The Black Olive

Address: Manish Metro Plaza, 3rd Floor, Pocket No. 5, Plot No. 1, Sector 12, KM Chowk, Dwarka

I have been to The Black Oilve in Dwarka twice. When I went for the first time, it was a family gathering and the restaurant had just started. There was a promotional offer that pulled me towards it.

The lift, exclusively for this restaurant, prevents you from going through the filthy stairs. Both Berco's and The Black Olive are in the same building. When there is a long queue in Berco's on weekends, most people don't mind going to The Black Olive which is on the third floor.

My first impression when I entered TBO was Wow! The ambience was good and the restaurant looked neat and clean. The dim lights were perfect for a romantic dinner or a cozy and comfortable dining.

The menu looked great with good variety of Indian and Chinese food. For non vegetarians, the variety was too good, ranging from chicken to sea food and even lamb.

Well in my first visit, we ordered veg salt and pepper which was really nice and everyone liked it. The other Indian foods also tasted good but the service was bad, which could be ignored because it had just opened and we thought they will take some time to settle down. The confusion was apparent and the time taken to deliver food was pretty long. We did not complain because it was a family gathering and everyone was busy gossiping.

My second visit was almost after a year. And I was sure about the improved services but not much had changed. The ambience was as great as ever, the menu looked good again, and the services, they were the same too - slow and bad.

We had ordered three drinks - Long Island Iced Tea, 100 pipers whisky and a fresh lime. LIIT, which is a very common drink, was unavailable there, so I ordered a Mojhito. The whisky came first and the waiter did not even ask if soda was required. He brought two drinks and a soda bottle. He had no clue how many drinks we had ordered. So we took one and returned the soda bottle. Before he could move from our table, someone from the management came and took our whisky away. What the F***!! We were surprised at the service. Have you ever seen someone take away something from your table without apologizing or citing any reason?

Anyways, we took it as a mistake on waiter’s part and carried on with our chit-chat. Next came the fresh lime and then the whisky again. This time thankfully no one took it away from us. The veg salt and pepper was served but my drink was still pending. This time the veg salt and pepper was very spicy with loads of pepper and wasn’t as good as the one I had in my last visit. We almost finished our snacks and my drink had not arrived. The manager, with his gestures hinted that the drink is on its way. Finally we finished the snacks and then came my drink. Mojhito tasted good and so I decided to drop my complaint against the management.

The main course was also good but the fried rice was a bit disappointing as it looked like a pulao. And the bill had no mention of the rice but some other dish. For a second we were confused and rushed to clear the doubt. But the waiter cleared that there is no extra item mentioned in the bill and the wrong item is actually the rice. WTF! Is this what you call service? You quote wrong items in the bill and don’t even apologize! My god!!

Thankfully prices are not too high and are reasonable. For three people, our bill was Rs.1200+ (3 drinks, 1 appetizer and 3 main course items). Actually the bill was Rs 900+ but the taxes actually make your bill shoot the roof, which I think is the case everywhere. So with taxes, our bill crossed the 1200 mark.

Even though Black Olive is a good restaurant with a very nice ambience, good and polite waiters, the service needs to be improved. I am sure this restaurant is liked by many youngsters who want to spend some time with their beloveds in a nice ambience, but if you are taking some guests for lunch or dinner, pls think again. I would give 2.5 stars out of 5 to Black Olive, Dwarka.