IW
IanW
Manchester/Greater Manchester3 reviews
Dined on November 23, 2019
- Overall 2
- Food 4
- Service 1
- Ambience 3
The space, cleanliness, and setting of the restaurant are great. The menu was balanced, interesting, and the food, when it arrived, was excellent and quite enjoyable on the whole. The staff were polite also.
However, the service was poor unfortunately. The server did not know anything about the choice of drinks in stock, or particulars in relation to items on the menu when asked by us. When food arrived, they did not quite know which dish was which and had to ask who ordered what item. My falafel were mistaken for deep fried halloumi by the server. There was a very very long break between starter and main course, to the point that I had to enquire as we all honestly thought they had lost the rest of the order and it was getting late.
Finally, one guest had very clearly ordered a sticky toffee pudding, an error occurred and a chocolate brownie and ice cream was served but the server also offered it as sticky toffee pudding. She detests hazelnuts and chocolate brownie, and was met with a rather unpleasant surprise on taking the first mouthful. Thankfully, she doesn't have a nut allergy, the outcome of this sort of error could have been potentially far more serious. When mentioned to staff, the desert was kindly deducted from the bill. Finally, and more minor, the background music volume is too high, we found it somewhat difficult to converse clearly during the evening.
I think the Olive Tree Brasserie has potential, but it is just not there yet. There are a lot of great things about the place, but I think that the owner/s really need to engage and train their staff properly. I would suggest indulging them in the menu; carry out training on organising and expediting food orders; and ensure a QA check on what is leaving the kitchen is what should be leaving; finally assess the ambience of the music and its volume. You have a great chef, great location, and a lovely space with which to work, hope these comments help you improve.