Milo & Olive — Restaurant in Santa Monica

Came here on a Thursday night and it was already super packed by around 7:30. There was about a 45 minute wait, but we left our name and moved in towards the back of the restaurant where there was some room to stand and ordered a bottle of wine while we waited. They were super attentive to us while we waited, and even let us order our food while we were still standing in order to have it ready once we sat down because we were in a bit of a rush.

Regarding drinks, we did a bottle of wine even though some of us wouldn't have preferred it, because the cocktails were on the expensive side. I'm from NYC, but $15 for a cocktail with dinner was still a lot, considering with 2 of those you're already at a $30 tab each not including food, tax, tip, etc. The wine was luckily great though, so we were fine with it once we tried it.

The ambiance was super upbeat while still being cozy. The place itself is small and while it was a bit loud (it was super crowded), it still had an intimate feel. The staff was all extremely friendly and accommodating - my friend who we were with is vegan and found limited options on the menu, but they answered all her questions and were able to switch a few things around to make some of the menu items vegan for her.

She ended up getting the gnocchi and my friend and I split the margarita pizza. Both were really good, but also pretty pricey for what it was.

We really liked Milo and Olive, but I wouldn't recommend it for a casual dinner - better for something a little more formal or special just cased on the price! Definitely a lot of menu options I would have liked to try, but the pricing in general dissuaded me from adding sides, apps etc.

Also, wanted to note that they let us (and everyone) know that "A 3% charge is added by the restaurant to all checks to help offer fully covered healthcare to our employees." While I think this is awesome, I don't necessarily think that's what customers should be paying for? Not sure how it works in other restaurants, but I know plenty of servers and bartenders that get full benefits without it being added to customers' bills. Maybe it's worked into the prices in other ways, but I can tell you for sure if the prices had been any higher we would have relocated for what was a...

Sadly, I can not recommend going to Milo & Olive for a late lunch. Both the service and food was very disappointing; especially for the prices on the menu. It was very disappointing and will not return; nor can I recommend it. Having been a long time resident of Santa Monica and had visited this restaurant often when they first opened, I can say the meal & service we had today was a very stark difference to its past. We had ordered the Chicken Milanese and Pappardelle Bolognese; along with the Beet and Grapefruit salad.

The Chicken Milanese was fried to a hard crisp, lukewarm and almost rock hard, with chicken so dry, it was difficult to tear apart (stringy), you needed to attack it with a sharp knife and outside bread was so hard, it would make loud crunchy noises when trying to cut it, like burnt toast. The Bolognese was rather tasteless and arrived boiling hot (almost literally) and had to wait for a while to cool down to eat, yes there was pasta, with a thick tomato sauce but no way you were able to detect that the various meats described in the menu "pork, veal, beef, ground prosciutto". It was meh, at best and a very bland flavor. I will say the salad with beets and grapefruit was quite nice but that was it. When the waitress asked us how was our meal, I told her about my mothers meal and was dried out and hard to eat, All she said that she was sorry to hear that, then quickly walked away. Then gave us our bill over $100.

We had spent all day at the oncologist getting tests down the street, we were worn out and my mother was starving so we just ate the food; so I guess it was our fault for not saying anything when the food arrived and never thought we would had to at M&O, but both us said never again come here.

If you go to Milo & Olive now a days, I would recommend you first check your food to make sure it's fresh and good and notify the food server right away if its not. Especially during late lunch time.

I hate having to write this negative review, but this one was...

Pains me to write not the most positive review. Overall it’s a cute place and has a nice atmosphere but my recent experience was disappointing.

Food: tasty, the rigatoni, margarita, pesto fusilli were great. The chicken meat balls was $20 for 4 small meatballs, it was okay. The garlic knot was also just okay, it was filled with an insane amount of garlic cloves, I also don’t think it makes sense to have customers pay extra for the red dipping sauce, that seems like something that should be paired with it as a dish. The main issue was that the pesto fusilli came out 15 minutes after everything else so one of my friends had to wait while we ate before our food got cold. By the time her pasta came out we were done eating. (Her dish was delicious though, timing was just off)

The service: we were initially seated by the back door, which was open for outside dining. Since it was freezing outside (48°F) it made our seating area uncomfortably cold. We asked our server if we could be moved and luckily they moved us but she was NOT happy about it. We could sense the annoyance, she wouldn’t look or say anything to us when being reseated. It was awkward and uncomfortable. Our new server was kind but not as warm an inviting as other restaurants that are in a high price range like this.

Price: We were surprised to see how expensive it gets, quickly. We didn’t realize their still water would be $20 (when they say tap it sounds like it’s straight tap and not filtered). There also is a 4% Health tip automatically added which I understand is beneficial for the employees. The price doesn’t really matter, going out in LA you should expect to pay $250+ for a meal for 4 but since the service and food timing was not great it ruined the experience.

Overall it seems like service is an issue here, many reviews express the same paint points of service quality. If the stay was friendly that would make up for a lot of the...