Olio

I enjoyed my meal when I went earlier this year, though it was a bit pricey.
I was on their email list, and I received an email telling me that this place closed down about a month ago? I can’t find out why, no mention of it in the email or online that I can find.

Warm summer evening at one of the 4 outside tables. Sea Bass with Yukon potatoes with zucchini mixed in! A rosy shrimp sauce highlighted this dish. My husband ordered lasagna which was prepared so artistically & tasted just as good. Caesar salad was tasty. Not too much dressing. The service was top notch. Water glasses filled regularly. Gave us a sample of the house wine before we ordered. And they checked with us often to see if we were pleased with the meal. No room for dessert this time.
We’re going back again.
6 months later: So bummed that this place closed. We LOVED it. Good luck to the owners and I hope you can re-​open a place again.

What a pleasant and wonderful surprise in the heart of downtown Campbell! I made a last minute reservation for dinner celebrating my mom’s birthday and these guys made our evening a truly enjoyable and memorable one!
Ambiance: relaxed but elegant, beautiful local artists’ works on the walls, open window letting in air and early summer evening light.
Service: friendly, fast, attentive, efficient, seamless. Besides the pleasant personalities of all the people we met working there, they make you feel immediately at home and like a «regular»
Food: Delicious! everything the four of us ordered was fabulous. The menu is not huge which is fine with me, but what they do have on the menu they do REALLY well! I ate the Mussels and the Tuna entrée… loved both. I tasted everyone else’s and was impressed with all the flavors.
Wine: the wine list is very affordable, with more mid-​range bottles than wallet busters. We ordered a bottle of New Zealand SV and it went really well with all the food. Plus it was around $ 40 and great for the price.
They brought a little «birthday» piece of dessert for my mom even though we were all too full to order dessert, it was delicious and a nice touch.
Bottom line, I would easily come back here next time I am dining out in Campbell… if you live down here, you should go and enjoy a really nice evening… you deserve it.

It was Father’s Day dinner and my brother and I decided to take our dad to Olio. It was a chance to eat somewhere new and have a great time while trying different types of food represented by the countries surrounding the Mediterranean.
Since we were quite hungry we ordered several items from the small plates menu, which is served from Sunday thru Thursday from 5−7PM and Friday and Saturday from 5−6PM. We decided upon:
Steamed Mediterranean Mussels w/​Spanish Chorizo, New Potatoes, and Spanish Romesco Sauce ($ 9): Decent amount of mussels, probably ranging from 9 – 12 of them. Flavorful with a tinge of pepperiness and garlic from the romesco sauce. Definitely use the complimentary bread to soak up all that lovely sauce.
Garlic Prawns w/​Lemon Butter Sauce ($ 10): Come on, only 3 prawns on this dish? And they were average size at that. A small, centered mound of mashed potatoes doesn’t bring added value to the dish as well. Dish was nothing spectacular and for the amount of money I think there should be more prawns in this dish.
Porcini Dusted Day Boat Scallops w/​Roasted Pepper Coulis and Cilantro Oil ($ 13): This item actually is from the appetizer menu and not the small plates menu. Scallops are half dollar size in diameter and they were cooked well. We got 4 of them and we wished we could have 4 more. Tender and sweet, these scallops were a hit with all of us.
As for the entrees:
Lamb Trio: Grilled T-​Bone, Marinated Leg Skewer, Merguez Sausage with Garlic Feta Risotto, Broccoli Rabe, and Spicy Red Onion Jam ($ 26): This was my entrée and it was lackluster in my opinion. The grilled T-​bone was a small shank that was mostly bone than meat. I enjoyed the myriad of flavors in the Merguez sausage. The leg skewer came out a little more raw than the medium rare I requested and therefore a little chewy.
I didn’t get to try any of the other entrees but my brother ordered the Grilled Rosemary Ribeye Steak w/​Fingerling Potatoes, Blue Lake Beans, Balsamic Pancetta Demi Glacé ($ 26), in which the portion sized was grand and he remarked that he enjoyed the sweet tangy glaze on the steak. My dad had the Paella Valenciana, composed of prawns, clams, mussels, Portuguese sausage, marinated chicken, and saffron rice ($ 26), which was also generous in its portion size. He enjoyed all the flavors and the bountiful amounts of seafood. Both of them had to bring the leftovers home.
For dessert:
Banana Brioche Bread Pudding ($ 8): I had my eye on this dessert ever since I saw it on the website. The bread pudding comes out as this large cube on the plate. Crusty on the outside and custardy on the inside with dark chocolate intermingling throughout. There’s a half slice of a brulee’d banana sitting atop it and a scoop of marvelous dulce de leche gelato. Simply delicious and I would order it again many times over.
My dad and brother decided upon the Crème Brulee ($ 8), in which they said was a good, solid dessert. They both finished it so I have to believe it was.
Service was wonderful and very attentive, making sure everything was fine with our food. The ambiance was open and casual with portraits of various cities of the Mediterranean adorning the walls. I can only give Olio 3.5 stars based on this experience but I will come back to give it another shot, and especially to try that paella.

I think I somehow expected more from Olio. For years Id set on going here and for some reason never got around to it. The space is beautiful and it’s part of the Renaissance Campbell has gone through ever since I left working in the area. Had the porcini day boat scallops which were really good but the fish special wasn’t as exciting. My initial glass of wine seemed to have sediment in it and after notifying the server, he switched out the glass and still, it had sediment in it. Oh well, I got very good with using my butter knife to fish said sediment out. Now there are a lot of other reviewers here that have give the place high marks so Im hoping they just had an off night. If one of them took me here on a return trip, I’d be willing to five it another shot. 3.25 stars

Attentive service. Too bad food was sub-​par. The only decent food I found tonight were the house bread and the roasted garlic dip, which were complimentary (and no, they were not good BECAUSE they were complimentary).
I ordered a series of small plates: Asparagus soup, Mediterranean Dips, Steamed Mediterranean Mussels with Spanish Chorizo (amongst other things), Marinated Black Mission Fig, Braised Lamb Riblets and Pan Toasted Bococcini.
In short, what the hell! Food were a series of disasters! Not seasoned at all, then salty, unauthentic. None of the natural flavors of the ingredients came through because the sauces were so heavily salted… It was a big waste of my money.
As friendly as the service is and as good of a location this place is at downtown Campbell, if they can’t get the food right, I will not be wasting my money.

Olio is a local neighborhood restaurant with the quality and service of a Michelin-​starred restaurant and without the snootiness nor the pompousness. Perfect spot for a special occasions such as one we just had this evening — a key client contact was promoted to VP and to celebrate her promotion we have promised to take her out.
I picked downtown Campbell because the said (now) VP loves downtown Campbell so much that the vendors at the Sunday Campbell farmers’ market know her by name and the local Starbucks barista made a comment when she did not make an appearance for a period of time. I picked Olio because I’m always curious of this little restaurant that gives out the elegant-​yet-​casual-​enough-​to-​not-​be-​intimidating vibe.
«Excellent choice — Olio is one of my favorite restaurants, I even know the owner!» said the VP when I informed her of the venue. From that point on, I knew the dinner was going to be a hit.
And it was.
As a starter, we had the tzaziki (fresh cucumber yogurt), hummus and babaganouj (mashed eggplant) dips with pita bread (to share), crumbed fried calamari (also to share) and a few of us had the soup du jour, cream of broccoli, with foccacia bread to mop it up with.
The variety of entrée came marching out of the open kitchen. I had a toss-​up between seafood paella and herb-​roasted lamb sirloin with creamy risotto and spinach; chose the latter; had a semi-​food-​envy when my colleague ended up ordering the paella; and quickly got over it when I tucked into the juicy lamb (perfectly cooked medium rare).
Then along came dessert — my favorite part of the dinner. We were unable to choose so three of us shared the apple tart with vanilla bean ice-​cream and the crème brûlée. The crème brûlée was, well, crème brûlée, and the apple tart was heavenly, although not nearly as good-​looking as the chocolate lava cake or the banana bread pudding, both of which came with their own scoop of gelato.
For me, Olio is a perfect reminder why I’m always in support of local business.

Olio has proven to be an exceptional experience. On our return visit we enjoyed a feast that started with succulent mussels swimming in a Romesco sauce that is perfect for dipping and also a simple but delicious scallops appetizer. If your ingredients are high quality, as were the day boat scallops, you do not need a lot of pretention to mask the natural flavors. The entrees that followed were a perfectly cooked medium-​rare ribeye, a tender duck with crispy skin on the outside and moist meat on the inside. The figs paired well with the roastiness of the duck. The lamb was good. I would recommend medium-​rare since the medium was a bit overcooked. Dessert was highlighted by a not overly sweet banana bread pudding and chocolate cake that succeeded in taste and presentation.
I really appreciate the efforts that Olio’s owner has taken to raise the culinary bar in Campbell. She has created a fine dining experience within the setting of a quaint neighborhood restaurant. It’s the type of restaurant that you want to keep a secret, but it really deserves public accolades.

Had a great dinner there last night; saw their ad in Metro for a $ 25 prix fixe Sunday supper. Started with a black mission figs and prosciutto appetizer, which was sweet and delicious. (The free bread with olive oil/​vinegar, sweet chili paste, and garlic clove topping selection is amazing too, as well as being fresh and warm.) The prix fixe meal included an appetizer of clams in a light tomato/​oil sauce, cream of spinach soup, and a whitefish with mashed potatoes and spinach. All were delicious, and I left feeling very full. (Other options were an eggplant/​hummus plate, caesar salad, and lamb riblets.)
Olio was truly a great find and a good deal. My only issue was with the staff’s so-​so knowledge of the menu, as I was not familiar with the type of fish and it would have been nice to know a little more before I decided.

I came here with my boyfriend for a special occasion dinner. I made our reservation on
and the next morning at 11am I received a call from the hostess confirming our reservations. She wanted to make sure our special occasion was an anniversary dinner which I had noted that in the comments section of the website. She was very sweet and pleasant. Even asked us if this was our first time dining at Olio’s, which it was.
We arrived that evening met the same hostess who I had spoke to earlier in the morning. She was very pleasant and sweet. The table she had saved for us was right next to the window. Which I loved. The restaurant is pretty small but the décor is very simple, warm yet comfortable at the same time. I like the open kitchen. As I sat down she placed the napkin in my lap. Classy. :) She asked us if we wanted sparkling water or regular water. We chose sparkling. Then asked if we wanted lemon or lime with our sparling water.
Let me just cut to the chase on the service we received at this restaurant. EXCELLENT! The hostess, server, chef, and help were A++ in our books. Very attentive and accommodating.
The presentation was very attractive and the taste of the food was definitely dancing on my taste buds. I enjoyed everything and surprisingly fulfilling.
We noticed there were heated lamps outside and would be nice to sit on the patio on a nice summer evening.
In all the hostest, server and busboys were very accommodating & professional.
When the bill came we expected the meal to cost around $ 100 but we were stunned when it was almost half that.
Definitely coming back again!

A very nice find in downtown Campbell. However, I really struggle to see how this is a mediterranean place? Carrot-​ginger soup, duck confit, lasagana, paella — c’mon seriously? I would label this as a hybrid American-​Italian place with some mediterranean influences.
So other than the mislabeling, we had a good experience — very friendly and efficient wait staff with attention to detail, they even addressed me by name as we left after noting it off my credit card when we paid.
The carrot-​ginger soup could have been a little more gingery. The lasagna was decent. The best was the duck — a combination of a leg slow cooked in it’s own juices — which just melted off the bone; And some braised breast — cooked perfectly.
Will go back — there were some very interesting other offerings on the menu which seem worth trying, though for veggies the lasagna was the only option.

Four of us stopped by for dinner on Sunday night, which may be the best night to stop by since they have both the small plates (until 7p) and Sunday dinner (appetizer, soup v. salad, entrée for $ 25).
We ordered two dinners and a bunch of small plates. The cheese plate is good (if you like cheese, that is) with 3 different types, ranging from dry to creamy. The Mediterranean dipping sauces were possibly my favorite part of the meal, with baba ghanoush, hummus and tzatziki accompanied by small pita slices — more pita slices would’ve been nice. The lentil soup was also pretty good and surprisingly hearty.
The Moroccan carrots were a little boring and while the garlic prawns were fairly large, it sucked that there were only 3 of them for the 4 of us. The calamari was ok, though not terribly crispy as others have noted.
The salmon entrée was good — not too dry — and the mashed potatoes and spinach were a nice touch.
It’s not cheap, but the staff are very friendly and very on top of refilling water. I’m a little torn how to rate this place… Some of the dishes are really good, while others are just mediocre. Not a place I’d necessarily frequent, but nice for special occasions.

We recently tried Olio since I won gift certificates to eat here. You can book on Opentable and if you eat early you can get 1,000 pts easy.
Service was Great. Food I thought was just ok. Kitchen is open so you can see them working. There’s a patio out front of the restaurant.
FREE focaccia bread is Awesome. Not greasy, crispy top, light bread. Trio of dips for the bread: Sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic cloves, & olive oil & balsamic vinegar all good.
Small plate of mussels $ 9– very tasty w/​a good sauce
Lamb riblets $ 9 — meat was ok, sauce too sweet
Grilled Pork Loin Chop Stuffed w/​Gorgonzola & Almonds
$ 23 On Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes, Braised Greens, Mission Fig Demi Glacé — I didn’t like the pork chop that much — too dry, stuffing I didn’t like the big almonds. better to chop them up! Braised lettuce — didn’t eat but didn’t like the look of it — just a huge looking romaine lettuce grilled.
B. got the swordfish special $ 27– fish was better then pork chop w/​polenta & asparagus.
Dessert we tried was Bliss $ 7 — vanilla ice cream w/​peanuts & chocolate w/​graham cracker crust. I liked it.
Stick to the seafood here.
Bathrooms: Separate in the back left side.

On the Expensive side, so save this place for a special occasion. The dinners are unbelievably good with large size portions (considering that expensive food usually has very small entrees).
A friendly hostess warmly greeted us at the door.
Soft, spongy bread with a tasty sweet balsalmic– olive oil vinegrette for dipping.
3 Flavors of Hummus with pita bread for dipping… good but pricey.
The spinach salad was sweetly delicious, but everyone liked the Organic Baby Field lettuce salad better (refreshing dressing that tastes like homemade strawberry ice cream).
My Father-​in-​law (fellow foodie) savored his duck confit (duck simmered in it’s only juices and drippings) with couscous.
My step– mother-​in-​law stated that the Paella Valencia reminded her of the paella in Spain.
My husband’s Grilled Rosemary Ribeye Steak was a rich cut of meat in a delicious demi glacé sauce.
I thought the Tunisian Marinated Ahi Tuna was more like sushi on a Cilantro purée… not very marinated tuna, but I still enjoyed the seared rare Ahi.
I would recommend skipping the desserts since neither the warm apple pie nor the sorbets were very good.

I enjoyed a very pleasant dinner here the other night. The bread they brought out with to start is delicious (though entirely unnecessary in light of what we ordered)!
Appetizers: caprese salad and Mediterranean dipping sauces, which were both excellent though I sort of preferred the bread to the pita they brought out with the dipping sauces.
Main courses: my friend ordered the paella, which she said was really good and the portion was large. I got the grilled pork loin chop stuffed with gorgonzola and almonds. The flavors of the cheese, almonds and figs went really well together and the pork chop was cooked well.
Dessert: Banana brioche bread pudding and apple tart. The bread pudding was excellent, and the apple tart was just okay.
The service was also helpful and attentive — our server helped us through many a difficult decision throughout the meal from wine to dessert.

I always feel like food always tastes better when you eat it outside.
On a perfect Thursday evening, while the sun was slowly going down and the air was still warm, my boyfriend surprised me with, «I made dinner reservations. Stay in your work clothes, I’ll pick you up.»
The bigger surprise was turning down Campbell Avenue for this dinner night. The delight of the evening was ending up at Olio.
There were four tables on their patio and a lazy Campbell evening to our backs as we enjoyed caprese, lamb and ribeye. His lamb was served with potato lakes and tomatoes — I liked it, but it wasn’t as enjoyable as Kabul, by report. My ribeye was heavily marbleized, flavorful and served with a fabulous sauce, green beans and baby potatoes.
The service was really what sold this place to me. Highly attentive and detail-​oriented, our waiter noticed that I liked a lot of pepper and he catered to that whim; generously cracking pepper over my caprese. Water was always full and dessert was an incredible temptation, not a pushy sell (I, however, didn’t leave enough room for what promised to be a savory crème brulle).
Olio’s Mediterranean Cuisine has lots of Italian influence and is worth every penny. The ambiance is spectacular and the smile literally never left my face.

Absolutely wonderful service. I love a family run operation. Hubby and I stay in Campbell when we travel to San Jose on a quite frequent basis so I really enjoy eating and supporting independent places like this one. Our food was delicious — I had gnocci and hubby had paella. Perfectly prepared. Great wines. Overall though, the superb service is what I remember foremost!

Eating there on a Friday evening with a 7:30 seating — there weren’t as many folks as I would have expected, but I understand this economy hasn’t been gentle with the restaurants.
The staff was wonderful, checking on us frequently, making good suggestions for food choices and generally very friendly.
From the bread and dips to our soup and appetizers, then our main courses and finally dessert and coffee the food was all delicious and beautifully presented. My pan seared scallops were hot and tasty — obviously fresh, not frozen.
The staff even called us after we left to let us know we’d left our card behind — thoughful and helpful to the end.

Vivian «Loves Bacon» is back! After months of hiatus, I am ready to write again about my passion for food. :)
My friend Leza B highly recommended Olio and it definitely did not disappoint. We walked in on a Friday night around 9pm and the restaurant was half full. The servers were very attentive and the atmosphere was perfect.
Before your meal, you are given bread with a platter of roasted garlic cloves, sundried tomato paste, and an olive oil/​balsamic combination to accompany the bread.
I ordered the Grilled Flat Iron Steak entrée for dinner. The meal took a while to come out, but it was definitely worth the wait! My steak was cooked perfectly (medium, as I requested) and full of flavor. The steak comes with rosemary roasted potatoes, toybox mushrooms, cipolline onion rings, and spinach.
I wish I had been hungrier because I really wanted to try one of their salads and desserts. I will definitely return to Olio for dinner! It is a perfect place to come with your friends or on a date. They even have outdoor seating for warm evenings.

Pretty pricey, especially with wine… our tab got outta control… but we enjoyed ourselves nonethless. Bistro style restaurant with interesting art, nice glassware, lovely Cal-​Med (Spain, Morocco, Italy) food, a decent wine list and a small wine bar seating area. Service was prompt, helpful and friendly and the staff seems very down to earth.
We started with a glass of J Brut Rose, and tried the lamb kabob appetizer with tabbouleh salad. Fresh, great flavor, not at all gamey… the tabbouleh was mostly delicious parsley… very authentic. Everything on the menu looked terrific but we settled on the halibut with chorizo and potatoes in romesco sauce and the chicken, seafood and sausage paella.
I love paella and I haven’t had it in forever. I found the flavor of the moist rice itself to be fantastic but unfortunately I felt that the seafood was overcooked and the top of the entire dish was a bit dry. I can’t help but wonder if they finished off the dish in the oven.
The halibut, however, was very moist with a perfectly seared crust. A great dish. There was a lot of great sauce leftover so don’t fill up on their fluffy house made foccacia bread beforehand. Save a little to dip here.
For dessert we chose the strawberry shortcake which came on real shortbread. That was a very pleasant surprise… as was the use of wild sage in the maceration. We could have used more strawberries, however…
My only tip is to try not to sit along the wall, in the long narrow part of the restaurant that leads from the front door to the restrooms if you can help it. On a busy night there is *a lot* of traffic from the staff in this section.
It is the only way for them to get to the kitchen (which is nice and open and fun to watch) so it’s understandable… but it’s still kind of a bummer. If you don’t have much of a choice, sit as far forward as you can, near the hostess area as possible.
Also, if you are out of town… be aware that the first Friday of every month is «First Friday» in downtown Campbell, which is a fun event with classic cars, live bands and LOTS of people walking around. Plan ahead to be able to find parking and get to your destination in a timely manner.