Olive Tree Cafe

Grabbed dinner here before the first show downstairs. Things got busy really fast, but the staff did their best and checked in often. I went for the meatloaf and it was a huge double-​patty portion with an equally generous heaping portion of mashed taters. So full, much belt loosening was needed afterward, but totally worth it.

Sunday afternoon two friends and I were planning on meeting up to hang out when the weather turned and we decided that the less time spent in the snow, the better. After finding a few places on the street packed, we hoped for better luck at the Olive Tree. We were seated and then waited over 15 minutes to be greeted. When our server finally showed up he was helpful and did a good job about being present when we needed him, but not hovering. Drinks were fine and the french fries were incredible. The high point of this place is the atmosphere for sure. The dark woods and stained glass, combined with the silent movies playing through the evening, made the place feel so homey and definitely helped us find reason to keep ordering drinks. Will definitely be returning for a full meal service soon!

A high 3.5 stars.
Olive Tree Café surprised me – in a good way. After reading so many unsatisfied reviews on here I can’t say I was psyched to try it out, but my fellow food-​lover kept singing its praises, and as a pre-​Comedy Cellar dinner, you can’t beat the convenience.
We came around 6 on a Friday and were seated right away. We ordered the vegetarian and lamb mezze platters, cheese nachos, and various teas.
I didn’t get to try the lamb mezze but the vegetarian one and the cheese nachos were awesome.
The vibe is a little odd — it’s a very dark, mellow, pub-​ish feeling place but most people there are energetic and ready to laugh their butts off downstairs.
The service was fast and kind — we made the show on time!
Overall, a nice spot for a Comedy Cellar– night but not sure I’ll be back otherwise.

I have been coming to this place for 18 years with my husband and what can I say it’s amazing every time we visit. This is visit we decided to bring our daughters which they haven’t been a while and they enjoyed it. We ordered the combo plate and chicken kebab plate and the four of us shared it. It is always so tasty and a fairly good portion. The staff is always friendly and service is pretty quick. If you ever decide to go at night they have comedy club just downstairs.

The food is okay and moderately priced. The best part about the place is the black and white silent films they project on the walls. They also have chalkboard tables you can draw on. If you’re looking for an extraordinary meal this isn’t the place, but it’s a good place for drinks and food with friends.

The Olive Tree is a really great spot. It harkens back to the part-​homey, part-​divey vibe the village used to have, and prices haven’t gone up much since it first opened.
The food is good — especially the Mediterranean platter — but probably the best part is the cheap (but good-​ish) wine! Snag a carafe (about 3.5 glasses) for just $ 12.
On top of that, the servers are super nice and also don’t bother you. So, yes, this is kind of the ideal spot to spend a while drinking and catching up with old friends.

Cool spot above the Comedy Cellar.
I came here before catching a show last night with a couple of friends, and it was an enjoyable experience. The café has a casual ambience — featuring what I believe was a Chaplin film — and the staff is extremely friendly. Our waitress was attentive and very patient considering we were distracted by playing tic-​tac-​toe on the table. Literally, you are given chalk and can write/​draw on the table’s surface.
The café offers a dining menu consisting of largely Middle Eastern fare. However, we only ordered drinks since we ate before coming to the café. The men ordered the Alabama Slammer (amaretto, southern comfort, sloe gin, and juice), while the ladies tried the Nutty Banana Splitz (vanilla ice cream, banana, vodka, godiva chocolate liquer, and amaretto). Both drinks were good, though I recommend using the lemon for the Alabama Slammer to improve the taste.
I recommend coming here for a drink sometime, especially if you are waiting to see a comedy show downstairs. I also look forward to coming back soon and trying their food menu.

Really such a fun, laid-​back spot. The best of Macdougal Street, really. So much fun to draw on the chalkboards, enjoy hummus with lemons, and maybe a nice pot of tea, such low prices for great quality and good fun.

Great atmosphere. I would come back to have a drink with friends. But the food was not good. The food was charred but not the good kind of way. When i bit into the meat (beef, chicken) I could tell it was cooked on a dirty grill. Don’t eat the food.

Love this place! My husband introduced me to this place 17 years ago and since then it has become my most visited location. When we have date night… I come here. When i want to chat with friends… I come here. When I try a new restaurant and it sucks… I come here.
Drinks are good, buffalo wings are a must and service is attentive and friendly never had a bad experience.

It’s a bar in the west village above the Comedy Cellar. My expetations were already low. Service was CRAZY slow, but you can expect that much. What I didn’t expect to my delight is that beers weren’t crazily priced.
Food, typical bar food but its OK.
What I really didn’t expect and hated was that the bathrooms are shared with the comedy cellar downstairs. So if you are passing your way through and the comic is in the mood to heckle, then you aren’t exempt (as I discovered the hard way).

I’ve been coming here for years. It started out as great bar food after a long night in the library studying before going home. Buffalo wings, nachos, and blue moon was what got me through the night. And yes, the chalkboard tables were very useful in drawing graphs for econ.
Last time I stopped here was on a Friday when a band (The Shackles) was playing. The owner apparently also plays guitar and joined in for a couple of the songs. They brought in some guest appearances and even one of the finalists from The Voice. My favorite was the Spanish guy they brought in to sing. They ranged from the Beatles to Enrique Iglesias and not a single song was less than the others. They even took requests from the audience. The music was very good and the musicians were so talented. It’s amazing how there wasn’t a cover for the night!
As for the food, I ordered a Mediterranean combo with amb kebab and my boyfriend ordered the Borscht. All was delicious but the best part of the night was the entertainment. I don’t know how often they do it, but when they do, I’d make sure I was there to see it!

I needed food before hitting the gym with my gals. We initially went to a sit down restaurant but their ac wasn’t working and it was super humid that day. We obviously left and one of the gals just ordered halal. I’m way too picky to just order from any halal cart so I found this café on Unilocal and ordered the falafel sandwich. They didn’t let my friend say with me to eat her halal while I ate my falafel sandwich so we walked and ate and the other chick decided to starve. silly goose. So the falafel sandwich consisted of 80% lettuce, 15% broken pieces of dry falafel, and 5% diced tomatoes; that explains why the cost was relatively cheap. There was nothing WOW to it.
On the bright side, I felt like I ate enough for the gym.

Solid, inexpensive middle eastern food. I had the platter with the falafel, grape leaves, israeli salad and feta. Delish. Service was neither here, nor there. Bonus– the comics that perform at the Cellar often stop in here between sets. We got to see Aziz Ansari at the bar. Pretty cool. I would come back here.

This is my go to spot for hummus and felafel. Cool crowd and comedy in the basement

Like other survivors of the lower east and west side gentrification wars, the Olive Tree pays homage to a cultural tradition unique to certain pockets of the City. This section of Macdougal (bounded by West 3^rd and Bleeker) still has a distinct middle eastern flavor, and this walk-​up café represents a window into a food past that is considerably older than most of its patrons.
Macdougal street was once a mecca for NYU students in the early 70’s in search of a cheap plate of grub, and the usual fare in such places then as now, involves some combination of spit roasted or grilled meats, felafel, hummus, babaganoush, stuffed grape leaves, feta, pickled hot green peppers, and fresh pita to mop it up. The OTC is an Israeli take on this regional food tradition and has stayed true to its humble roots, despite a touristy blitz in recent decades and an expanded menu to accommodate them, including ho-​hum burgers and fries, designer beverages and «Russian» borscht — of all things.
The interior and chalkboard tables are much as they once were, and you can still rent chess and backgammon boards to accompany endless cups of coffee or tea to while away the hours as you people watch, if that is your thing.
This is not haute cuisine, so skip it if you are looking for the most authentic bite. It is all about ambience — the dimly lit room, the cozy booths, the silent movies projected on the walls, chalky residue on the slate tables, the tin stamped ceiling, the comedy club in the rathskeller with bathrooming adventures to go with.
I could do without the fumfering tourists, their whiney kids and the hipster wannabes on the weekends, but this is 21^st century New York City where the information age allows for few secrets, in the name of better commerce and modernity. For me, the OTC is still one of those places in the City where the nostalgia factor is a sum greater than its pedestrian parts.

Came here several times with friends, I like that you can get a some Mediterranean food for a decent price. The best dish on the menu is probably the borscht, Russian beet soup. It is really huge and delicious with pieces of beef in it and served with a large slice of pumpernickel bread. Essentially, the soup is a meal in itself, and I even took half of it to go.
The happy hour drink prices here are great. They have a good variety of cocktails. But don’t get the tea. I thought it was loose leaf, as they served it in a small tea pot. Nope, the waiter just literally dropped a Tazo tea bag in there.
The one negative… bathroom situation. You have to walk through the comedy club to use the restroom.
Overall, I’d come back here for the borscht… it’s heaps and bounds better and bigger than Mari Vanna restaurant.

If the Olive Tree Café were a writer, she’d write:
Self-​help titles that emphasize the old adage, «Some change is good». The inviting front VIP-​type comfy lounge area, complete with pillows, heavy curtains and a small size sofa used to be an old school tiny kitchen area, where chicken and lamb were roasting on spits. Other than the menu also changing a bit, not much else has changed.
Short screenplays about the crazy times of patrons, tipsy off the affordable Texas-​size daiquiris in the summer and delicious hot cocktails in the winter.
A love song to the falafel platter, turkey burger, fries, mac n cheese, among other highlights on the comfort food menu that keep the patrons coming back.
A long list of conditions to an air-​tight friendship contract between her and the beautiful (and sometimes hilarious) sketches on the walls, hanging lamps from the 70s, and chalkboard tables. The décor here is a cornucopia of artistic inspiration.
Finger-​snapping we be cool poetry that represents the general vibe of this old friend of mine.

Génial ! La déco est magnifique, endroit très cosy et chaleureux. Les prix sont vraiment bas, et les cocktails très bons. Les nachos sont à essayer absolument ! Le plus: des vidéos de Charlie Chaplin projetées sur les murs et les tables sur lesquelles on peut faire des dessins à la craie.

The bf needed to get some work done and I wanted to get out of my place for a bit so I decided to join him when he dropped by Olive Tree Café.
Charlie Chaplin on the screen, dim light, cozy atmosphere, countless pictures and drawings on the wall … such a unique place. What I love most was the slate table provided with chalk … Encouraging me to bring out my inner child which hasn’t come out in very long time.
The bf got hungry so he ordered the Turkey Burger. I didn’t want «food food», but couldn’t decide on the app so I got Mozzarella Stick and Nachos (to share). Food was surprisingly good with generous portions and it was reasonably priced as well.
Friendly staff, pretty laid back with great atmosphere. I would love to come back here.

I really like this place a lot. The atmosphere is really nice and chill and the waitress we had was super friendly.
There menu was pretty extensive, but not overwhelming like other places where you have no idea what you want to get. I got the mozzarella sticks and the piña colada and my friend got an order of wings. I love the piña colada — so gooood. The prices were pretty decent for both drinks and food here. Overall, I’d come back again :)
P. s. I love their black board tables!