Olivomare

Absolutely stunning food! I love this place. They serve beautiful fresh fish. The menu is quite small but every singe dish on the menu is great. I’ve been to this place many times and I never get bored.

Great for seafood and fresh fish. Great menu and authentic Sardinian food. I often go to Sardinia and I consider Olivermare the most authentic sardinian restaurant in London.

What a lovely luxurious place. The atmosphere is the best part!!!
All the food is authentic Sardinian from the wine, the olives, the water to the olive oil!!! Even the waiters/​waitresses are from Sardinia!
definitely an experience :)

Nice, classy Italian seafood restaurant. We stumbled in here looking for Italian food, without realizing its specialization. Don’t expect to find any exceptions to that on the menu.
The food arrived slowly on the weeknight we visited — despite the restaurant being quiet — but it was worth the wait.

I had an evening where I was alone and this was a recommendation from the concierge. I love both Italian and seafood so decided to give it a try.
When I arrived 7:30p the place was almost empty. That changed over the next 45 minutes until the place was completely packed on a Tuesday night. In terms of atmosphere the vibe is great but I would agree with the previous review that the tables are too close together. Since I was alone I was able to learn a great deal about the couples on either side of me :)
The service was very attentive. I make it a habit to strike up a conversation with the waiters in new restaurants. They are more than willing to share with you the various aspects of the menu and you get the opportunity for better service. The recommendations were fantastic (I had the Hake prepared in vinegar and finished with white potatoes) and spot on to my tastes. Event the house Sardinia wine was great.
All in all a very pleasant experience and I would certainly recommend giving a try.

The waiters are very attentive and friendly. Although it was my first time, they made me feel at home as if I am one of their regulars. The décor of the restaurant is tasteful, modern, chic! The restaurant was so busy when we arrived. We were originally ushered to the back, but I requested to be moved to a table outside. We shared rock oysters, grilled calamari and buffalo mozzarella with grey mullet roe for starters. My favourite would be the calamari, I particularly enjoyed the smokey and charcoal taste of the grill it somehow transported me to a happy memory of my childhood by the beach. The oysters were fresh, as stated on the menu. The buffalo mozzarella was light but tasty. I am glad that we have chosen 3 very different but complimentary starters.
Before our mains arrived, I was hoping to have ended dinner with starters only. Not because I did not have space in my stomach but because I wanted to end with a high. For some reason, I was so concerned for the chef that my friends will not be as happy with the main as they had been with the apéritif.
My 2 friends shared baked seabass and vongole. I had spaghetti lobster. While the waiter was deboning the fish, I started to gorge on my spaghetti. I could not wait, besides I wanted to eat my food as the chef intended it to be. The temperature was perfect, pasta al dente, and lobster pink. I asked for chilli flakes though dunno if the chef forgave me for that.
My friends were raving with their mains too. The servings were very good portions, more than the usual servings in London restaurants. So as you could imagine, we were full to the brim after the main.
But no we had to have tiramisu and nougat gelato. And the waiter, who became very familiar with us by then recommended frozen yoghurt with bitter honey! Simply divine! What a perfect way to end our dinner. I will definitely come back.

When we walked in to the empty restaurant, save for one person, we were asked if we had a reservation. «Uh…no.» Sat us down anyway, and I sort of got the feeling the question was just for show.
The menu at Olivomare is great, I couldn’t decide what to order. However, once I ordered I had a long time to think about it, as the food took over 30 minutes to arrive. In an empty restaurant. That’s a long time when they are catering to an at-​work, one-​hour lunch crowd.
Although the food was nice, it wasn’t spectacular given the price. The portions were tiny – for a £14.50 lunch I got 8 raviolini and was still hungry when I finished. It’s entirely possible that they gave me the £11 starter version and charged me for the larger one. Let me say that I’m prepared to spend a lot for good food, but it has to be good enough to be worth it. I didn’t think it was at Olivomare. Both of the pasta dishes we got were drenched in butter – it was pooling all over the plate. This would have been fine at a less swanky place, but if I wanted to eat sticks of butter I can just hit up a Tesco.
I was prepared to give them three stars until they tacked on a 12.5% service charge. The amount doesn’t bother me, but I do think I have the right to decide what I want to tip. I’d give them a go again if someone else was paying but otherwise I’d give them a miss.

This is a strictly seafood restaurant, so if anyone in your party is in search of a juicy steak, go elsewhere. With the exception of one long wall with a playful brown and beige graphic fish print on it, the minimal décor is stark white. The menu gravitates toward southern Italian and other Mediterranean flavors, and everything we had was outstanding.
We started by sharing an order of steamed mussels in a white wine and garlic broth that was so good we mopped up every last drop and swordfish carpaccio sprinkled with chopped chives. We followed this with a tomato-​based Sardinian couscous soup overloaded with clams and a baby octopus stew with enough chillis to give it a nice amount of heat.
The seafood risotto was filled with prawns, mussels, and octopus, and mercifully everything has been peeled and shelled so you don’t have to play with your food in public (a pet peeve of mine, and one of the reasons I never order lobster or roast chicken when eating out). Fritto misto had a nice selection of fresh fish and shellfish and wasn’t the least bit greasy.
We really didn’t have room for dessert but forced ourselves to share an order of cheese fritters drizzled with honey our charming and very attentive Italian waiter insisted would be a sin to miss. He was right.
My only complaint about Olivomare is that the tables are much too close to each other — it’s nearly impossible to have a private conversation — and the hard plastic chairs become slightly uncomfortable long before you finish your meal. Yet the food is so good I can’t bring myself to deduct a star for these drawbacks.
There are a few tables outside, but even on a warm night I’d hesitate to eat on the sidewalk in full view of passing pedestrians.
This is not an inexpensive night out — the tab for two with wine and service easily will top £100 — but the quality of the food and service makes it an ideal destination for a special event or occasional splurge.

Ever on the hunt for exquisite seafood we ventured into Olivomare on Saturday evening after a day shopping in London. We arrived as they opened and were seated in a sparkly white restaurant. Everything is bright white apart from the one wall which have 2 shades of modern brown fishes with huge black eyes. As none of them winked at me I was happy to sit facing these eyes and wondered if they were actually concealed lights :-)
The menu is interesting and the special for the evening was a truffle and sturgeon roe dish that we were informed is a little pricey at £85.00 ! First things first. a drink well this is were it went wrong the first time, the very tall waiter proceeded to give us each a bottle of sparkling water when we had clearly ordered fresh orange juice. The orange juice arrived and the water was complimentary by way of apology.
The seafood we had, both as a starter and as a main, was perfectly cooked and additional flavours were subtle and complimentary rather than overpowering. Dessert menu was interesting and ‘the proof was in the pudding’ no pun intended :-)
Coffee order was again incorrect and same waiter came across to apologise as it was. you guessed it his fault. Strike 3 and you’re out came to mind. His final moment to shine and he proceeded to bring me ‘my’ black duffelcoat when he was again clearly asked for a red leather cape.
Still I cannot knock the restaurant and food for the sake of one waiter, and the whole experience was a very pleasant one indeed. I will certainly venture back there again.

Had planned visit Pissarro to sit beside the (not very beautiful) Thames at Chiswick but fate intervened and we found ourselves at Olivomare on one of the hottest days of the year (ok, it’s London, so not New York hot). So glad we did and it’s stunningly good — as well as blindingly white. The food — all seafood naturally — is the freshest there is and the grilled lobster (£26) is reputedly the best in London. Brilliant, simple food; sea urchin (ricci di mare) came in a small bowl with crisp toast and was totally delicious, while my companion’s baby octopus (moscardini) stew may have been a bit of an aberration on such a warm day, but was of superb consistency and my fork found it’s way over to her plate with great regularity. Unfortunately my oysters slid down so fast that I forgot to share any and was lucky to get another glass of excellent rose (apparently ‘blush’ — which I thought only existed in Will & Grace commercialsyou have to leave the summer wine ordering to the girls these days). A shared semifreddo with fresh figs was a gorgeous finale even without the dessert wine which I secretly craved. Service was a bit distracted and one of the waitresses wore a Sicilian scowl, but the clientele were mostly smart Belgrave local and probably fancied her for a bit of S&M.