Restaurant review:
Olive Café and Food Store

by Nicholas Jain, posted Feb. 9, 2010

Walking into the Olive Café is not a foreign experience. Unlike many ethnic eateries, it does not try too hard to fulfill stereotypes. Of course, there’s Arabic signage in the windows, but no tacky decorations that tend to reinforce the theme of most cultural cuisines. The atmosphere is quiet while the occasional shout of an order and Top 40 radio sound from the kitchen. Al Jazeera, a Middle Eastern news network, is on a television in the corner loud enough to hear and watch while waiting for food. The crowd seems to be the same, mostly progressive, crowd that frequented the building when it housed Café Berlin. 

The Olive Café and Food Store, located at the corner of Providence Road and Walnut Street, opened three months ago and specializes in Middle Eastern cuisine. The service is friendly and casual as customers order at the counter and grab their drinks from a reach-in cooler before finding a seat. The restaurant offers lamb and chicken kabob plates, hummus with gyro or chicken meat, falafel and other Middle Eastern specialties. The pita and other baked goods come from a bakery the owner of the café owns in Kansas City, Mo. The store offers cheeses, meats, chickpeas and other staples used in Middle Eastern cooking.

Everything served or sold at the Olive Café is halal, an Arabic word meaning in accordance with Muslim dietary rules. According to the manager, Ayman Harb, the Olive Café is currently the only completely halal restaurant in Columbia. Harb is originally from Jerusalem. Harb says that most people don’t come to the restaurant for halal reasons, instead, they come just because they like the food. The kabob and hummus plates are the most popular items on the menu. He says that the Olive Café’s menu reflects the most popular Middle Eastern foods. Harb says the food he serves is similar to the food that people in and from Middle East cook and eat at home.

In the Middle East, falafel, a fried patty formed with chickpeas, is a popular meal for breakfast and dinner and people often eat kabobs for lunch.

The gyro with hummus is a generous portion of fresh but bland chopped gyro surrounded by a ring of rich hummus. The halal gyro meat is a combination of lamb and beef and has less fat than Mediterranean gyro meat.

Harb said that everything is “fresh, and made from scratch.” The hummus requires two days of preparation before the restaurant makes it. The well-spiced falafel is light and tasty. Harb noted that they use fresh chickpeas, which is important because canned chickpeas take on a sour odor. The kabob plate is tough-to-chew lamb or chicken patties over a bed of rice with vegetables.

Olive Café and Food Store is a great option for those who follow halal restrictions and is a good choice for someone wanting to experience Middle Eastern cuisine in middle Missouri.

It is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The kitchen closes at 8 p.m. every night. Dinner plates are $9 to $12. Salads, hummus plates, and sandwiches are $5 to $8,

{back to homepage}