Fig & Olive (VivoCity)

One of my worst meals ever. Was hungry and looking forward to a late lunch. First halal outlet we saw at Vivo was F & O. The last time I had their food was aeons ago at Bencoolen St when they first opened, it was bad and haven't tried it since. My wife suggested giving it another try, per chance they may have improved. Unfortunately, they haven't after all these years. Rubbish food at inflated prices and I do not mind paying for good food!

Right from the drinks to the main course - everything was sub-standard. 

1. The iced mint tea was diluted. 

2. The steak - one of the worst I've ever had in my life. Two thin slices?? I asked for medium and one was so thin it came out well done. The other was full of fat and gristles, it wasn't edible. Could hardly chew it. Gave up after having less than half, some of the fries were hard. I wasted my meal - my time, money and calories!! I could have had a much better meal elsewhere. Restaurants like these SHOULD NOT exist. Al Majlis (Cafe le Caire) serves TOP QUALITY meats are cheaper prices. The owners, managers and 'chefs' of this restaurant should take a leaf or two from better establishments.

Never again will I step into F & O, not even if I'm stranded in a desert with no other restaurants in sight!

We waited to be seated for quite some time before their staff approached us. We were given the outdoor seat which was pretty stuffy. But oh well we sat anyway.

While we were placing our orders, my dad who wanted a cup of cafe latte, was told that they were having problems with the coffee machine. And so he settled with a cup of tea instead. But that wasn't the only disappointment for the night.

Our food arrived decent-looking but looks can be deceiving. As we tucked into our food, it was COLD! 2 out of the 4 meals we've ordered were cold when it's supposed to be GRILLED. And cold as in 'just out of the fridge' cold. Think cold KEBABS and COLD chicken with pasta. We asked the waiter about it and he looked just as surprised. He offered to heat it up, but no apologies were uttered.

Ate their cold, tasteless food, paid the bill (total waste of money) and left in disgust. Like they would even realise we've left.

 

They almost always have one-for-one, and they had better do because I doubt anyone in the right state would wanna pay the normal price for their food.

I tried them once because I was drawn to the offer. The food was horrible. Very small portions. Unappetizing. Struggled to finish the pastas we ordered. But it was only like $5 per plate and we got proper seats and service. What's there to complain?

Will never go there again. Anything tastes better. For $5 I can get a yummy meal at Burger King or Macdonald's, or even just Bread Talk buns.

Service:

 Utensils came after

food, bill came before our desserts are served. They failed to give attention

to the customers sitting outside (which is us). Our desserts were not served

when we had finished our meal for quite a while. When we requested for chilli,

they simply ignored.  They even get our

order wrongly and we waited quite a while for our food to be served. Though one

of the staff is friendly, overall… Fail… Oh, this is the first time I heard

that discount cannot be given to the food that are eligible for discount when

they are in the same receipt with the promo items. This gives Café Cartel

double thumbs up! (Unfortunately, they are not Halal)

Food:

A little too expensive even if the food is on promotion:  $19.90 per meal that includes a main dish, one

drink and a scoop of ice-cream (taste like Wall’s). I tasted Zafira Zaytoon Set

which is supposed to be medium well, it tasted more like well-done… hard and

dry. Maghribi Chicken Set tasted like tomato chicken with a little bit of spice…

the chicken, again, is dry. Grill Dory Mushroom Set tasted slightly better. It

tasted like grilled Dory covered with Cream of Mushroom. Do not look forward to

their ice-cream. Figo Tapas (like a fried, crispy platter) is way too expensive

when one of the snacks is actually toast or sliced French loaf with tomatoes.

Pathetic yet expensive food.

Go again? HIGHLY UNLIKELY!

had lunch here just now. i ordered chicken pesto carbonara with olive rice.mum ordered bbq chix w olive rice, dad had chix kebab wrap. asked for 1 iced water and 2 warm water. the trainee waitress was v pleasant. one of the waiter, whose nametag says 'svc crew' was rather irritating. we were seated near the kitchen, and he was wiping the cutlery clean, but instead of putting them down gently after the clean, he threw them, so i keep hearing cutlery hitting cutlery sound. the tinkling sound rilli irritated me. smmore my parents were served iced water instead of the warm water we requested. perhaps they just serve ice water to everyone, i dunno. the sweet malay trainee brought over the warm water ltr. and my dad was rather amused cuz he tot they forgot bt our specific request for one iced and two warm water.

dad's chix kebab wrap is nice and he likes it. the chix is flavourful. when my order arrived, was pretty disappointed they got my order wrong. i wanted olive rice but they gave me spaghetti. but nvm. cuz i tot the spaghetti is nice. i love al dente spaghetti and i dun like watery sauce (pastamania) to go with my pasta. the chicken is yummy, the amt of cheese on the chicken is generous. the potatoes at the side is yummy and of right texture,well-cooked. i love how all the flavours go so well tgt. tried my mum's olive rice and i  feel glad they got my order wrong. spaghetti is much nicer.

yumz. all of us were very satisfied with the dishes.

theres a 1-for-1 promotion for a certain category in the menu.

o, they took quite sm time before they bothered to entertain us at the entrance of the restaurant. minus points there.

First of all, I went there with my friends for dinner, and we were seated at the Al Fresco seats. Just beside us was the glass panel and we could see the behind-the-scenes of the restaurant. We could see the kitchen through the window where they hand out the food.

1. My friend ordered Hot Strawberry Fruit Tea, and my sister ordered Blueberry Fruit Tea and I ordered Mango Fruit Tea. The waiter thought my friend wanted the Cold strawberry tea but my friend clarified her order TWICE. In the end, all teas served were cold and all 4 of us tried the 3 glasses of tea and could not make out any difference between the three. They all tasted similar though the Mango one was a little more distinctive.

2. I ordered Chicken in pesto sauce with carbonara pasta. The moment it came, i could smell the distinctive smell of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup taste. Yeap, they used it as the carbonara sauce. It is just the thicker version. The pasta was also undercooked. My friends ordered Kebabs and the wrap was tough and difficult to cut. But taste was alright.

All in all, I was disappointed as it was our first time dining at Fig & Olive. I hope they will at least use proper carbonara sauce...

It is so difficult to get halal mediterranean food. Thank you Fig & Olive  This is not my first time in this restaurant. I have been their regular customer and I like their food.

One of my favourite is the chicken magribi dish and of course the sandwiches and kebabs. They also have the nice cornbeef melted cheese potato, is my favourite for the past more then 5 years.

I am always coming back and the food is really delicious to my tasting. My family and friends enjoy their food. I will definitely come back for more. 

Mohamad Amin

Had lunch with my family and felt embarassed taking them there. Low quality food and poor service.

The food was not heated properly and ingredients were not fresh.

When I saw this place, I thought "Oh boy, yet another generic western restaurant in a mall."  However, a couple of friends recommended we eat there and we tried it out.  To be honest, I didn't have high hopes but the food was much, much better than I expected. 

It should be noted, however, that we ate here after hiking along the Southern Ridges Trail so were pretty famished by the time we started eating.  So while my hunger may have affected my impressions of Fig and Olive, my friends cite this Fig and Olive (the one in Vivo City in particular) as one of their regular eating spots and now I can see why.

this has to be the worst meal i had this year.

my boyfriend and i were catching a show at vivo and we didn't have much time for dinner. so we went into fig and olive since it was near GV. plus, it was empty at that time (for a good reason which now i know), so our food shouldn't take long.

the restaurant reminds me of the arcade, where the place is badly ventilated and the smell of cooking is trapped in the place. a side point, whenever i sneak away from work to get coffee from the arcade, my colleagues will also know, cos i come back with the arcade's smell (of years of cooking trapped in the building) on me. so, to go into a restaurant that's like that is already really gross in the first place.

but, the food tops that.

let's start with the only vaguely decent tasting item that we ordered:

[i don't remember the names of the dishes so i'm just going to describe them]

1. some meat thingy on slices of baguette and melted cheese on top

this was the nicest thing we ordered, in comparison.

my boyfriend ordered this because it reminded him of this little snack that i would make for him and some friends, with corned beef and cheese.

the taste was ok.

my only gripe is that the cheese was only slightly melted and not browned.

they must have toasted it at too low a temperature and for too short a time.

2. baked potato with bacon bits

i despise restaurants that use fake bacon bits -- the kind that resembles the bits of the running track. seriously, if you don't want to buy fresh bacon and cook it yourself, the least you can do is to get REAL fried bacon bits in a bottle.

3. mushroom soup

this soup was complimentary. it came with my pasta

it was so obviously from a can, but i don't blame restaurants that use canned mushroom soup. however, i would expect restaurants to do their part, even if they use ready-made mushroom soup. this soup was lumpy... imagine this, you use the campbell mushroom soup and do not stir it properly, so you leave lumps of "unmixed soup" in it.

4. creamy mushroom pasta

THIS IS THE WORST.

it made me so angry i wanted to speak to the chef.

picture this, you open a can of mushroom soup, put it in a bowl. boil some shitake mushrooms and then chop them into little bits. add the diced mushrooms to the soup mix and mix well. take some pasta and boil it. drain the water and put it in a serving plate. next, pour your mushroom soup mix onto the pasta. garnish with some finely chopped greens. serve!

that was what my pasta was like.

how can any chef serve such rubbish and hope to pass it off as food.

i wanted to send it back and get the chef to eat it himself, but my boyfriend restrained me and actually made himself finish my whole plate of pasta. OMGoodness!

i will never ever go back there to eat!!