Olive Branch Mediteranean - Italian — Restaurant in Mount Dora

I always saw this place as we walked through downtown Mt Dora and thought it was such a nice, cute-looking restaurant, so we decided on a non-busy day to finally try it! The inside is different, but not in a good way. It is a decent-sized place, but is setup so oddly. There are sections blocked off by partitions. The lights were too fluorescent bright. The ceiling is painted a dark navy blue. The restaurant also had kind of a smell to it. While all the plants outside are beautiful and real (I think), the inside plants are all fake. How best to sum up the decor? Dated and not as nice as the prices would lead you to believe.

It took a long time for anyone to greet us. Then I saw some of the servers talking and looking this way. I guess no one knew they had our table (we didn’t even have any menus or silverware yet). A girl came over and gave us our menus and silverware and apologized. We figured she was our server, but it was someone else so we waited another few minutes for him. Our server was overall very helpful and understanding. It’s hard to reflect that in the review here, but I didn’t think he did bad, just the service overall for the restaurant was bad.

The menu is similar to another restaurant local to that area (or at least similar enough that we were comparing them). We looked at the prices and everything on there looked like it was about $5-10 too much, especially the appetizers. We usually get an appetizer, but decided to skip it because I’m not paying $15 for a pre-course meal. We ordered our entrees. About ten minutes went by and I was wondering if bread service was included or not. Ends up it is. It’s a few pieces of toasted Italian/sourdough bread with an oil and balsamic mix. The problem with the mix is there seemed to be spices in it but you could never get them because the oil was such a thick layer over the balsamic. I guess a mix of balsamic and olive fits the whole Italian + Mediterranean vibe, but in execution it’s just a waste of product. I also wished the bread came out right after our drinks and not at the same time as my salad (that was included with the entree). The house salad was good though. It had actual leafy greens in it and not just iceberg lettuce which is always a nice touch. There was enough balsamic dressing on it, though I had awkwardly toss the salad to get it on everything. The bowl was not big enough to really do it so I kept getting lettuce all over the table. A bowl with a bigger lip would be better. There was one chunk of tomato and a few slices of cucumber in it. It was kind of odd though for a small salad to have such big chunks though, especially when you’d be expected to eat this with just the provided salad fork. That’s merely my preference though.

Shortly after finishing my salad, our entrees came out. They presented well, if not a little under-portioned for the price (in regard to the Mediterranean salad). Upon further inspection, my penne and meatballs entree seemed to be very overcooked (like it had been cooked quite a while ago. The penne was, to me, way too soft. I’m sure a lot of people like this, but for me, if I press my fork into penne, I expect it to piece through it versus acting like a wet spaghetti noodle and depressing. The meatballs were the worst part though. I thought initially just based on looks, that the meatballs seemed a bit solid, ie overcooked. I decided to split the meatballs with my fork. It was very hard to even cut them. The inside was fully cooked however and I decided I’d try them. I made it through probably a third when I suddenly was feeling like I was going to gag. I decided to let the server know. He was very apologetic and I told him I was willing to pay for the pasta I ate, but the meatballs were way overcooked and inedible. They checked them in the back and the server said they agreed with me. I still ended up paying $20 instead of $25 for penne and marinara.

We left this place wishing we had gone to the other place and probably will...

My friends and I have been planning a holiday dinner together for weeks now. We all were coming from different parts of Florida and landed on the beautiful Mt Dora. We planned to get everyone together along with our spouses and a new baby. It is my son’s first Christmas and first restaurant dinner. We made a reservation for 5:30pm for 8 of us. Despite the reservation being made, the restaurant sat us at a table that was blocking the entryway to the right of their restaurant indoor entrance where I sat with my infant baby and had to get up from sitting every time a server walked by with a tray. It was a beautiful but slightly chilly December evening but electric warmers surrounded the outside patio however, we happened to be seated by the one warmer that was not working. My friend asked if it could be turned on to which the older white male staff member responded to her with a rude, “if you’re cold, you should’ve sat inside” and never turned it on for us. We then asked to move to the table right next to us (outside patio). Half of the outdoor tables were open. Despite the three staff members we asked, no one said yes and no one said no, but we were tired of being in the way of the servers as I’m sure they were tired of it as well. So we moved over. No staff member helped us. As a matter of fact they scorned at us. We ordered our food, which took almost exactly two and a half hours to receive. Our meals didn’t come out until 8:05pm. 6/8 of us didn’t receive the meals we ordered AND the food was served cold. We were so hungry at that point, many of us force-fed ourselves what was served in an effort to get on with our evening. When I asked to speak with a manager after our less than satisfactory meals, the woman I kindly asked (for a manager to speak with) said she’d be right back and then just never came back. After waiting a while, standing by the inside hostess podium, the bartender (very kind woman named Sam) asked if I needed anything to which I stated I was waiting to speak with the manager. She said “the manager is the woman you were just talking to. Mary.” She called the same woman who eventually came out of the back approached me and asked what was wrong. I politely told her we have been patiently waiting 2.5 hours for our food to which she kurtly responded “well do you still want it?” Everything about this experience was awful, the food was no good, we watched as other large parties came, sat and enjoyed their meals and left, all while we were still patiently waiting on our meals. Candice was extremely kind and helpful. She did her best to hear us out and relay the message to the indoor staff about our needs. She was lovely! The server Junior was clearly doing the best he could. Sam was kind. Everyone else was less than friendly. We didn’t even get to go see the Christmas lights which is what the whole plan for the evening was, because Olive Branch pretty much ruined the evening for us as we were held up there for an extended period of time. To say we were disappointed, I hate to say, is an...

I never, ever post bad reviews, but this one just got me today. I went for lunch and ordered a side salad with a particular protein on top; I asked for the protein not to be overcooked. I was told that they were not able to put protein on a side salad. Confusing, like why does it matter? I explained that I wouldn’t be able to finish a full size salad and it would just be food going to waste. I asked the waiter if he could ask the kitchen if they could indulge me in this minor request, as well as the request about cooking the protein medium instead of well done. When the waiter came back he said that they could not cook the protein to my request because of ‘safety’ reasons. Again, whatever, I understand. He said nothing about the r side salad, so I assumed it was all good. (The waiter also had not been properly trained on how to serve glasses- his fingers were all over the rim of our glasses when he placed them on the table- poor serving technique. I was a server for a while so I notice these things). When the food was broken get to our table it was not a tiny salad, but certainly did not seem like a full size salad. The taste of the food was underwhelming to say the least. Grocery store croutons, basic romaine, meh dressing, no Parmesan. The person I was dining with ordered soup, which was, again, mediocre at best- watery, and lukewarm. When the bill came, I saw that I had been charged for the full size salad. When I asked the waiter, he THEN told me they couldn’t honor my request. Altogether the bill for a smallish bowl of soup, side of fries (the restaurant supply company kind with that come frozen in giant bags with that weird coating, not fresh fries), one alcoholic drink, a glass of tea, and a salad with protein came to $60 before tip. If this place was charging casual restaurant prices, I would not have a complaint. But that those prices, I would have expected higher quality. Finally, the waiter brought over their newest gadget, the one where you pay at the table. Not a big deal, but the way it worked required the server to stand over while I decided on a tip. I had no intention of stiffing the poor guy, but it does make one feel pressured. I hate those things. Oh, and if you didn’t want to tip 18, 20, or 22 percent, it was not at all intuitive how to leave a lower percentage. It made for a very awkward few minutes.

Also very few vegetarian options.

My intent was to speak with the owner, but he was eating at the bar watching TV.

Like I mentioned, if this place represented itself as casual, I wouldn’t have been so prickly. But their prices were not casual. I will not be returning to The...