Cafe Oliv

I have written good reviews about this place initially but these are just matters of the past.

my recent patronage to cafe oliv has been horrid.

particularly one where i purchased a deal voucher online which promises "wagyu ribeye" for $29 and the original price is $69.90. I redeemed it on my visit on 7th April but bought it 2 - 3 months ago. I redeemed it on the last day of expiry.

when the steak was served, I got the shock of my life. this. is. not. ribeye.

ribeye steak has a distinct shape and distinct distribution of fats. the piece I was served only had fats at 1 side, which looks a lot like rump/sirloin.

there were 2 staff. I'm a regular at cafe oliv and one of the staff i recognise has been there since i first visited 2 years ago and has always been there on my perhaps, 10 visits. she is never in uniform so I suppose she is of some status there.

i questioned the staff but she just went on to say "no not ribeye it's wagyu!"

we steak lovers all know that wagyu is the type of cattle. ribeye/sirloin/rump refers to where the meat is from, within the same cattle. I was baffled with her reasoning and I didn't know how to respond to that because she keeps insisting it is "wagyu steak" when my concern is that I was not served the ribeye cut of the wagyu. 

I am very certain that I was not given a ribeye steak and as so disappointed. As a steak lover I am very particular about my steak and do not eat inferior cuts. I did not take pictures because I only take pictures of good food.

I felt so cheated mostly because I was disappointed we could not get a juicy fatty rib eye steak and was served something like a sirloin/rump instead. A secondary concern was that if it isn't ribeye, it is overpriced. In fact, even if it was cheap I would never have purchased it if it is not rib eye because the only cut of steak i like no matter from what cow, is ribeye. it is very deceiving.

I attempted to contact the deal company to complain about this matter but the customer service officer isn't helping on my side. He inisist that since I did not take picture there's nothing he can do for me, and he said that the merchant claims to serve wagyu ribeye. I initially thought it was misintepretation on their advertisement but now it seems that it's possible that Cafe Oliv has changed their source of beef.

A few reviews down, fourleggedfoodies apparently had the wagyu deal for $29 as well and judging from thier pictures which was taken 2 months before my visit, their wagyu ribeye looks totally different from the one served to me recently.

therefore I suspect that they have since changed their suply of wagyu steak to something that is non ribeye and is inferior to what was offered previously.

To support my belief, I saw on another deal website that sold the voucher recently, rthat the original price for "wagyu steak" is now $40.50, not $69.90. In thier cafe now, the wagyu steak in a set now cost $49.90. Thus it is likely that they use some lousier beef now, and I happened to be served that lousier beef even though my entitlement was for a good wagyu ribeye like what fourleggedfoodies had.

moral of the story: always claim your deal voucher the moment you buy it. they could change their supply of meat anytime.

I would also like to add that I used to love thier angus ribeye steak but I had it 3 weeks ago and the standard has fallen tremendously. The size of the meat was also not as it was previously. As I said, I've been there probably 10 times and ordered angus ribeye steak on every occassion (either my dining partner or me) and so I am very familiar with what to expect. thier Angus ribeye now is not the same as before.

I would not recommend this place anymore.

 

 

I bought 2 coupons from DEAL. Went to dine just now. Food taste good. We ordered more food and after finishing the food, we stood up and prepared to leave. We had forgotten to pay the extra food we have ordered. Guess what?

One of the Aunty there who I guessed is the mother of the cafe shouted 'eh! You forget to pay!!' seriously, they could remind us in the first place or inform us in a  nice manner. Imagine when she shouted, everyone was looking.

Was actually planning to return for the food but this totally turn us off. Never return again.

Just had the Kurobuta Pork Steak for dinner and find the serving too small and overall too salty. Also tried the highly recommended brownie with ice-cream and find it just plain normal... Speaking of which, I have no idea what's the big deal about the food here. I agree its food is decent and price is reasonable, but nothing fantastic...

For more reviews and photos check out fourleggedfoodies!

Tempted by a $29 voucher for a Wagyu main (!!!), we made our way to the east side to locate Cafe Oliv near Upper East Coast. 

What kinda cheesed me off was discovering a few days after using the voucher that there was another deal that offered the complete set (albeit not Wagyu but Angus, but the whole set was on offer for $15 when our Wagyu main alone was $30)  for a better price. Pah!

After a fair bit of wait (despite the not-very-packed -ness) our meal finally arrived. The ribeye was visibly rather fatty, and at medium rare was really tender - I thought this was a really decadent and juicy piece of steak! Came with some wedges and summer vegetables.

This was the only item we tried and so our review and opinion is very limited. However from observation the sets seem to be very popular (and they are quite inexpensive too, don't need a voucher lol), as was dessert (the mudpie in particular kept coming out of the kitchen). $69.90 regular price for the Wagyu set with this as the main, wouldn't be that worth it considering what else $69++ can get you elsewhere.

Went there on 4/2/12 Sat for lunch. The place is quiet during the noon, there are only 2 groups of people in the restaurant when I reached there. Had Angus Ribeye steak, 1 dozen of Escargot and Guo tie there. Order the ribeye to be cooked medium, it tastes really tender and easy to chew. The escargot is "de-shelled" and baked with spinach and cheese, it is really nice and I would love to order it again the next time i go there. As for guo tie, it tastes good also but still, I find it weird to be in the western restaurant menu.

Had bought a Streetdeal voucher upon reading the rave reviews here. Was put off by the bad service all the way till the food arrived.

The angus ribeye was tender, juicy and tasty. So was the pasta, with the pink cream sauce I had selected. The pink cream sauce is a self-made cream sauce with tomatoes, and the taste was light and appetizing. With set dinners at $16.90++, food at Cafe Oliv is definitely worth the buck. Set meal came with a cream of mushroom, a brownie and dispensed lemon tea, all of which, met expectations. Although the doneness of both pieces of steak varied from one end to the other, one part was red and the other was well-cooked, we were still alright with it cos it tasted good, and we had subconsciously decided to expect less after getting acquainted with the amateurish service atmosphere.

There were almost as many servers as there were tables, but only one guy seemed to know everything. I presume all the women are mothers/aunts/sisters of the chef. Eager but helpless. The one guy who seemed to know everything didn't have the professionalism of a waiter either. He answered the phone listlessly, and never for once smiled for the whole hour I was there. And no one replaced the utensils, nor the water my children had dropped at the beginning of the meal, meaning they had to drink from their water bottle for the rest of the meal.

It's a small place with big chairs and it's really crammed. I feel that the meal would have been better if the service and ambience were to improve. What a shame. Still worth a try for the value for money good food... Pasta set lunches cost $10.90 on weekdays!

Pictures Here

Tucked along the junction of East Coast Road & Still Road is Cafe Oliv, an eatery serving competently plated western food at wallet friendly prices. The restaurant is headed by Chef-Owner Kevin Heng who graduated from Shatec more than a decade ago. Chef Heng’s love for the food even boils down to the extent that he makes his own dipping sauces, which allows him to tweak the taste and flavor of it to his preference. I chanced upon Cafe Oliv one saturday night, after much hesitation and pondering what to eat around the area. Judging from the astronomical portions from the other tables, my dining partner opted to share a main while we each had separate entrees.

Crab Bisque ($4.50+)

The Crab Bique had a delightful crustacean flavor, making each spoonful more and more tantalizing. At $4.50 a bowl, i have to admit that it was pretty good value. My only gripe would be that the bisque was a little runny for my liking.

Caesar Salad ($8.90+)

The Caesar Salad came which freshly chopped Romaine lettuce, croutons, boiled eggs and charred bacon strips drenched in a classic caesar dressing. While the wedges of lettuce were crisp and refreshing, a salad just tasted like a normal salad, nothing bad but nothing spectacular as well.

Oliv’s Lamb Shank ($21.90+)

The portion size of the mains were certainly massive as the feat of sharing an enormous piece of lamb shank among two already proved to be a daunting task. Slow Braised then glazed with a brown sauce, the lamb shank was braised fork tender without possessing too gamey a flavor lamb usually has. The thick brown sauce ( concentrated chicken stock ) complemented the potatoes and vegetables which were decent.

Brownie with Ice Cream ($6.90+)

The Chocolate Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream are the run of the mill ones you could get in supermarkets, ending of the meal on a sweet note while sipping down a cup of Gourmet Earl Grey Tea ($2.50+)

Verdict: 6/10. Cafe Oliv does serve competent western food at extremely affordable prices, while the warm and homely service made the meal a pleasant one despite some hit and misses. A word of advice: come here for their specialty mains and crab bisque while the rest are worth giving a skip!

I made a reservation for my family to dine at the restaurant at 7.30pm tonight (Friday night). I had purchased some online discount vouchers and had followed the instructions on the vouchers to make the required reservation. 

The restaurant was crowded both inside and out when we arrived. We approached a lady server at the restaurant entrance to tell her we had a reservation. She gave a hassled nod and went into the restaurant...she never came back. After waiting in confusion for a while, we decided to enter the restaurant to find another server. We approached a young male server this time, and informed him we had a 7.30 reservation. He checked the reservation book, then looked up and announced that all the preceding reservations had arrived late, so none of the tables are available yet?! We therefore asked the logical question of how long did we have to wait for our table then. He didn't even bother to answer that inquiry before turning away from us to carry on with whatever other task he had!

We stood around with the rest of the perplexed waiting crowd, watching the weekend dinner chaos which the restaurant was definitely not equipped to handle. From conversations around us we gather we weren't the only customers who had made reservations for dinner but arrived to find that our reservation was not fulfilled. What is the use of requiring reservations to be made then??

It wasn't only the service that was abysmal. Parking around the area was also terrible. There were 5 of us in the dinner party, and we arrived in 3 separate cars. 2 of the cars were unable to get any parking despite circling around for 20min. Since we were completely ignored and the rest of our party could not find parking, we decided to cut our losses at 7.50pm and left for an alternative dinner spot.

This is a really unpleasant 1st impression of the restaurant, if not for the vouchers i'll never return again. Would not have purchased those vouchers if not for the stellar reviews preceding mine on HGW. As the situation stands I'm going to try to get a refund on those vouchers because I really have no interest in trying out the food here. No matter how good the food may be, such poor service will still result in a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. 

I have eaten here a couple of times and both times the food has been excellent.

A bit noisy on the pavement for dining, but inside was no problem at all.

I originally found it whilst diving for cover in a rainstorm, a nice little find!

Their set dinner ($16++) consists of a soup, a main course, dessert and a drink.

I had their mushroom soup, seafood herbed aglio olio, brownie with ice cream and a hot tea.

All items were pretty good, except for the aglio olio which was a tad too dry for my liking. However, the brownie was absolutely to-die for. I tried their brownie a few times so far, and it is definitely the best I've ever tasted. Warmed up and topped with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream, Cafe Oliv's brownie is really the main reason why I would return to the place.

In terms of value, their set dinner scores 10/10. Recommended!