We thought Olive Bistro Midtown was okay. For casual Mediterranean food in the area, we prefer Tannour on 14th Street (their food is better), but Olive Bistro has the superior atmosphere. They've got a small patio on Juniper, an 8-9 seat wine bar with TVs, and a lower level dining room with live music on occasion. We initially discovered this place on Seated, but they've been on a whole bunch of other services/apps like Yelp Cash Back, Rakuten, and OpenTable.
There are currently two Olive Bistro locations in Atlanta, this one and one in Vinings (http://bit.ly/3a2Kzzy) on Cobb Parkway. The first Olive Bistro, now closed, opened on Euclid Avenue in Little Five Points in 1997 and there was also a location in Brookhaven, also now closed (http://bit.ly/2TfY5Jq). In the single unisex restroom at this location, they have a framed article on the wall that was written about the original Euclid location.
For many years, the Midtown location of Olive Bistro was located in the Midtown Place shopping center (Home Depot, Whole Foods) across from Ponce City Market on Ponce De Leon Avenue. That location closed in August 2018 and this location on Juniper opened the following October. This Yelp listing is a continuation of the old Ponce location (they just changed the address on the listing) so it contains pictures and reviews of both this current location on Juniper and the old location on Ponce.
You can find this restaurant on street level on the backside of the 1075 Peachtree high-rise building. Same building as Cafe Intermezzo, STK, and the Loews hotel. You can park in the building's deck, accessible via both 11th and 12th Streets, for up to two hours free with restaurant validation. Be sure to take your parking ticket with you into the restaurant so they can stamp it. There's no convenient deck entrance to Olive Bistro, so you'll have to walk around the block and enter from the outside.
We visited for dinner and the restaurant was very dimly lit. We could barely see what we were eating, but the darkness was intentionally part of the restaurant's ambiance. The food looked different when I ate the leftovers at home ("So that's what the rice and lentils look like under normal light.").
During our visit, the menu featured nearly 30 meze (small dishes) priced at $7-15 each, salads (starting at $8-12 each), bowls (starting at $6-9 each), pita wraps and pita pocket sandwiches ($9-12 each), sides ($4 each), hot entrees ($8-25 each), platters ($9-35 each), and desserts like baklava.
They offer beer, cocktails, and a decent selection of wine. Specials include half off all house wine bottles on Monday, $3 select beers on Tuesday, half off all wine bottles on Wednesday, and bottomless sangrias, mimosas, and Bellinis for $20 per person with $10 food minimum per person on Saturday and Sunday, 12pm-3pm.
We ended up going with a meze and two platters:
Meze
* Halloumi cheese ($10) - grilled halloumi with olives and tzatziki sauce
Platters
* Mediterranean platter ($12) - falafel, hummus, baba ganoush, tabbouleh
* Rosemary chicken platter ($16) - grilled boneless skinless chicken breast marinated in rosemary, lemon, garlic, and spices; served with rice and lentils, hummus, and a side of Greek salad
In general, the food was fine. Not bad.
The halloumi was tasty. If you're looking for a small plate to try that's different, I recommend it. Halloumi is popular in the Eastern Mediterranean. It's a firm, salty cheese that has a sort of rubbery, squeaky texture to it after it's grilled. Our halloumi didn't come with olives as described on the menu, but it did come with warm pita triangles which we ate together with the halloumi and tzatziki. The tzatziki yogurt sauce alone was delicious.
The Mediterranean platter is customizable and a good option if you want to try different items. The platter comes with anywhere from two to four items and you get to choose those items from a list of nine. I thought the falafel (four pieces), hummus, baba ganoush, and tabbouleh were all A-OK. The falafel dipped in the supplied tahini was yummy. The baba ganoush was super smoky, perhaps the strongest, smokiest-tasting baba ganoush I've had. The tabbouleh (one of my favorite Mediterranean salads) wasn't among the most flavorful or "juiciest" I've had, but it wasn't bad. They actually got my order wrong and initially gave me a side of Greek salad instead of tabbouleh, but it wasn't a big deal. It was like I got a free side salad in the end.
The chicken breast in the rosemary chicken platter was par for the course. It was kind of dry, but nothing out of the ordinary. I thought it could have been seasoned better. It came with a side of tahini and that definitely helped. The Greek salad, hummus, and rice and lentils were alright. Overall, this was a basic, satisfactory dish.
Value-wise, I do think this place is a little expensive for what you get.
Service was great. Chase was our server and Todd also helped out. They were both very nice and friendly. read more