Olive

My first choice restaurant was given a miss due to how crowded it was and my friend and I walked and searched for other eating places and we decided on this one and we were not disappointed at all.
As my friend was not a big eater, we only ordered the main course. She had the lamb while I had the ribeye steak which was the best decision I made. Every bite I took on the piece of meat made my taste bud crying out for more! It was succulent, cooked to how it was supposed to be. I enjoyed every pieces of it and I got to try the lamb as well, and that was just amazing. I had lamb previously in Seoul and they certainly don’t taste as good as this. This certainly made up the disappointment my friend and I had, missing out on our first choice.
The atmosphere of the restaurant certainly feels Middle Eastern style but the service on the other hand was a disappointment. They were slow and I can sense their disappointment when we ordered only the main course.
Overall, this place is worth the try!

Great gyros. Definitely worth the trip — both falafel and chicken

So I start by ordering a Greyhound which throws the staff since they have never heard of the drink. What… We waited for a bit and I was wondering if they went to pick their own grapefruit… And, well they kind of did! The manager realized that they didn’t have any grapefruit juice in the house so he ran up the block to five other restaurants to get it. Wow. Really cool.
I get to talking with him about types of drinks and I happened to mention that I love a good Amarro or Farnet Branca after dinner. Anyway, we order and the first dish is a safron chicken that comes out perfectly cooked. Unique dish served with a great sauce and escarole in a lemony dressing. Then we see the falafel that the other table ordered and remark that we should have ordered that too. The waiter hears us and asks if we also want to order one and we say «why not!». Along comes a perfectly made falafel Egyptian style.
Meanwhile, I am still drinking greyhounds and we get our entrees. Mine is a duck risotto with an amazing lemony flavor and crispy duck. My wife had the kabab/​skewers of chicken.
We finish the meal and the manager remembered our conversation and had gotten a bottle of Amarro. Had a glass of that and a cappuccino to end the night.
Great service food and ambiance. Five stars.

Elegant middle eastern restaurant. Great ambience and lighting. Food is authentic Middle Eastern. Haloumi cheese, Fatouch salad, Bedouin chicken, rib eye steak all excellent. Attentive staff. Great Soho location near many bars and restaurants.

It looks like Greek & Middle Eastern food is the cuisine of the moment right now in HK! We have come to Olive on Elgin Street on a Friday night, and it is jammed. I have never seen it this busy, ever! But good for them, this stalwart of Soho does serve some mighty fine Mid East food, so it seems reputation has preceded. Luckily Mrs L and I have reservations.
The food here is good. Will I say it’s the best Mid East food in HK? Probably not, but for sheer convenience of Olive being right next to the esco, you can’t really go wrong. Having said that though, the halloumi starter was by far the best I have had in HK. The portion actually had a decent few slices halloumi, and it was fried to perfection so it gets that little crispy skin. It was so good in fact that we ordered a second round! The lamb kofta starter was fabulous, moist minced lamb grilled on the skewer — yummers. The mains were unfortunately a bit disappointing, the moussaka was a bit more aubergine and tomato stew, and the chicken taouk (kebab) was a bit dry — you could probably do better on your home BBQ, or go down to the take out in Wan Chai. The dishes cost around HKD200 for mains and HKD100 for starters.
The staff were great and super friendly, but somewhat stretched in the busy restaurant. The bosses could probably do with adding a couple more servers, but where they could stand is another matter. The tables were crammed in, so if you are sitting in a thoroughfare, be prepared to be bumped a bit as the staff and patrons go about their business.
I do like the wine selection here, they have some Lebanese wines which make in interesting change from the usual Soho fare. However, you will have to ask for the wine menu and get the staff to keep pouring. It seems with the restaurant so busy, they have dropped drinks service off the agenda.
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