OLIVA Italian Mediterranean Cuisine — Restaurant in Madison

I am mother of 2 little boys and hardly get time to write a review but my experience with this restaurant 3 weeks back was so horrible that it forced me to express my feelings and let others know about this hideous place. AL right- admitted food is good and that is the reason we went to this restaurant first place but is it kids friendly -NO NO !! Customer service- Horrible!!

Reached restaurant close to 5 PM - ordered appetizers. My husband , 2.5 year old and myself -were really hungry. I will not forget name of our server Katie- took the order and gave crayons to my son. There was no separate paper specifically for kids to color. My son started drawing on the white paper they covered the table with. With kids, you just don't see them for a minute and they start working on different activity. WIthin seconds we did't realized that he started drawing lines on the wall. Server came back to our table saying " Tell your kid not to color the walls" we immediately said sorry and scolded our son. after 2 minutes she came back with Windex and a cloth and asked my husband to clean it. if she could have just told us that we need to clean , we would have done after eating dinner. we were so hungry and instead of serving us food asking us to clean the wall. Was it not her job to do it when we already apologized.

I didn't like her tone of speaking to my husband and asked her if she could be polite and if she could have asked us to clean after dinner as we were starving. She said that she was polite and that we should teach our kid good manners.. Where this came from? now do we have to learn parenting from her. She kept on doing arguments with us. she even said it was not her but her boss who sent with Windex.

After she left our table, i called another server and requested if he could send the manager, Manager came and he had no idea about sending her with Windex but at the same time he was backing her unpleasant behavior. I am 34 years old lady and never in my life came across such server who behaved like her. she even mentioned that we are not good parents. We felt so heavy in our heart. we couldn’t even think of continuing eating that place. asked them to bring the check and packed our food. My husband wiped the walls with Windex and paid the money. We never felt so insulted.

Before leaving I asked that lady her name, she said " my name doesn't matter" on repeated asking she mentioned her name as Katie. I told her that we felt so insulted today and I will make sure to share my horrible experience with others. she said " I also know your name from credit card and will make sure you will not be served here anymore" we were so shocked at her rude behavior.

ok I admit my 2.5 year old son made a mistake but in the first place they should provide kids menu paper where there is specific page for kids to color. just handing the crayons- where do they expect kids to color? and if they allow kids to come to restaurant they should be prepare for this. they cannot expect kids to behave like adults or else they should specially mention in their restaurant outside-"NO KIDS ALLOWED" and yes, our days are not that bad that now we start learning parenting from servers...

My wife & I went here for a late lunch. The interior of Oliva is attractive & comfortable. There was Greek music playing quietly in the background. (The quiet atmosphere is a plus in my book, as I hate eating where it's noisy.)

We ordered falafel patties as an appetizer. I ordered the gyro entre. My wife chose a mediterranean salad. We were both happy with our selections. The thin sliced, seasoned beef & tzaziki sauce took care of my craving for a gyro.

Here are a couple minor things that keep my rating from reaching 5 stars:

Our waitress was friendly & courteous, but she let the appetizer sit on the counter until just a minute before our entres were ready. Should have given us the appetizer sooner. Also, while I still enjoyed the falafel patties, they were a bit overdone & dry. They would have been helped with a more generous supply of the tahini sauce.

This is not a cheap, fast food lunch. While I liked my gyro plate, I've had better gyro at the Parthenon downtown, & at a lower price.

Nevertheless, we plan to return to try some of Oliva's...

I wish I could give it 6 stars.

The food is seriously divine. We chose vegetarian options and were blown away. Their basic starter bread is perfectly crispy and fluffy - you can tell it is fresh baked. The Hummus may be the best I’ve had anywhere. The Turkish Tea is so well flavored, not burned at all but still so soul-warming. The Baked Ziti is spiced to perfection and the cheese will pull for a mile. The Imam has Fainted is great - the eggplant just melts in your mouth, and this is the best rice I’ve had that wasn’t Basmati (which, to be fair, can never ever be beat.)

Service was also great. Staff was really giving 110% to serve all the tables (seemed short staffed) but there was no long wait times. Everything came out at a reasonable pace and was very fresh. Y’all better be paying these servers well!

I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying a lot of really, really good food in this short life. This is definitely in the top 5 places...