Clementine

Monday, April 23rd, 2012

Reviewed by Clementine

It is sad to see a place with so much potential being so badly mismanaged. The service was sloppy to say the least with the chef having to come out and help clear tables on several different occasions. The martini we had ordered was served in a margarita glass so you had to fish around for the toothpick and olives. This could be seen as a forgivable error if the establishment was not selling itself as an upmarket restaurant and bar. As if this poor start to the evening was not bad enough, the food was a total disappointment. We ordered the grilled calamari as well as the tuna meatballs with our drinks, which was a huge mistake. The membranes had not been properly cleaned off the calamari, which was served with sweet chili sauce clearly out of a bottle (what about this is Mediterranean, we wondered?). The tuna meat balls were not made from fresh tuna as I had expected, but rather from shredded tinned tuna, rolled into balls and deep fried. These were served with an 'aioli', which effectively tasted like watered down Miracle Whip with no hint of fresh egg or garlic whatsoever. At this point we were too disheartened to order anything else so we called it a night and went down the road for a pizza. All in all, our two drinks and two tapas at Oliva ended up costing almost R300 - not well spent. The decor is lovely and some of the vegetarian options didn't look too bad but we won't be going back to try anything else. What a shame - it could be a really lovely restaurant.