Out For Dinner To Celebrate Olive Restaurant's 8th Birthday
Published On Friday 16 Feb 2024 by Sticky Beak
See Recent Dining Out Reviews | See All Recent Reviews
Fashionably late was taken to a WHOLE new level by this flock! We were supposed to be bringing in the new year with a family meal at Olive Moroccan restaurant in Belper, but life had other plans; thankfully we’re still around to tell the tale and eventually had our NYE a full month later. As it happens, it couldn’t have been better, as our new booking coincided with Jacqui celebrating her restaurants 8th birthday… complete with complimentary cocktail!
As well as me, His Nibs and Mummy Bird, Fledge and The Beau also came along as per the original NYE planned line-up. Olive isn’t normally open on Sundays, but Jacqui had a large group in, so she opened the bookings up for a wider audience – we needed no second bidding. As soon as we stepped over the threshold all our cares melted away; the room is eclectically decorated and the warm colours naturally make you feel cosy and relaxed. Candles gave a gorgeous subtle lighting, accented with fairy lights and mis-matched floor lamps.
Olive is unlicensed, so you bring along whatever tipples tickle your fancy and Jacqui charges a minimal corkage fee. Those who don’t drink can take their own faves along, or sup the unlimited chilled water that Jacqui and her team provide in huge jugs. All the scrumptious morsels were written on the oval blackboard that dominates the far wall, so if you are new to Olive you can easily take a photo and peruse what you fancy at your leisure. Our approach is laid-back a la Olive and its Moroccan influence, so we just said to Jacqui to bring out what she fancied when it was ready!
First up, we had some Pea Hummus with warmed Pitta bread and a bowl of mixed Olives and Feta Cheese; Mummy and I snaffled the Olives and Feta a) cos we’re greedy and b) cos no-one else in the group likes them, which suits us down to the ground. Jacqui’s hummus always has a light texture to it, so your senses get stimulated, rather than you feeling like you’re eating baby food. Also served up were delicious spiced rice-and-veggie stuffed Vine Leaves; The Beau hadn’t had these before and was a bit sceptical, but I said the leaves were akin to Spinach (ok, so it was a bit of a vague similarity!) so he gave them a bash.
Those of you who love tasty, colourful salads will lose your minds at Olive; Jacqui makes some mean ones! Mujadara came out to us first, the platter absolutely spilling over with the spiced mixture of Rice and Lentils that was topped with yoghurt, torn leaves of fresh herbs, and Pomegranate seeds. Fledge absolutely loves this, so she got first dibs, and heaped a load onto The Beau’s plate, too; both of them gave this morsel top marks, and the rest of us divvied up the remainder between the three plates.
Tabbouleh was even more colourful, the grains of Bulgar Wheat pimped up with chopped Cucumber, Tomato and Onion and seasoned liberally with fresh Mint, Lemon juice and Olive Oil. Mummy Bird loves this, its clean, bright taste appealing to her; His Nibs likes it too, but leaves the Cucumber and Tomato for us! My personal favourite is the Beetroot, Orange, Feta and Walnut salad that Jacqui serves at Olive; not only is it full of taste and texture, but its jewel colours give it some serious visual appeal – Jacqui uses a wide variety of salad leaves to add interest as well.
After having some cool food, we were treated to some warm morsels: Jacqui’s delicious Chicken Shawarma. Every time we’ve eaten at Olive, the flavour has been slightly different, or the chicken sliced/cubed/served whole (whether breast or thigh). On this occasion, Jacqui had used more Cayenne to give it some superb warmth on a cold winter evening and left the meat in larger pieces – as always, though, the meat was juicy and tender. Just as zingy were the meatballs, another specialty of Jacqui’s, which she did us a double portion of as she knows The Man Bird loves them!
Olive serves up a multitude of dishes suitable for vegetarians and vegans, and has recently started to host vegan specific evenings for those of you that eat this way. Our next treat was a dish of Falafels, spheres made primarily from mashed Chickpeas and/or Fava Beans with Onion, Parsley, Coriander, and spices. As with her Hummus, Jacqui keeps a bit of texture to her Falafels, and we all happily chomped away on these tasty minxes.
I haven’t mentioned the marvellous Flatbreads that we’d had, yet, which is to do them a huge dis-service! Over the years, we have tried several incarnations of Flatbread from Jacqui, and have been enthralled by them all. This particular evening, there were 2 varieties on offer: Spinach and Sweet Potato. The Spinach one also had cheese in it that formed those irresistible strings as we bit into the bread; I don’t know about you, but I love it when melted cheese does that?! To zhuzh the mashed Sweet Potato up, Jacqui added some honey and spices and this was a total delight of a simple dish.
Usually when we go to Olive, we savour the meaty morsels that are Jacqui’s Chicken and Lamb Tagines - the vegetable one is also very scrummy – but this time we were simply too stuffed to order them! Gutted isn’t adequate to describe how we felt when we realised this fact: we have vowed that we won’t make the same mistake next time we visit!!
Olive is usually open on Friday and Saturday evenings only, though Jacqui does occasionally open on other days. To keep up-to-date with the latest, check out the Facebook page – Olive Moroccan Restaurant – or ring Jacqui on 07864 953341.
Hot Wings happily given here again. Happy 8th Birthday, Olive, here’s to another 8 (and beyond!!).
| Out For Dinner At Anoki Indian Restaurant In Nottingham The Anoki team have been at it again; winning awards, that is! At the recent English Curry Awards, they scooped not one, but TWO wins: Best of Nottingham in the Read The Article | |
| Out For Dinner At The Machine Inn, Ashbourne If you're a foodie in the Shire, you'll have heard the name Danny Box; and if you haven't, where the heck you been?!! This very talented Chef has formerly been in kitchens at The Read The Article | |
| Out For Tapas At Venga In Portishead His Nibs and I were working together as part of his day job and, after a solid days graft, decided to head out into Portishead for a bite of dinner. As is usual for me, when the weathers warm, it messes with Read The Article | |
| Sunday Lunch At The Kedleston Country House, Quarndon One of the best bits about the blog, for me, is that over the years we've got to see some raw talent at its inception and one of these happens to be Mr Leo Hill. Back in the day Read The Article | |
| Breakfast At The Cool River Cafe In Matlock Bestie Bird and Ginger Ninja came to stay for the weekend with His Nibs and I whilst The Bolton Wanderer wandered further than Bolton to Florida to see his favourite band! Our best-laid plans were Read The Article | |
| A Visit To The Newly Opened Hickory's Smokehouse In Oadby, Leicester The Man and I's favourite Smokehouse, Hickory's, added another string to its bow (or another steer to its ranch, if you want a Southern States analogy!) Read The Article | |
| Out For Dinner At Anoki Indian Restaurant In Derby It's always nice to know that you've done something right, and The Man and I figured that this must be the case as we were invited to review Anoki in Derby after recently visiting its Burton Read The Article | |
| Sunday Lunch At The Wheatsheaf Pub and Pantry, Bakewell Over the period of many years, decades, actually, His Nibs and I have eaten and/or drunk at The Wheatsheaf Pub and Pantry in Bakewell. It has been the best part of a year since Read The Article | |
| Sunday Lunch At The Barrel Inn, Bretton I don't care what anyone says, when the suns shining, there's no place more beautiful in the world than Derbyshire. With it being forecast to be a glorious weekend, The Man had set-to and booked Read The Article | |
| Sunday Lunch At The Prince Of Wales, Baslow It's been a fair while since The Man and I went into the Prince of Wales gastropub in Baslow, but I'm happy to report that nothing has changed since then; the super-friendly team and relaxing Read The Article | |