Olla Cafe & Bar — Restaurant in Virginia

This is a small strip mall restaurant. The food and service are both hit or miss. On the service end, they do team service which was fortunate for us because one of their servers is a primadonna who thinks she is too good to be there and was walking around looking at her nails and had on enough makeup and false eyelashes to be the star of her own movie in her own mind. We told her we were in a hurry and she still managed to miss time the food and we had to flag down the other server to ask her to bring our food that We could see sitting in the window drying out. On top of taking a long time, the one kids chicken finger meal took about 10 minutes to come out after the entrees. So my 8-year-old was sitting without food for about 10 minutes as I timed it on my phone. They do not refill waters unless asked etc. You get the picture.

For the food we had chips and salsa 7$! Be aware the chips are deep fried flour tortillas which are a little on the greasy side with some tajin seasoning... Empanadas, chicken wings, queso dip, calamari... Of all the appetizers the calamari was probably the best although on the greasy side... two salmon entrees, the birria tacos, the hanger steak, and the kids chicken fingers and french fries. The tacos were extremely greasy and we know that the birria tacos are supposed to be on the heavy side with their beef jus dip. But these were on the gross side and very very heavy and greasy, the salmon entrees were like something you would get at a Marriott hotel banquet...where apparently the chef worked for 10 years...According to their website which I read while we were waiting for our food for about 35 minutes ...

Basically there's a lot of smoke and mirrors here, be wary it gets a lot of good reviews because there is a captive audience there in Stafford....that it seems has not dined out up north in DC or any other cities that actually have a dining scene. Just be very aware of this and if they look busy do not even think about walking in there to eat unless you have an hour and a half to 2 hours and do not want to be satisfied with good food...

.... and our bill was $149 for five people before adding the tip, which admittedly was on the low side as warranted by the...

Looking for a new spot and thought we would try Ollas since the reviews looked good. We shouldn't have.

The restaurant was tiny and crammed with more seats than they should have had for the service and preparation that they could accommodate realistically.

We ordered queso and salsa chips and calamari and drinks. That came out fairly quickly (probably about 15 minutes). As the appetizers were coming out, we ordered our entrees. Two salmon, one birria tacos, one hanger, steak, and a children's chicken tenders with fries, and an order of wings. We told them we were in a hurry and asked if they could bring everything as it was ready.

While we were waiting, I went to tell the hostess stand that there was no toilet paper and waited about 8 minutes and then gave up.

We returned to the table to finish appetizers. Everyone ran out of drinks. Nobody had come to our table since dropping off the appetizers. I flagged down the waitress and let her know that we needed water and proceeded to wait for 40 minutes for our food that we had been watching pile up in the window. By the time it got to the table it was not even hot. The two salmons and hanger steak came out first. 10 minutes later the birria tacos came out. Finally, 10 minutes later the children's chicken tenders and fries arrived.

None of the food was great. The rice tasted like minute rice with some vegetables thrown in. The black beans were hard and lacked seasoning. The salmon was overcooked and the plate look like a hotel banquet plate of food. The birria tacos were leaking grease and oil (yes I know berria tacos are greasy but these were horrific) and had no sides. Honestly the best looking thing and probably tasting thing were the chicken fingers and fries.

Our waitress came to our table probably twice. The food runner/ busser was more attentive and probably should be promoted to waitstaff and the waitress with the spider eyelashes should be let go. She acted like we were an imposition and that she was bored to be there.

The two most important things when owning a food establishment are service and food. Both of these were mediocre at best. Not worth the $130 or indigestion even though I have guts of steel.

Good luck if you...

We moved to Stafford recently and haven’t found any real niche restaurants, so we were excited for good tacos and interesting food!

Everything we ate was good—as expected by the reviews we read. But we must’ve come on a bad day, because our overall experience was not what we’d expected.

It appeared outdoor seating was at-capacity (4-top, 2-top, and an empty 2-top too close to the other 2-top to be used), so we agreed to sit inside. Though there were only two tables with guests, we were placed between one of those tables and the service hall: not the best move no matter how you feel about COVID-19. Plus my husband is over 6 feet tall, I’m pregnant, and we have a toddler. So we were squished and also sweating, since there was no air in the building (back door by the bathrooms was propped open to the outside).

We waited over 40 minutes for our tacos and steak & fries, in spite of the slowness of the night. At one point our in-training server asked if we wanted an appetizer while we were waiting: not as in “I’m so sorry for the long wait, could we serve you something right now on-the-house,” but as in “do you want to buy something else and wait for that too since we don’t have your original order ready yet.” When I asked if our food was delayed, she didn’t know what if any delay there was.

We’d waited long enough that I had to use the restroom. My husband had seen someone from the kitchen head that way 10-15 minutes prior… I stood by the door another 10 minutes waiting to get in, so maybe the missing chef on bathroom break explains the slow kitchen 😳

It’s generally impolite to ask to move tables, but since we didn’t have food yet and the place was slow, I finally asked to move to a newly vacated outside table so we could at least breathe. The three of us squeezed around a 2-top (squeezed some more after a couple was seated at the too-close 2-top behind us). Half an hour later, my husband had to go inside to ask for our check so we could pay and leave.

Again, food was good. But not worth the wait…or the squished feeling…or the heat…or the starving toddler (never mind her parents!). Don’t think...