The Golden Olive — Restaurant in Seattle

This place is overrated or people in Washington didn't have much Mediterranean food to compare this place with. I recently moved here from the Bay area and this place is a big disappointment. To the owners of this place: please visit Falafel Tazah in Redwood City and Dish Dash in San Jose, you can really learn from how delicious their food is and hopefully improve. For those who enjoy this place, I'm sorry you haven't experienced really delicious Mediterranean food yet.

The Bad: the rice has a really bad flavor, like oily with a weird not appetizing aftertaste, the veggies on the rice were cut into tiny pieces, please give me some real roasted tomatoes not a roasted piece of cherry tomato, you should be embarrassed about those tiny veggies, the kefta was not seasoned well, very bland and very dry, overcooked and tasteless. The side salad felt like pre-cut lettuce from plastic bags, with a small piece of cucumber and too much sugary sauce. The fried cauliflower felt like it was fried for 3 seconds, it was mushy with no coating and no crust, I didn't even finish it. Fried cauliflower should be crispy with a healthy amount of coating, I could still drip oil out of the flowers... Another bad thing was the Hummus, I get better Hummus at the grocery store, hummus should not be this fine and watery unless you are trying really hard to save money on the ingredients. A good hummus should be much more coarse and not like yogurt.

The Good (these things are responsible for the additional star in my review): the pita bread was clearly fresh maybe even made by them from scratch, it's a really good pita bread. The falafel was one of the best I've had, I wish they put this much effort into making kefta. It's a good falafel.

The Mediocre: Baba ghanoush was fine, it's not seasoned as well as...

I went here because the wait at the Thai place a few doors down looked to long and we had to go to a show. What a fantastic choice I made. I had a falafel salad, but I wanted to try the gyro meat, so I asked if they could do 1/2 & 1/2. He said it was no problem, and that was the first win. The food was absolutely incredible. Very classic Mediterranean, no pretention, but carefully prepared, and delightfully seasoned. The tzatziki was incredible. I can't figure out how they got it so smooth. The falafel had a super thick and crispy exterior, and a soft fluffy interior. My husband got the beef shawarma, which was amazing. Just the rice that it came on had a delightfully unique flavor, which I think was cardamom. I told them that they should open another location im Bellingham so I can enjoy it more often! I mentioned that it was our anniversary, and the gentleman at the counter gave us extra baklava, also incredible, which made me happier than I thought I could be. Fluffy, not too sweet and not swimming in honey/syrup. I ate it easily with my fingers. The food was also incredibly well-priced. I left so happy and satisfied, but sad because I live so far away and can't come here regularly. I cannot wait to find an excuse to come to Queen Anne and...

Lamb Shawarma + Greek Fries + Double Meat. Everything was perfectly prepared AND priced. The lamb was tender whole chunks, not off the spit or ever ground, which I was unsure of until tasting how good it was. Glad they cook that to order. Double meat was the portion I expected, none of this "extra" meat mystery portion, and I appreciate that they go for a full double portion option and price it so fairly. Greek fries were delicious, perfectly crisp, and the toppings were deeply flavored and also well portioned. Food was ready in 7min, as promised over the phone. Service was friendly, communicative, and generous in granting me a side of tzatziki (which was SO fresh and tasty I kept the remains in my fridge for later). Overall, VERY impressed. I've been a regular at mediterranean spots for years and tried "Mint and Olives" before this, which was unimpressive in comparison and took 25min to make 2 identical orders - the same as what I got here. This place is my new favorite mediterranean restaurant to date! They've earned themselves a new regular. Golden Olive is the new...