Many fans of Piccadilly Grill finally have some good news on their side. After closing down last September, the owners of Piccadilly have now opened their new restaurant called Two Olives.
The menu has a similar feel to what you could have found at Piccadilly. Many of the same Mediterranean dishes that were popular there are now available at Two Olives.
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Quick Scoop on Two Olives:
2949 N Rock Road
Wichita, KS 67226
316-681-1100
Open Monday – Saturday 11am – 2pm (Closed on Sunday)
Website: twooliveswichita.com – Menu available online
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TwoOlivesWichita/
Cash/Card Accepted – WiFi Available
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It should be noted that Two Olives is currently in the middle of their “test run” phase. They are tweaking their lunch menu, training the staff and developing a workflow. They do plan to be open for dinner eventually.
My colleagues and I decided to drop in during this test run phase to see how everything was going.
The menu we found online sounded incredibly delicious.
We planned on going earlier but when their opening was delayed; we creepily followed their Facebook page until we found a really good time to go.
Upon walking into Two Olives, we were kindly greeted. Our initial reaction was, “Is this a buffet?” From a distance, it sure looked like it. The greeter eventually told us the place was like a Panera and handed us silverware. Not everybody has been to a Panera so that could leave some people confused. We really didn’t know exactly what to do, whether to seat ourselves or wait. Eventually we just walked up to the counters and looked at each station to see what was going on. That’s when we noticed there was a station where you order and pay for your food.
One of the owners came to us and then finally explained everything. We were given menus to look at, what to do and she gave us all suggestions on what to order. You could see the ingredients that would be included in what you order and kind of see it all being made. That made it much clearer to us all. This is definitely something to work on for the greeter moving forward.
Two people went with the Angie’s Chicken Shawarma Bowl (fattouch, shawarma chicken, hummus, quick pickle, roasted vegetables, mint tahini). Another went with the Garlic Roma pasta bowl (capellini pasta, garlic, roma tomatoes, basil, pine nuts, Calabrian chiles) and added shrimp for $4. I ordered the Lamb Kefta (rice and hashwa, lamb kefta, baba ghanoush, poblano -cilantro slaw, harissa, quick pickle , herbed yogurt dressing).
A co-worker and I also split a large Fattouch Salad that I completely forgot to take a picture of.
We paid for our order at the counter and were given a ticket number. After that, we just picked our own table to sit at.
From the time it took to order our food to the time of delivery, it was a while. None of us kept actual time of it but it was probably over 15 minutes for it to come out based on the total lunch time we spent there.
Everything looked great. Presentation was wonderful. The one major drawback from it all was the portion size of the Garlic Roma pasta bowl. For $12 ($8 for the meal and $4 for the shrimp), the amount of food in the bowl was very miniscule. We all joked how hungry she would be after finishing it. At first glance, she was a little upset that she paid $4 for five pieces of shrimp. She mentioned the dish was very good though. It was subtle on flavors but the pine nuts made for a very nutty, earthy flavor whiel the tomatoes brought a little sweet element. The shrimp were a fairly decent size and was probably the best thing about the pasta; very fresh and delicious. Sadly she noted, the portion size did not leave her satisfied for the price; very underwhelming experience.
The Fattouch Salad we split though was wonderful. She noted it was probably one of the best fattouch’s she’s ever had. The vegetables were incredibly fresh and the pickled vegetables gave it a wonderful zing. It’s one item I would certainly go back for.
My Lamb Kefta was filling, that’s for sure. The Lamb Kefta was cooked just right. It was tender enough to be cut with a fork very easily and didn’t have any gamey taste to it which you can sometimes find in lamb. While I’m a huge carnivore, my favorite part of the meal was actually the poblano-cilantro slaw and roasted eggplant. It was so nice having that in the meal to really compliment the lamb and brown rice.
Both colleagues who ordered the Angie’s Chicken Shawarma Bowl were happy customers. They noted the chicken was flavorful; the amount of chicken they received was a great value. The chicken sat on a Fattouch Salad which included hummus and pita bread. Everything tasted fresh; the quality was very apparent.
After lunch, we saw a dessert case in the corner of our eyes and figured why not try what they had to offer.
They had an assortment of different desserts for $1.75 – $6. Upon much debate, we went with their Lemon Bar, Congo Bar and Brownie. They were nice enough to cut it up for us into smaller pieces to share.
Everybody ranked the three desserts from their favorite to least favorite. Least favorite is actually unfair to say because everyone really enjoyed the desserts. Oddly enough though, everyone also had a different favorite.
One loved the brownie because she’s a huge dark chocolate fan which means the brownie was right up her alley. The lemon bar was incredibly refreshing compared to the other desserts. Meanwhile the congo bar tasted like a cookie cake.
Some takeaways we had from the test run of Two Olives was the food was excellent. From quality to the ingredients in making it all, they really took the time to make sure it was all fantastic.
The service was a little mediocre. There was a bit of confusion and disorder on how to order and what to do upon entering the restaurant. Refills were a bit slow. We all also noticed when we asked for straws one of the servers handed them to us while holding the ends where you sip at; just not a good look.
While some items were priced right like the Shawarma Bowl and Lamb Kefta; the Garlic Roma with shrimp was just too much to spend for what you got. Also one of my coworkers had a pop he spent two dollars on. It came in a thin, semi-tall glass. When he asked for a refill, the server failed to inform him refills weren’t free. The server, after refilling his drink, told him it was 50 cents for a refill but was corrected by another employee. It was $2 for the refill. So he spent $4 for two of these size glasses:
Two Olives definitely has some things to work on but one area that they have down already is the food. We can all see ourselves going here for lunch again since it’s in great proximity to where we work. If they can get their menu, service and prices adjusted properly, this could be the next five star restaurant in town especially for lunch.
Happy Dining,
Eddy
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