka sauce from a mason jar at the grocery store exceeds that of Olivia’s. Additionally, for a pasta dish with only sliced sausage links as a protein, $35 is a laughable price. My guest and I wanted to stay for dessert, but the server took more than 10 minutes to check back on us after our entree plates were cleared. Not once during the meal did our server (or any other team member, for that matter) ask how we were enjoying our meal. Prompt or enthusiastic service with any sort of recommendations could have steered us in a different direction while ordering, and potentially saved the flailing experience. All in all, while the decor is cute and charming, the food was below average, and the service was even less impressive. Safe to say I will not...

Let me start by addressing what would probably be the main complaint by future reviews - the price.

If you're looking for a 'bang for your buck' type of experience, there are other restaurants in Hoboken that can offer that. However, if you're looking for high end dining that doesn't fall short in quality and creativity (and yes, prices) than the best restaurants in Manhattan - this is the place for you.

My wife and I had 3 starters (fried artichoke, filet mignon tacos and the mushrooms and eggplant balls) and we would have eaten the plates, if these were edible. Everything was simply DELICIOUS!! The portions are not very big but but also not tiny that you feel you've gotten the short end of the stick.

The cocktails are also on the high end of the scale price wise, but they're very big. We've had the red sangria and the Unrequited Love and they were both great (mind you, they're also very strong).

I'm taking one star off for being seated next to the kitchen and for the horrible acoustics that made me scream all night to wife. But I was mostly screaming that I love this place and that we'll definitely be...