Olive Tree Cafe and Catering — Restaurant in South Charleston

Hubs & I went with a friend to Olive Tree Café in S. Charleston for an early Father's Day supper last night (6/17/23).

We had been to OTC a couple of times before when it first opened years ago. At that time, it was essentially a walk-in/carryout deli with containers of food & bottles of pop & water for purchase from large commercial coolers, & a walk-up order pickup counter... all crammed into a room approx. 12'×30'. There were also maybe 6-8 very small tables w/chairs inside & 3-4 cutesy metal tables w/chairs (ice cream parlor style) outside on the walkway to the front door, The place was new to the area & customers always seemed to pack the place to capacity, making it nearly impossible for anyone to move across the room... including the 2 overworked & slightly sweaty waitresses. It was way too loud inside, which meant everyone seemed to have to shout their food orders. The day we were there it was very cold & pouring the rain, so no dining al fresco that day... we ended up eating in our car. The place was absolute bedlam & utter chaos! We went twice & then crossed them off our list.

Thankfully, last night's experience was definitely not a total replay of that previous visit. The inside area of the Café has doubled in size & the awning covered, outdoor dining space is a welcome addition, & seemed extremely popular with diners seated there. Inside has been upgraded considerably & has a much more polished & modern feel. One thing that was definitely not upgraded was the size of the table tops, which might be sufficient for 1-2 people but was way too cramped for 3 people. We 3 only had sandwiches & ice teas (1 plate + 1 glass each). I can't imagine where the waiter would have even set down plates if we each had ordered full dinners. Very frustrating but even more so because there were other larger tables available the whole time we were there. A minor detail I know, but it's attention to "minor details" that can make all the difference in the overall experience.

The food was underwhelming, to say the least. Hubs got the Philly Steak sandwich ($11) with fries ($4). When his order came out to our table, the fries were cold, soaked in congealed grease, looked & tasted a week old, & should have NEVER been plated up in the kitchen! His sandwich was a hot mess... oozing grease & some kind of yellow-orange mystery cheese that looked like CheeseWhiz... but he said it tasted fine. The waitress was very apologetic & said she'd bring fresh fries asap. Our friend got the Original Gyro ($10), which was practically dry except for a heavy dousing of raw olive oil instead of the usual Gyro tzatziki sauce, & had 7 short strips of meat all on one end of the sandwich. Our friend said the meat, which she ate with her fork, was tasty. I ordered the OliveTree Special Shawarma ($11), which was supposedly marinated & slow roasted steak in a pita wrap... the menu touted it as "HUGE" (not!). It had maybe one oz of rather tough shredded meat, all on one end of the sandwich. I've had much better steak chalupas at Taco Bell & for much less money, actually. We decided not to risk getting any dessert.

There actually were 2 bright spots during our dining experience. The first was our wait staff, Rachel, who, inspite of being obviously overworked, was upbeat & positive, cheerfully patient, apologetic about the problems & helpful. She is great at her job & almost made up for the food debacle. The second bonus was the musical entertainment, which was an unexpected surprise & a pleasant addition for dinner entertainment. The pianist (on a baby grand no less) was very good & had a great repertoire of songs, apparently without any sheet music. He played at length, taking requests from diners. The only real problem was the "hardness" of the space due to the lack of soft surfaces (curtains, cushions, carpeting, etc) which made the piano WAY too loud (almost painfully so) even though the pianist was using the dampening pedal to try to tone it down some.

Anyway, it may be another couple years hiatus before we...

I recently ate here with some friends to celebrate one of the ladies' birthday. I've eaten here several times in the past. I like the food, but it's not super extraordinary. I and the ladies I went with like to support local businesses. As 2 of the ladies already reviewed on here, the service was exceptionally slow this particular evening. I want to get something straight on here first. I eat out A LOT! At least 3x/week for over 20 years. Usually, I am VERY patient with slow service when I know there are not enough staff and I see it's busy. I am also very patient with servers when I can tell they are new/inexperienced. We all have to learn somewhere/sometime in our lives. The other ladies got there before me, as I got stuck at work later than my shift was supposed to be (short staffed--sound familiar?). They had ordered an appetizer (hummus). It took over 20 min to get the appetizer and my drink. No problem for me. We ordered our food. 30 min later, 2 of the 5 orders came out. Ten min later, 2 more came out. Finally, 10-15 min later, the last meal came out. In my 20 years experience of eating out, the most time elapsed between bringing meals out is 2min (enough time to go back & get it). The server struggled trying to give refills, then trying to carry the pitcher while picking up dirty dishes. I tried helping, knowing how difficult it is to do that. Later, the server had to ask several times how to split the checks (5 people, 4 checks since one person was paying for the birthday girl). 30-40 min later, the checks came. We immediately paid (3 with credit cards, 1 with cash). We waited....and waited...and waited. The server NEVER brought our cards, change, & receipts back to us. Gladys went to speak with the manager, asking if we could please get our cards & receipts so we could go home. He came out ranting about having to come out to our table & said the meals were on him. When we said we didn't mind paying, but wanted our cards, he threw them on the table and said he had to get back in the kitchen since he was helping cook the meals, & we were delaying other people's orders. The one that paid cash never got change. One of the ladies stayed back and paid the server a tip in case anything happened to her as a result of the write off. The next day, all 3 of our cards were charged. Karen left a review, which he responded very nasty to (& since removed, but we have screen shots of it). He then refunded our cards. Again....I don't mind paying for meals I've eaten. I will even come in this weekend and pay for it again if he wants. I just don't appreciate the unprofessional attitude. In his response he stated we had a large table -- it was 5 people. Each person paying for their own meal except for 1--the birthday girl. We were there for 3 hours for a meal that should've been about 90-100 min tops. But even with the slow service, the last straws were not getting our cards/receipts back, and the loud, attention grabbing attitude. The whole outdoor seated restaurant was looking at the manager spew anger at us. I get that this place is short staffed. Covid has created fear in people that didn't exist before. People don't want to work. I work healthcare. My sister works in the restaurant business. My husband works retail. We all get it. We are all in this together. So, please try to remain professional in the attitude. It's just business. We just wanted to leave, but couldn't just leave our credit cards there. I gave a 2 star since the charges were refunded. But, as I stated before, if you want, I will gladly pay for my meal that I partook of at your establishment. Just respond (kindly) to this review and I will stop in over the...

We like going to all the best restaurants we can find and were looking forward to trying this place out, especially since I grew up on Lebanese food and make sure to check out restaurants which advertise middle eastern cuisine.

We arrived about 7pm on a Friday and the restaurant was busy, but not crowded and the servers were not hurried. We were immediately offered a table and initially opted for indoor seating, but the dining room was as noisy as a school cafeteria, so we asked to be seated outside and were promptly moved to a table on their covered patio.

The outdoor tables were typical patio furniture but comfortable, and it was not crowded but we noticed that no one had food, only drinks. It took about ten minutes before a server came to take our drink order, so by then we were also ready to order our food. After we were told what all they didn’t have on the menu, my wife and daughter ordered their food and I wanted to order the filet but was told that it was only available if four people were ordering from that part of the menu, so I ordered the filet kabobs. The server then asked if I had a preference how they were cooked, which I thought was strange, expecting to be asked instead how I would like it cooked. I asked for medium rare. We also asked for the hummus and bread to share as an appetizer.

Our drinks (2 waters and a Sierra Mist) came quickly, but they did not bring the hummus and bread. After waiting about 20 minutes we asked about the appetizer and it finally came about another 10 minutes after that. The hummus was ridiculously salty, but we were so hungry and the service was so slow that we just ate it without complaint. There was a long-haired cat hanging out on the patio that was annoying some of the patrons at the next table, but it didn’t bother us. However, it seemed very inappropriate to me for a restaurant to allow a cat in the dining area when not everyone likes cats and many may have allergies. After one hour we still didn’t have our food but not many others did, either. There looked to be about 5 servers and one man (owner or manager) who spent some time sitting and talking to patrons, but we wondered if the kitchen was understaffed.

Finally, 70 minutes after being seated our food arrived. Everything was good but not exceptional. The filet kabobs were overcooked as I had expected, and certainly not worth $27. We wanted to try the baklawa so we asked for three orders. Each order consisted of one small piece of pistachio baklawa, which I immediately recognized as being from Shatila bakery in Michigan, where I order from regularly, but here they charged $3 each (approximately a 800% markup). At that price there should be two pieces. Even though we were trying to hurry, it took an hour and a half from the time we were seated to the time we received our bill.

Overall, based on this first experience I’d give Olive Tree Cafe a 2/5 because of the unremarkable food, above average prices and incredibly...