Sunday, March 14, 2010

Olives - Union Square W Hotel

This weekend was our second go-round at Olives, the restaurant in the W hotel in Union Square, a Todd English joint. Not many people know that this place serves good food, since many people come just for the bar and the atmosphere. It really is a wonderful dining experience, especially at the tables with the curtains around them - it's very intimate and the service is great.To start off, the dirty martinis are great - nice, big chilled glasses. Their olive spreads and bread basket are quite tasty too.

We started off with three appetizers to share - the fig & prosciutto flatbread, the beet salad and the small portion of the butternut squash ravioli (3 pieces versus 6 for the entree). The flatbread (pictured) was great, the figs and salty prosciutto play well off of each other. The beet salad was better the first time around. The ravioli is wonderful and two people in our party got it for their main dish. It's savory and delicious.We both got the scallops for our entree - the dish is a masterpiece both in appearance and taste. Three scallops - cooked through to perfection & browned on the outside - come on a thin layer of whipped sweet potato. There is quinoa and some crunchy oat pieces on the plate as well, accompanied by the outer layers of b-sprouts. When you put the pieces together, it is the perfect scallop bite. We were fortunate to have a lot of these bites!

Those who had the ravioli as their entree thoroughly enjoyed their dishes. On the side we got the spicy broccoli (a side of another entree but they let you order it for the table) because we had heard that it was "the best thing I ever ate" on the Food Network... Not true in our opinions! It was very average, as was the carrots side we ordered.

Since we were celebrating a birthday, we got two desserts to share. The apple crisp (which is a different version of the dish) and the liquid snickers (pictured) - both were great for a few bites each & satisfied our sweet tooth. If we had to pick one to get again it would be the liquid snickers since it was a deconstructed twist on snickers. To finish you off, they give you a mini lemon cupcake surprise, which was good, but not necessary.

All in all, a great meal! We left feeling full but not weighed down. We love this place and will definitely come back!

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