Olive Cafe

I adore the olive café! It is a great little place! The food is always fresh and delish! The daily specials are always unique. I have visited several times and tried several of the vegetarian dishes, they never disappoint! I would have given a 5 however if you are seated near the door or window it can be rather chilly, they try to keep the cold out but it’s no so successful, the food does always keep me coming back!

Don’t know how I went this long without knowing about this gem. I’m such a sucker for middle eastern spices. Best felafel around! Service was friendly and helpful. I will return!

Wow. That’s all I can say. I did not expect that when we came across this little café that we would be in for one of the best meals of our trip to Boston and Maine. The food is exquisite. I had the blackened fish tacos with hand cut fries. We also ordered the special Lebanese potato salad. Everything was perfect. The service is great. Really pleasant atmosphere.

Slice of Lebanese heaven, fresh and authentic. Busy devoted weekday lunch, always a good sign. Very small dining room, and daily specials are gobbled up fast! Spectacular vegetarian selections, I didn’t try the meats as they appeared a bit dry as I saw them go by, but they may have been amazing. They smelled nice enough. With so many truly dazzling options I had to roll myself out of there as it was with the vegetarian plate I selected for maximum variety and value. Nice falafel, note that it is Lebanese style not Syrian, an important distinction, I find the flavor profile to be lighter with an emphasis on citrus tones rather than complex savory spicing. A delight to find a restaurant of this caliber in the Old Port! I had amazing leftovers and highly recommend!

Stopped here for lunch. Nice atmosphere, good service, and the food was delicious and reasonably priced.

Very nice little place on a busy center strip of Portland water front.
SKIP the shawarma (the beef one was like the old Wendy’s commercial asking «Where’s the beef?») — the beef was «hard to find».
DO get the Chicken Pizza (or similar). The pizza was simply one of the best pizzas we have had. Garlicky, lots of meat, lots of veggies — loved it!

We chose this small Lebanese restaurant for dinner. Neither my wife nor I were feeling overly hungry, so we each settled on a shawarma, yaba (vegetarian) for her and chicken for her dining companion. These were wrapped in pita and served with French fries that we upgraded for $ 2 each to the recommended sweet potato fries. The shawarmas were just okay, but the sweet potato fries were a ripoff, small in quantity and dried out like we got the last of a batch.

What a great little spot. Food was great, it had a real home cooked taste. I ordered. A vegetarian plate that came with falafel, hummus, fried cauliflower and small salad. Wonderful, falafel was crisp on the outside, moist on the inside. The fried cauliflower was a real change and tasty.
I would defiantly go back, prices were very reasonable too.

I had a pretty mediocre lunch experience here yesterday. This place has been on my agenda to try for a couple of years, and I was really looking forward to it.
I had the fattoush salad ($ 9.50), and added falafel to it ($ 2.00). It was quite small, certainly not what I would expect for the price, and the 2 falafels that came with it were also very tiny. Traditional fattoush has a flavorful dressing with mint and parsley and sumac, but the dressing here was very flat. It also had no croutons/​pita, rather about ½ a teaspoon of tiny oil soaked pita remnants.
There was only one server working and she was overwhelmed. There were enough tables and diners to merit at least 2 servers, and because of this our service suffered (the management’s fault, not the server’s).
My friend had a shawarma and said it was good. I’d be willing to go again to try some more of the menu, but I won’t be in a hurry.

If you need a break from classic Maine seafood fare, I highly recommend checking out the Olive Café. We popped in here for a delightful lunch before catching the ferry. I had the chicken shawarma and my wife had the Ya Baba shawarma.
The standout dish was definitely the Ya Baba with its smoky babba ganoush and other flavorful veggies. The chicken shawarma had a nicely flavored sauce, but the chicken was a tad dry and could have been more tender and flavorful. Next time, I’d try the Ya Baba pizza or perhaps the shrimp shawarma.
Our server was very friendly and attentive, and the overall atmosphere inside the restaurant was nice and relaxed.

The chicken shwarma wrap was fantastic. The dressing they used was so delicious and the chicken was flavored and cooked perfectly well. The sweet potato fries are fantastic as well. Very cinnamony. However, I was not a fan of the hummus. It was very lemony. Not enough garlic or tahini for my taste. The service is great and you can get free extra pita bread for the your hummus, if you ask.

All the seafood restaurants around here were packed to the gill. So I had to go with some Lebanese cuisine. The Kibbi was hot tonight. The falafel and hummus were very good and so was the haddock fish tacos. Different kind of food, but everything very good, very great

Fantastic little gem! A friend and I happened upon Olive Café after bypassing a few other noisy places, and I am SO glad! The cozy room held patrons from families with children to couples on date night. The service was spot on. Both servers working the dining room knew their menu, and guided the intrepid diners thoughtfully towards their best choices. The shawarma was flavorful and fresh, both the chicken that I had, and the blackened haddock as reported by my dining companion. The sides are delicious as well, and I’d enthusiastically recommend subbing the standard pita chips with one of them. I had the toasted couscous salad, the flavors and textures were light and vibrant. I will definitely return, and next time, save room for dessert!

A group of five of us came in for lunch on a recent Saturday. The menu looks great — lots of delicious choices. I decided on the fatoush wrap. The rest of my party also got various wraps with side salads or a side of fries.
The service was HORRIBLE. It took a long time to get our drinks (water and perriers which should take seconds), took forever to order and took forever to get our food. It then took a really long time to get the check. There were two other tables in there while we were, so I don’t understand the hold up.
I thought the food itself would be better than it was. My wrap was fine, but the hummus was pretty bland to the point of not really being able to taste it. I’m not sure if it’s that they put so little of it on the wrap or if it was just totally flavorless. That being said, the food was very fresh and most people seemed to like their meals.
I will probably not be back.

I’m so glad we finally tried this place! And then went back again 3 times that same week!
Seriously though, what a sweet little hidden gem. I wasn’t sure how much I’d like Lebanese Mediterranean food, but I definitely know now that I love it. It’s a cozy restaurant, I mean reallyyy cozy. You get quite close with your fellow dining patrons as far as space goes, it’s not a bother for us but it may be for some.
I always order the shrimp shawarma and sub the side of pita chips for the sweet potato fires with cinnamon and honey, the squeeze usually gets the beef shawarma pizza. The shrimp shawarma is so tasty, with flavors of all variety coming from every bite. The sweet potato fries (which are extra and bump the prices up a little high) are delicious though. Nom nom nom. The beef shawarma pizza is also pretty tastey, I’ve had a few bites and it’s a great thin crust flavorful pizza.
A cute cozy environment, friendly staff, delicious food, a definite win in my book!

If you love real thin crust (on a Greek pita), look no further. Even cheese is optional on your pizza. This might not fit the definition of a pizza at all, but their version is my favorite in Portland. Its light, flavorful and delicious. The Ya Baba is my personal favorite.
Their falafel, shawarma and soups are fresh and taste great. The only reason for 4 * is that the service is slow and they shut early or at their convenience.

This is a hidden gem in the old port! The hummus was amazing (best I’ve ever had), as it was made fresh that morning! Everything I had was very fresh, and tasted authentic and amazing.
I was very pleased with the price as well, very inexpensive, especially for the Old Port neighborhood.

I had chicken shawarma and it was delicious! Hubby had beef and it was good as well. I thought it was a bit pricey but not bad at all for the old port area. Made me a shawarma fan!
The tables were a bit odd, mismatched but you could see the poly drips on the side of the table from where they redid the tables and just poured it on and never bothered to wipe the drops off. That had no impact on the food just makes me wonder if the person who did it was a little lazy and i hoped it was not the same person who cleans the kitchen. Lol .
There was only one server and it got busy and service was a little slow but very pleasant and we had already gotten our food so just slower with the check. However let me mention again, the food was truly delicious! Well worth the visit!

Had a Groupon for this Mediterranean restaurant and I’m so glad I went! We had the stuffed grape leaves with rice and other spices which was fantastic and filling for an appetizer. I went out of the park and ordered a Blackened Fish Shawarma with a greek salad on the side. I never eat greek salads, but this one was fresh and delicious. I like olives now because of that greek salad. The Blackened Fish shawarma has lettuce, tomatoes, tahini sauce, pickles and haddock of course wrapped in a pita rollup. The portions are huge, but that isn’t a bad thing since it could be breakfast, lunch, or dinner leftovers! You pick :) Next time I go, I’m getting a kabob because I love rice and arabic seasonings!
Go there!

My sister LOVES shawarmas. Since moving to Toronto it has easily become one of her all time favorite foods. She brags about how delicious the sandwiches are all the time… until recently I couldn’t really relate because I didn’t think Portland had a shawarma place (then again, I wasn’t really looking for one). So when I heard about Olive Café I was instantly intrigued. I tried to get friends to go with me, but no one was interested… because of it’s distinctly grungy exterior and proximity to some of the more dive-​y bars in town I think it turned them off. I finally had the chance to check them out… and now I feel badly for all my friends. They have absolutely no idea what they’re missing!
We came at 11:30 right when they opened, and there were already several other people waiting in line outside. By the time we were seated just a few minutes later, half of the place was already filled up. I don’t know about you, but that is a VERY GOOD sign in my opinion.
Yes, the inside is very, very small. But I’m a local, so I’m used to the intimate, (and sometimes) awkward feeling of sitting on top of other patrons I didn’t come with. As far as the ambience goes, I thought it was perfectly appropriate. The walls and decorations were simple, yet warm and the house music couldn’t have been more lovely.
After having stalked their menu online I already knew what I was after: the falafel shawarma with tahini sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles. When I ordered the waitress asked if I wanted pita chips (which it came with) or (for an additional charge) sweet potato french fries. After hearing that the fried items in the restaurant were all vegetarian and there was no cross-​contamination from animal in the oil, I decided on the fries because hey, life is short so, why not. My counterpart got the Mediterranean Plate which I had not considered, and eyed jealously when our food arrive. It was a large platter filled with hummus, falafel, tahini, fried cauliflower, and pita bread.
My sandwich, though, was delicious. It was exactly what I was hoping it was going to taste like: moist, flavorful falafel with a rich tahini sauce and fresh chopped veggies. It was a little wet which made it difficult to eat in polite company (I also attempted to take dainty bites when all I wanted to do was just shovel it in because it was so darn tasty), but hit the spot. The french fries were also very good… sweet potato-​y and dusted with cinnamon. I would have liked some kind of dipping sauce (maybe a maple or poblano cream), because they were a little dry. I also wasn’t expecting so many of them! Definitely more than I could eat (and I tend to be on the piggish side of things).
Though a little on the pricier side, I would love to come back here and try the falafel shawarma again, but maybe add the banana peppers or pickled turnips that are suggested. The sound of the Ya Babba (fried cauliflower, baba ganoush, banana peppers, tahini sauce, and fresh veg) also makes my mouth water!
Don’t let the façade turn you away… there’s delicious Mediterranean eats hiding within!