Olea

Sorry, but this placed was just overpriced for the food we were served, when I spend $ 49 on fish of the day, I don’t expect it to be so dry that I have trouble swallowing it! The best part of our dinner was the potatoes, enough said. Not sure what everyone was raving about, won’t be back.

From the moment you step into Olea, you know that you’re in for a treat. The décor is gorgeous — with a simple clean white base that allows feature pieces to really pop, there are hidden gems everywhere you look — my personal favourite was the use of the old fashioned original elevator as a feature piece. It’s the little touches that make a place like this particularly memorable — hand lotion for in the beautiful bathrooms? Don’t mind if I do!
Mixing the best of the old with the new, Olea is really onto something here. The ideal way to dine here is to share — with friends, family or just someone special. With larger plates to share, we were here for one reason — the lamb shoulder (my partner had been here before and absolutely raved about it, do he had brought myself and his parents back) unfortunately the lamb was not available on this particular night — which really derailed our plans. Luckily the staff were incredibly helpful in assisting us to choose an alternative.
We ordered a couple of the meat tasting plates (which came with sides of the ancient grain salad and roasted potatoes), the marinated yoghurt and eggplant dips, the crispy calamari, the haloumi filled pastry, grilled cabbage and seasonal greens. Everything was divine. The calamari and the marinated yoghurt dip were particular standouts for me, as were a few items on the meat plate — the pork sausage and lamb cutlets certainly left me wanting more — others on our table raved about the potato and the ancient grain salad. Having tasted it all, I must say that all my taste buds were satisfied. The bill (after being split between 6 people) came to $ 45 (which included a bottle of red) — which was less than I thought it would be, however I can easily see it being possible to spend a lot more here.
For a particularly nice meal out, you can’t go past Olea — I’ll certainly be back!