Review: Olive Tree Restaurant in Crystal River, Florida *Updated*

The Bowen Knot - Shamrock Rating:

Olive Tree Restaurant 

Crystal River, Florida

The Front of Olive Tree

Before, I begin this review let me say that we are generally positive people.  With that said, the food and most of the time the service is NOT GOOD in our area of Florida.  We are constantly searching for good meal.

Upon entering the Olive Tree Restaurant we were greeted and told to sit anywhere we liked. Heather headed into a smaller room that was apart from the main restaurant.  We found a quiet table in the back and sat down.

As we were getting seated, the hostess was chasing us with a giant "traveling" sign with specials on it.  The sign was placed right next to our table and it remained there during our entire meal.  Kind of odd and annoying.

Our Third Wheel on Our Date

We asked, our waitress Debbie, if the full menu was available and she stated anytime that the place was open.  Then in the next breath she said of course some things like grits would obviously not be served other than breakfast time.  Huh.

I don't drink fluids during meals due to a surgery.  Every time I tell a waitperson I don't want anything to drink they act weird and constantly ask me time and time again if I want something to drink. This was no exception.

Heather ordered a bacon cheeseburger (medium-rare) with onion rings and I ordered a patty melt on marbled rye (she never asked how I wanted mine cooked) with onion rings.  When Heather said she wanted to substitute the fries for onion rings , Debbie was again confused.  We then looked around the restaurant and it was filled with typical tacky Florida decor.  Murals, LED Christmas lights, and dirty ugly tapestries covering sound proofing panels.  These sound proofing boards were gross, ugly, and dirty.  Many restaurants in the area have these same boards up.

OMGosh They Have Another 3rd Wheel :-)

Dan

The food arrived.  Heather's food and mine were incorrect.  Her cheeseburger lacked the bacon and mine lacked the sliced tomato and lettuce we paid extra for.  Heather gave me some of her toppings so I could start eating.  We waited for the waitress to show back up, but she didn't.  We waited over 10 minutes before we even decided to just go ahead and eat.  Heather's ice tea glass was never refilled and it was empty for most of the meal.

Heather's Meal

Heather liked her burger and thought the onion rings were great.  She was a bit upset that the waitress never checked on us and she never offered to refill her drink until we had already paid and were standing up to leave.

Dan's Meal

My patty melt was slimy with grease. The bread was a sponge that soaked up the grease and it was dripping off the sandwich. Gross. 

Baklava

We both ate half of the meals and decided to split a dessert.  The place is labeled as a Greek Restaurant so we decided to share a piece of Baklava.  It was super tiny and a bit heavy on the nutmeg/cinnamon.  But, all in all tasty. 

Candy's Meal

We also ordered a BLT with coleslaw and a piece of Baklava for Candy to take to work tonight.  I just talked to her to get her food review.

"It was on rye, it was dry (I added mayo), and it had lots of bacon.  The coleslaw was only 2 bites (tiny).  The Baklava needed the nuts to be a little less chopped, otherwise it was yummy.  I would eat there in a heartbeat."

A Baklava on the House

Once Heather pointed out to our waitress, Debbie, that some mistakes were made during the meal she said she was sorry and offered us a Baklava on the house.  That was a nice way to turn the experience around.

Unfortunately, about an hour after eating, I ended up throwing up my entire meal.  And then at around 4:00am Heather was sick in the bathroom :-( Their was just way to much grease in our meals.