Olive Tree Caffe

In a day of rubber-​stamped chain restaurants, this small, family-​operated restaurant in Petaluma is a treasure. Arriving fairly late, we found the owners were working while their children did homework. The place is beautifully clean and shiny.
The menu is ambitiously large, with both Mideast and American items. The salads with our meals were fresh and had a good variety of ingredients.
My companion and I both had chicken dishes — one roast and one with rice and lentils. Both were delicious. Our less-​adventurous son ordered chicken-​fried steak, which was fine if you like that sort of thing.
Recommended.

I had the chicken fried steak and eggs. They were very good I would recommend this for breakfast. My friend ordered buffalo chicken salad. It to was very good. I like the man that helped us he was very kind. I would come here again

Was looking for a Mediterranean spot in town and this is quite a find.
Ordered the kefta kabob plate. It came with an awesome soup, too.
Very fresh salad and hummus.
I would suggest they simplify the menu and stick to Mediterranean. The existing menu is a bit overwhelming.

Just came back from breakfast and I have to give them a lot of credit. First, the place was spotless with a lot of attention to detail. The sugar caddies and salt and peppers were completely full and wiped clean, this is indicative of place that actually cares.
I had a typical American style breakfast (eggs, bacon etc) and it was good, not great but exactly what you want from a place like this. Service was very good, with frequent coffee refills and follow up to insure both the bacon and eggs were cooked as I had asked. They were.
This place is across the street from 3 Cooks, an absolute dump and about 5 minutes from Denny’s and Pete’s Henny Penny. I can’t comment on the Mediterranean specialties, but for a solid breakfast, this place was very good.

First, this location does have a checkered past, from «Stars» to «Johnny Garlics»; the new owners offer fresh and unique cuisine. Admittedly, the old incarnations were, well, mediocre at best, so it is not fair to compare Olive Tree to what was in the past.
Judging the food alone, I think 4 stars says it best. It is a busy menu, way too big for the size of the place, but having Easter brunch today gave us a varied look at sandwiches, breakfast items, and the like. The «Greek Crêpe» was to die for, 5 stars on its own. Coffee, great, hot, and filled three times. The «loaded potato», ordered by our 16 year old was interesting and eaten down to the skin, high praise indeed by a picky kid. Other dishes, like the fruit salad, were fresh and not skimpy on the ingredients. The Greek sampler plate was huge, and could have fed two people. The «Petaluma sandwich» was good, with fries to share.
Now, getting to the other Unilocal ratings given, such as the 1s and 2s, I don’t get it. One was a rumor, supposedly from a «cook» the Unilocaler «knew» that the food was moldy and had fuzz on it. This seems to be made up of pure BS. I checked with the Sonoma County board of health; this restaurant was inspected just one month ago and there were no, I repeat, no violations of any kind. It that «cook» was accurate, then where is the proof of «mold’ and «fuzz». I think it was a made up story perhaps planted to discredit.
Parking is ample, and no waiting as the premises are huge. Prices are reasonable. I paid for 5 adult breakfasts today, and the total was $ 58. Not bad for an Easter feast.
The waitstaff (including the owner) was attentive and each came by a few times to make sure we were having a good time. We could have stayed in downtown Petaluma at some of the more popular breakfast spots, but I don’t think we would have had as good a time as we did with the Olive Tree. There was no waiting, a bonus when you have just come from a long church service. I support all four and five star ratings for this place, and I say to those giving 1 or 2 stars that you have missed out on a really good place to eat.

Weirdly enough, I agree with all the reviews so far. Let me explain.
I wouldn’t be surprised that the dinners are poorly executed, as opposed to breakfast and lunch. It’s a Mediterranean diner, and their specialties are diner food and Mediterranean food. With so many items on the menu, I ‘d bet the cooks don’t always know how to make all of them.
Which brings me to the owner. Like a lot of family restaurants, they have a hard time keeping help. If the family members can’t do it, it may not get done. One of the waitstaff is awesome, one seemed half asleep. That seems endemic to small restaurants.
ALL THAT said, we went for lunch and had a great meal. Shawrma, burgers, chicken — all was excellent and we had an awesome waitress. Prices are reasonable .
AND the bathroom was fine — clean. toilet works.

We ordered a monte cristo sandwich, eggs Blackstone, a side of hash browns to share and two fountain drinks. All for $ 30.18 before tip. Now all of this would add up to a three star review. But… the bathroom. Clean but they’re too cheap to replace their toilet. Thus, you cannot even flush toilet paper down the toilet. It says toilet in the title. You should be able to flush it, right? Well because someone didn’t flush their «waste» down and the smell made me almost throw up my 15 dollar sandwich! I don’t think I’ll be back, and they better step it up with all of the other choices in Petaluma.

My family and I visited Olive Tree tonight for the first time. My parents like this place for the ribs. Unfortunately, I will not be coming back. The food was average for the price, but the service — ahhh the service was horrible. The waitress did not know the menu (nor the specials), she forgot half of our order, she had no passion — with no sense of urgency. I can’t really fault her too much because it starts with management — or maybe the lack there of. It’s really sad, because this restaurant has the potential to do good business but it needs some fixing: 1) Revamp the Menu (it has too many items), 2) Re-​install passion into the staff, and 3) Show owner presence by personally stopping by each table that is being serviced for quality and service standards.

I give this place 5 stars not because of the food or the service. I give it 5 stars because they were open for us when we were hungry. We had plans for this other restaurant who shall remain nameless because they were closed. We had plans to have breakfast there before we go on our business, but why you would close a restaurant down on a weekday is a stupid reason in my book. Let’s talk about the food. It’s breakfast. It’s nothing too exciting. It’s just boring American breakfast food. We could have gone to Denny’s or IHOP but food is food no matter where you go when you’re hungry.

After living in Petaluma for a good chunk of time and rarely venturing the the «west side» restaurants. my brother and I finally decided to give Olive Tree a try after our Chicago cousins checked it out and made fun of us for never going before.
Anyway, we went on a Saturday morning and it was nice and calm… not all crazy and rushed like Denny’s and other spots along those lines in Petaluma
I ordered a plate of meat (ham, sausage, bacon) with eggs, biscuit, and hashbrowns for like ~$ 9.50 or so and was super impressed by the portions and how great of quality all the food was.
It was ready super quick and was so delicious… best biscuits I’ve had for a while.
Our server Ashley was great as well, very friendly and helpful!
I will be back! Yay for Olive Tree!

My feelings about this café are mixed. On the one hand, the food presentation was spectacular! (see iced tea pic) I ordered a tuna melt on rye with french fries as there is no soup or salad side dish option choice and, as previous reviewers have said, ordering from the a la cart menu is pricey. Fries were unseasoned and bland. Tuna melt was much better and used a swirled rye that was very eye catching. The menu had an amazing variety and was reasonably priced; I believe I paid about $ 8 for my dish. Host (and perhaps owner?) was a very friendly man and appeared grateful for our patronage as we left.
The main drawback and reason for the average rating is that the service was pretty bad. The waitress never ONCE stopped by of her own volition to ask how we were doing; twice we had to ask for either condiments or napkins. Perhaps this MIGHT be overlook if the place was busy, but the reality was quite the opposite: the café was dead when we arrived; only one table had been seated and there were perhaps 20 tables in the place. lol
I’d rate it a C. If you find a coupon; take it and use it. Otherwise, pass or just order to-​go. The service was just too frustrating.

The day after Thanksgiving, we wanted to find a breakfast place nearby. Every place we normally go was either too crowded or not serving breakfast since we didn’t actually drag ourselves out until 11:30. We decided to head north on Pet. Blvd to just find a place and decided to try this place. We were pleasantly surprised at the varied menu, reasonable prices and polite service. The only reason for the 4, instead of 5, star rating is the setting — very diner, not my preference. We ordered a crab cake benedict and an omelet, which came with the standard choice of fruit or potatoes. everything tasted great (and I am picky about my hollandaise). We will definitely go back again.

Was enticed in by their special which was advertised outside — Chicken Shwarma wrap for $ 5.99. Petaluma doesn’t have a lot to offer in the way of Mediterranean food, so we thought we’d give it a try. Bad mistake.
I ordered the beef Shwarma and my companion ordered the chicken Shwarma. Our waitress was friendly and service was good. But then the food came. Two decent looking wraps with sides of hummus and tabouleh.
Their hummus was very likely the worst I’ve ever had. It tasted like refried beans. I’m not kidding. It was so strange; it looked like hummus but it tasted like refritos. And to top it off (literally), they put a black olive from a can on top of it. You know, the kind you get on your burrito in a Tex-​Mex place? Yeah…
And the tabouleh? Well… not worth talking about really. It was watery and flavorless.
Now on to the Shwarma wraps. I’m pretty sure that the meat in mine (beef) was Steak ‘ums. Do you remember that vile sh*t? I had mostly stricken it from my memory until today when it was rudely shoved back into my mind. The grilled onions that they added to the wrap added a little flavor, but I’m pretty sure they were left over from breakfast. They tasted like they’d been grilled with hashbrowns and someone picked the potatoes out before they were added to my wrap. Perhaps that was result of an unclean cooktop? I don’t know — but it did not work well on my so-​called Mediterranean wrap. My companion’s chicken version was a little better, but not much. At least the chicken had flavor.
Normally I am not this scathing with my reviews, but my conscience will not allow me to remain silent. Skip this place.

Horrible. Tried to charge us for a. sandwich that was not good! Then the server had to call her manager so she could comp it. The owner had to interrogate about the sandwich in order for us to get it discounted. Were are not going back… Ever!

We were coming through on a road trip, it was time for a late lunch, and we found ourselves out the Olive Tree Caffe.
The four of us had three salads and the New York Waffle. The service was quick and friendly, the restrooms were tidy, the menu is large and diverse, the portions were good but not huge, which made three of us happy, and the food was great, which made all of us happy.
It’s not fine dining with waiters in tuxes and cherries jubilee finished tableside; it’s not the hot, trendy little dimly lit bistro where hipsters and revolutionaries spend the late nights discussing Marx or Sarte; nor is it a place to pick up six Skippy Burgers, a couple Happy Rings and two Astro Shakes on your way home. But if you’re looking for a place to have some good food with your family and friends who appreciate friendly service, check it out.
We’ll be heading back through Petaluma soon, and I suspect we’ll be visiting again.

If this restuarant was in a hip little downdown location, it would be packed. It has that Lyon’s kind of look and feel to it, but my experience there was anything but. (I’ve been 4 times). The menu is extensive, with a wide range of American and Mediterranean dishes. Tons of selections for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and everything I’ve had was fresh, plentifuland really reasonably priced. (8.95 for a very large, fresh salad, $ 8.95 for a garden burger with cheese on great marble rye bread with a small salad).
The place is clean, the servers are pleasant, and there really is something for everyone here. I’d recommend it for a business breakfast or lunch, because it’s spacious and feels more private than some of the great but small places in town. I’d also highly recommend it for a large group– it’s one of the few places in town that can accommodate that. (They have a private room that looks like it could hold 30 – 40, and lots of room in the main room.)
I also think it would be great if you have anyone with adisability, or using a walker, because again it is very spacious.
Check it out and see what you think. I’d hate to see them go the way of Johnny Garlics.

I want to like this place but I just can’t do it. I went there for lunch today and had the low carb special. It was a hamburger, steamed broccoli & a salad. The salad literally had 3 pieces of lettuce & the waitress brought it to me 10 minutes after my burger.
*1 Star Suckie ~ in my opinion!

It’s okay, although I have several complaints; One is that my daughter’s orange juice had a WEIRD aftertaste. My orange juice was fine, but my daughter’s tasted like the juice had been used to soak dirty gym socks. The bacon is on the fatty side, and the ala carte prices are high. The restaurant itself was decent, with a clean, pleasant atmosphere and a friendly staff. I enjoyed my meal (eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and toast) and my daughter loved the home fries. The coffee is pretty good, too.

I like the choices here. I have tried the traditional diner food and the mediterannean food, and both are good. I love a spinach/​mushroom/​feta dish and there are puh-​lenty of those.
You can go lowfat or calorie laden which is nice if you are eating with someone on dietary restrictions.
I have eaten dinner here multiple times and would recommend the place for what it is, a mid range restaraunt for a casual meal.
The place is always empty, which makes it feel kinda weird.

Just think «Stars»…
…yup, that’s it. Just think Stars because that is the «restaurant» that used to be in this location and apparently nothing has change. Oh wait, there is a change from Stars; these guys have no liquor license.
I actually never visited «Stars» because I heard it was like so many other places in town that are basically Lyon’s or Denny’s only with a non-​chain name.
I was excited to see that a new place had replaced Stars although I was sceptical of this location because the only decent place to have occupied this space was one of the first tenants, Johnny Garlics. After seeing the new name on the sign out front (with newly planted olive tree to boot) I looked them up online. I found their website but it is only a single page with no menu but the description of «Specializing in American & Mediterranean Cuisine.» I then received a very complicated coupon in the mail and missed the fine print that the 2 for 1 dinner (if you buy two drinks) did not apply on the weekends. I am a big fan of coupons and liked that there were multiple coupons on this one ad. I even understand places wanting to limit their 2 for 1’s to weekdays only but we were there on a weekend night and were the only people there so they might want to think about extending their 2 for 1 to the weekends also. The coupon also listed them as serving American & Mediterranean Cuisine.
Well…when we arrived we were greeted by the only «Star» of our experience, the waitress. She was friendly and helpful but the experience went downhill after that.
When we were handed our menus low and behold they were the old menus from Stars. Same exact menu (It even had «Stars» printed at the top)…only they list beer and wine, which we tried to order but were denied. We did notice booze on the shelves out front but when we tried to order a beer we found out that they don’t have a liquor license.
So, what they are serving is Star’s menu even though they enticed us into dining with them by advertising Mediterranian food. Bad move my friends! You might have gotten one bill out of us but we won’t be back.
Why would you open up a new place with a new name, website and coupons but keep the old crappy menu while you figure out your new menu. That is short sighted because like us you will find that people might come in once but they won’t come back since you are misrepresenting yourself. You have defeated the purpose of a «grand opening» or «relaunching». You can «soft-​open» a brand new place but you can’t do that when you keep all the same décor and menu.
The food… we had a salad which wasn’t bad and burger. If you read my normal burger reviews I usually go quite into depth on them but I am not going to bother. This was just an average burger. No where near the quality that a non-​fast food place should be serving. Plus, it was advertised as «Angus» which chaps my hide since almost all ground beef these days is Angus… when are you restaurants going to get a clue and figure out there is nothing special about Angus. Niman Ranch Angus… sure, but just telling me it is Angus is like telling me it is ground chuck… that is assumed. And, this new pricing where burgers are between $ 10-​$ 15 is total BS if you are going to serve a burger this mediocre. This was a $ 6 burger at best.
And worst of worst… the milkshake. This is Petaluma… a cow town. There is no reason to have mediocre milk shakes in a town known for cows. The milkshake was bland! If not for the whipped cream on top it would have been completely flavorless. And you don’t have to get fancy ice cream to make a good milkshake… even just the run of the mill Clover ice cream makes a far superior milkshake than what I had.
Basically, in a town with far too many good and great restaurants I can’t figure out why a place like this even exists… although I don’t give them more than about six months, tops, unless they have money to burn and don’t mind staying open with no customers. If their prices were better they might appeal to the senior crowd but they are too high for the low quality of food. Denny’s and Lyon’s produce the same food, if not slightly better but for a much more reasonable price point… and no misleading talk of «Mediterranean Cuisine.»
If you are the owner/​manager of this restaurant and want to discuss my review I welcome your contact. With a few simple suggestions (free of charge) I can help you improve the dining experience in your restaurant. I would be more than happy to update my review once you change your menu but it would have to be on your dime since as it stands I still haven’t decided whether or not to asked for my money back on the meal I just had.
Note: the food would have been a 3 star if priced properly, a 2 at the current price but the whole experience of being mislead about the cuisine and then mislead by the actual menu (no beer or wine) is what brought the final score down to a 1 star.