Olive — Restaurant in New Orleans

Well I was hoping my visit would not show up on my timeline as I would feel obliged to leave a review....and it's my first negative review ever.

Upon entering I asked if the owner/chef was Lebanese as they advertise themselves as that kind of restaurant...after getting an evasive reply I asked if the shoarma can be as original as possible and not some bland American version...no reply either and after asking if it can be prepared with as much garlic as possible the shocking reply was " we don't make garlic here".

Ordered the food anyway...well the root beer tasted like bleach for which I can (and will..I am fair) blame the local water supply.... Then the shoarma/shawarma (whichever version you please ) arrived it was expected..bland bland bland.. the pita bread was good...the salad that came on the plate was well seasoned...don't care for hummus so dont know and the meat was just meat....no sauce offered or served either..... Hate to say it but the Rabbit food on the plate was the best tasting part.

Service was weird after my initial questions he offered to change the fountain drink after tasting the bleach taste so need to give him that.....

Atmosphere could be decent with more people (or are they not there because of the food??)

So disappointing as after a 14hr drive I wanted a nice little surprise, but this was a...

I ordered the Half and Half Shawarma. This wasn't presented how I've had shawarma before, but the food was incredible. The meat is cooked and seasoned to perfection. The salad is fresh and the hummus compliments everything. I also ordered the Fresh Baklava, and unfortunately it was anything but fresh. Pass on dessert here. But the food is great.

Our server, Hani, was hysterical. Very dry sense of humor and quick witted. I enjoyed his personality. I'll chalk it up to a language barrier, but it also made for a confusing ordering experience. When our party had a question on the menu, none of us left positive we understood the answer. We all took leaps of faith, but the food was so good that ended up working out. The only frustration I had was after we got our food, we couldn't get his attention for refills or the check. I finally got proactive to get it done.

It's a small restaurant. That was a big surprise when our party of 10 walked in. If you have a big party, I recommend calling to make a reservation, but they accommodated us without a big to-do. The restaurant is clean and quiet. Having better expectations, I would eat here again knowing it's not exactly what I thought it would be. The food is fantastic and will be the healthiest thing you eat in your visit to...

We wish we knew of this place since the first day we arrived to NOLA. We were tired of fried food and expensive prices. We spent one night trying to be creative on what restaurant could be healthy, affordable, delicious, clean, and beautiful. The Olive restaurant met all of those expectations to a T.

First we showed up in the morning for breakfast and those were the best prices I have seen in my life for a good breakfast. The eggs were cooked just right. The owners are the cooks. They are professionals on what they do and super friendly.

We were full and ready to go to the aquarium, and we came back to Olive restaurant for lunch. The price goes up a little more, but is still a better price than all the previous restaurants we went and left us wanting. We ordered two Gyro plates and it was enough to feed us and our two small children. The lamb was the best I have had. The Lebanese tea was very refreshing, and they gave us refills which was amazing.

After all of our meals we loved to drink Turkish coffee with fresh Baklava for dessert.

This is the first review we ever wrote for a place, but it made our day, so...