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    Oliver's

    3.8 (67 reviews)
    Open 11:30 am - 10:00 pm

    Oliver's Seafood Restaurant Photos

    Business Info

    OLIVER'S ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Loud
    Good for groups

    Recommended Reviews - Oliver's

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    Reviews With Photos

    Chefs special and Cod dinner
    Carol S.

    Spectacular meal. From start to finish, just perfect. A bit on the Spendy side, but cost justified by taste. Make a reservation and it is a tiny place

    My meal - seafood chowder and garden salad
    Erin K.

    I'm going to be a little tough on Oliver's tonight. Fair warning. I came in while traveling and hoping for some great seafood. The reviews were very enticing. I went in on a Wednesday night and didn't have an issue getting a table. Everything on the menu sounded very good, but you'll pay a pretty penny for it. I don't mind paying a price for a high quality meal, but here is my review. Not one glass of red wine is less than $15 for a 9oz pour. I'm a wine lover so I ordered a $16 Malbec 9oz pour. Sure it was good, but I've bought bottles for less that were just as good. I ordered the seafood chowder and the garden salad - I was looking for a lighter fare. The chowder is very hearty and packed with seafood, which is great. However, the broth is actually kind of bland. I feel like the chef thought the seafood would speak for itself but it lacked salt and a bit of flavor in the creamy soup. The salty toast on the side added a great component to it, but I don't feel like it should depend on the toast. The salad was fine, but quite simple. I'm not sure it was worth the money. Overall, my experience was fine. The staff was incredibly nice and accommodating. I just wish the flavors matched the prices. I would definitely come back and try some other things. Please don't let my rating persuade you otherwise. Just beware that you'll pay a large penny and the quality may not blow you away. I do hope they continue to improve because it is a great spot with a good atmosphere.

    Brownie dessert - delicious!
    Shyla C.

    This is a difficult restaurant to get into! Even on weekdays like Monday. We finally did get in at 830pm. My partner and I ended our Newfoundland adventure with our final meal at Oliver's. We started with the scallop appetizer, which was cooked perfectly and delicious (small for the price though - 4 scallops for $19). Then we had the mushroom Wellington and seafood platter. I didn't really like the mushroom Wellington because the bottom seemed to be burnt or seared with something else that had burnt on the pan. The veggies were also super overlooked, but the mashed potatoes were excellent. We thought the seafood platter was really great. It had a lot of variety and provided good value for the price. The Atlantic salmon was my favourite and my partner enjoyed the large shrimp. For dessert, we had the brownie, which was really good. It came with a raspberry sauce and ice cream. The whipped cream was a little excessive but it was great none the less. I think the timing of your meal here will make a big difference on the quality of service and food. We were seated closer to the end of service and our server seemed to be getting tired/forgetful. He brought out the wrong entree for my partner. It took about 10 minutes to cook the right one. By this time my dish was getting cold and we weren't able to eat together. At the end, he also brought out the wrong bill. We didn't order a single item on the bill he brought out. Had we not looked at it and just paid we would have overpaid for things we didn't even eat. I'm sure he was just tired as it was 10pm on a Monday night but we did wait some time to eat here and expected our server to be more on top of it.

    House salad
    Jenn N.

    Our last night in St.John's we decided to celebrate and indulge at Oliver's. It was a bit difficult getting a reso here so dinner was later than we'd like (8:30 was our only option). The four of us came in hungrier than we'd like so we were ready to eat. My GF and I got the house salad to share, and the specials of the night were steamed mussels and a thai curry poached seafood risotto so we got one of each. I get that this place is small, but considering we were eating at an off hour, I was expecting our food would come out more promptly but service was reallllly slow. We were here just shy of 2 hours! Food and atmosphere was good, but service could be better.

    Parsnip soup and halibut

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    1 month ago

    The service was fantastic. The cook was careful with my special diet and even came over to talk to us.

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    2 years ago

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    5 months ago

    The goat and cranberry appetizer not pleasant to the eye, a bucket of cranberry. The chicken dry and hard to eat. Wine so so.

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    2 years ago

    Food was wonderful. Many gluten free options too. Service is not the fastest but it's what you expect for good food prepared to order.

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    9 years ago

    Good foods: salmon and steak, and the service was friendly (even bit slow), but pretty expensive in town.

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    Portage

    Portage

    4.5(19 reviews)
    0.2 km

    Located near the upper end of Water St just before it turns into offices, Portage's PoMo space is…read morein contrast to much of St John's historical downtown, but it's a refreshing vibe that still feels inviting and relaxed. The menu is on the larger side for a place of Portage's caliber and reputation, with several snack-sized starters and veggie-based dishes, and a leaner variety of proteins and desserts on offer. You know you're likely in for an excellent meal when it's hard to choose what to get, but after some deliberation, my wife and I landed on a handful - smoked olives, the cleverly-named Tongue and Cheek, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower souvlaki, and fingerling potatoes. Note that you can conveniently get half-sized portions of most dishes, although we, somewhat greedily, did not. Unsurprisingly, the smoked olives arrived right out of the gate. The plump green olives came as advertised and while you wouldn't know it from looking at them, tasted more like smoke than olive - and I was all for it! I'm slowly converting to olives, although it's generally only at nicer restaurants and not the olives that come out of obscenely large buckets/cans that get slopped on mediocre pizzas and salads. The cauliflower souvlaki started off our string of excellent veggie dishes. I wasn't sure what the portioning or presentation would be like for these, but they were all a generous size for two people to share, and while they were plated with consideration, it wasn't so much "haute cuisine" as it was "piles of delicious food with complementary garnishes". I was a bit surprised that the cauliflower was served at room temperature, but the charred cruciferous veg still packed a lot of flavour into each tender-crisp bite. Paired up with pickled dates, yogurt, and fresh dill and mint, the dish hit a lot of notes - savoury, lightly sweet, and tart and bright vegetal freshness. On deck were the fingering potatoes. Loaded up with sauteed onions, scrunchion-esque bits of pork belly, and a blessedly-conservative amount of Dijon, this was a dish that harkens to a lot of continental European dishes. The execution of the relatively simple ingredients is where it stood out though, with firm-but-tender potatoes that had hints of sweetness and umami from their toppings, and the crisp bits of pork belly brought some textural contrast to this comfort food classic. The dishes were coming hard and fast at this point with the broccoli, Brussels sprouts and (cod) Tongue and Cheek showing up in quick succession. Brussels sprouts have become a family sight on contemporary restaurant menus in the past 15-ish years, and the crispy, charred veg got the Boomer parent treatment, although melted Cheez Whiz was replaced by a much more natural Mornay sauce. I'm not jaded enough yet by their ubiquity to bemoan the delicious execution of these sprouts, and the cheesy goodness of the Mornay mellowed out the sharper edges of this infamous vegetable. A surprise hit was the broccoli - with velvety smooth and lightly salty ricotta, fresh micro greens and a not-insubstantial punch of heat from chili crisp, our third cruciferous vegetable of the night took top honours of the three, IMO. The Tongue and Cheek is an amusingly tongue-in-cheek play on words, using two cuts of cod that have become local delicacies. Each was fried in a light and airy batter that was only slightly heavier than a proper tempura, with a perfectly generous amount of salt. The tongues were a bit more toothsome, but still tender, while the cheeks almost melted in your mouth. They're one of the more pricey starters, but absolutely worth it. After this sizeable feast, dessert was not on the table, figuratively or literally. Service was spot-on and friendly, without the almost clinical coldness that can come with the precision that some fine dining places have. Portage is understandably representing St John's on Canada's Top 100 list with its deliberate, but unpretentious menu that will leave you wanting more and loosening your belt at the same time.

    Had a wonderful meal at Portage. Shout out to our server…read moreCaroline who really looked after us well. Highly recommend this spot for offering specialities of the area. Please note that I also highly recommend reservations as it's not a huge dining space and because the food is so good, they do get busy. We started with the seafood sampler platter. So wonderful. And then we shared the Halibut, rice and spinach/fiddleheads with shrimp hollandaise (which were a fantastic complement to each other). Only one thing we did not like (it was not the fault of the restaurant, but our table for 2 was flanked by a table for 8. We don't mind that generally but 2 of the party were children who initially were running around and flinging themselves on the banquette seating for the first half of the meal. I started to wonder if I was going to end up with one of them in our laps. Fortunately they settled down at some point). Despite all this I would go back in a heartbeat.

    Photos
    Portage - Dining room

    Dining room

    Portage - Broccoli with ricotta and chili crisp

    Broccoli with ricotta and chili crisp

    Portage

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    Oliver's - seafood - Updated May 2026

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