Olio

Probably my favorite place in St. Louis! The atmosphere is fun and unique and all the food is delicious! The brussels sprout salad is amazing as well as the egg salad! Love this place and highly recommend!

Olio is a unique St. Louis establishment, creating an inviting city dining experience with the feel of a local, corner neighborhood spot.
Olio has a warm vibe and a diverse and delicious menu. And as it’s name aptly suggests, the menu offers a variety of options appealing to meat-​eaters and veggies, with great Mediterranean flavors. And if cocktails are your thing — get here.
I never tire of this place: the menu is «seasonally-​adjusted» and well-​suited for regulars like myself.
As to the others comments re: service and food availability — it’s true that the vibe has changed since it opened, and there are times when this item or that item are unavailable. This is of course a disappointment, but should certainly not be a deterrent! Overall, Olio continues to be one of the better dining experiences in BoHeights/​Shaw/​South City area, if not STL!

Reservations are accepted, but not required. We ate outside on the patio on Friday around 6:30 and were able to be seated right away. I felt semi-​underdressed wearing jeans and a t-​shirt, so maybe step up your game a bit when you come here for dinner.
Ordered 4 small plates for 2 people to share. Perfect amount for us! Server was awesome– she brought out 2 plates first and then brought out the next 2 dishes once we were done. Great spacing it out so our table wouldn’t be crowded.
Everything is covered in dill– everything. Not just a little dill, but a lot. So keep that in mind if you hate dill (as I do) to just ask for less, or ask for it on the side, or not at all. There are plenty of other fresh herbs that also top each dish, they didn’t need the abundance of dill.
–King of Kings Hummus ($ 8) is served with both pita points and baguette slices. The portion is huge for 2 people and we did have leftover bread when the hummus was gone. Better than what you buy in the store, but not super fancy. Pass on this one and get something outside of the box instead.
–Zucchini Carpaccio ($ 12) was my favorite dish! Served very thinly sliced, wrapped in little cone shapes, and with several sliced of preserved lemons. It’s really the lemons that make this dish. Make sure you have a bite of lemon with each bite to really get the best experience. I need to learn how to make this at home– it was so good!
–Mushroom flatbread ($ 14) was served hot and with fresh veggies and herbs. I would get again.
–Beet salad ($ 12) was my least favorite. I am normally a big big fan of beets, but this salad was not my cup of tea. It was served with ricotta and not goat cheese as I traditionally get, so that alone made the dish less creamy and salty than I would have liked.

I really like the food. The lunch was a flavor profile of deliciousness! The only negative is that we had our 2 kiddos with us… I felt like we had 7 heads. The staff seemed thrown off by the little humans with us.

Fab cocktails and really good food options. I haven’t had anything here I didn’t swoon over. Love the unique mixology happening here. I always sit at the bar and the staff is so incredibly well informed about every ingredient in the drinks. Really fun to chat it up there.

Very cool building, friendly staff, and great cocktails. I had the hummus, egg salad, and a flatbread — all were solid.
I would definitely come back for happy hour on their patio.

Cramped cutish restaurant but I just didn’t get it. Unless you want to eat overpriced hummus and pine nuts don’t waste your money. There was only 6 of us and we each got charged automatic 20% gratuity on each bill!!! That is crazy. The only meat they had was a brisket sandwich that had 2 pieces on it. This was the worst experience I’ve had in a long time.

We walked in through the courtyard entrance of Olio in the late afternoon on a Tuesday. We were greeted kindly, took a seat in the outside dining area, and happily found the spritz hour menu ($ 5 spritzers from 4 – 6).
The spritzers were delicious, as was the Kings of Kings hummus. As always, service made the lunch break go from great to exceptional, and we enjoyed every sunny, delicious minute of our time at Olio. We will be back for more and soon!

I have come at least once a month since olio has opened. I love the space and the staff. The place has progressively gotten more and more disappointing each visit I make. In the past few visits I have been given wrong menus with old items. I have been told that multiple items were not available and the food has been subpar at best. This is not what I would expect from all the previous visits I have made. Today frustrated me more then ever though. I came for brunch which I often do on Sunday’s and when I arrived at 12:15 I was told that they were closed for spring cleaning and would open at one. I was told to come back then and they would take care of me. When I returned at 1:35 they told me they were still closed and would not open till 4 at the earliest.
This just infuriated me. I was hungry and expecting to be able to enjoy a drink and some food.

The story goes…
I was rather excited when I finally got to try this restaurant.
I liked the décor and the courtyard area when I walked in.
I was so bummed when I found that they didn’t have Iman Bayildi on the actual menu. They had it on their website one! Darn it. I thought.
I was thrilled that there were so many options on the menu and the waiter said he could do half sized dishes if we wanted to try multiple things.
I loved the flat bread, flavorful and delicious! I was impressed with the toppings, very creative.
I enjoyed the salads, refreshing and savory.
I was underwhelmed with the dips. I’d prefer traditional pita bread for the hummus.
Overall, I liked it and I’d visit it again if they could update the online menu.

This place was very close to a five star. Lots of fun w multiple out of town guests. Great sharing options and unique cocktail choices made it great. All dishes had a nice punch of flavor without being overly seasoned.

It’s been almost two years since my last review of Olio. Since that time, there have been staffing and management changes and when that happens the atmosphere of a business also change. Olio is still a relaxing and comfortable place to enjoy a masterfully created cocktail, but it no longer has the warm fuzzy feeling it once had. The service has almost become, cold and stiff. It is still very professional and attentive, just not as welcoming as it use to be. For that reason, I need to drop them down a star.
I do agree with Ian Froeb that Olio is definitely one of the top 100 restaurants in St. Louis. However, I disagree with on the must have item. I do enjoy his recommendation; King of Kings hummus, served with pieces of both pita bread and baguette. The portion is huge and will have a low-​carb eater, forgetting their ways until the bowl of hummus and basket of bread are empty.
My recommendation of the «must have» is their egg salad and you must add the white anchovies. The creamy egg salad is served on slices of baguette with those salty little fishes resting on top. This is by far the best egg salad in the St. Louis area. If they sold it by the pound like a deli, I’d be an addict.
What makes their service stand out is that when you’re seated at the bar and your order is ready, they do not just sit it in front of you from the bartenders side of the bar. Which would be the easy and quickest way. They walk around and serve it from your back and to the left side. That fine dining etiquette, making them a class act.
I hope the warm fuzzies come back, because I love a good cocktail & their egg salad.
When: March 22, 2016
Why: After Work Cocktails

Olio is a unique place to grab a bite. First off, it’s an old service station that serves up Mediterranean and North African cuisine. Second, it’s also connected to a little bit classier of a restaurant, elaia. To me Olio seems more of a small plate and cocktail kind of place.
The food was very good. We started with the torshi, a pumpkin spread with some bread. The main course we each had our own flatbread. I had the mushroom and my girlfriend had the lahmacun, Turkish seasoned beef with pine nuts and caramelized onions. Then for Dessert we split a pie in a jar. It seemed similar to chocolate pudding and whip cream. The whip cream was made in house and was delicious. Overall the food was great and they have a great cocktail menu. If the cocktail is not on the menu, you can ask for it and the bartender will make it.
The staff was all very friendly and checked in on us frequently. Even though it was a small place (maybe sits 35 people at most). There was only 1 waitress for the whole place. Although the bartender did assist in waiting.
I will for sure be back to Olio, it just didn’t wow me enough to make it a must return right away kind of place.

I will admit that I will probably amend this review if we try this place again but I have to write on the experience I had. My husband and I wanted to try a new place for drinks and appetizers so I had done some research on different places and decided Olio was the place to try. I loved that the building use to be an old filling station and thought my engineer husband would really like to see it. We arrived around 7:30 after going to the Anheuser Busch Light Display and of course the place was hopping (it was a Saturday night on a holiday weekend so we were prepared). The décor is very trendy and eclectic, yet inviting and I loved the old record player in the corner providing the music. Knowing we were only there for drinks and an appetizer, we were seated at the bar. Again, the lighting, tables, chairs, etc. were all incredibly unique and sustainable which we loved. This is where the night starts to go south.
Having past service experience, I really do understand being busy, but both my husband and I and the couple sitting next to us sat for almost 10 minutes without even being asked for a drink order. Finally the bartender, who appeared to also be serving the tables behind us while also running/​fixing the credit card machine, came over and took our order. Again, I will give him the benefit of the doubt because he was doing several things at once. I got a glass of wine and my husband got a cocktail from their menu and both were very good. After receiving our drinks, we were never waited on again. Neither the bartender, who was actually very polite by the way, nor any other server came to ask us if we would like to order some food or another drink. We had to make several attempts to flag the bartender down to get our check and by this point it was almost 9:00. We ended up going to a local place near our house for a bite to eat and were out of there and very satisfied by 10 pm.
I do want to try this place again and give it another shot, but they really need to work on efficiency of service. The bartender should not be making all the drinks for the restaurant, waiting on multiple tables, doing dishes, and fixing the credit card machine with seemingly no help. I commend the good job he was doing and his attention to detail, but he needs some more hands on deck. I hope to return for the chance to add back in several stars to my review, but I unfortunately must go with the experience I had.

This place Rocks good food and great atmosphere! Loved it! Bloody Mary was just the right amount of spice!

Loved this place. Great atmosphere, food, drinks and service. Sat up at the bar and enjoyed a lunch of zucchini flatbread. Huge fan of lemon and dill so it was just perfect. Bread was made in house and was very tasty. Split Brussels sprout salad (smoked trout, moharrama) and husband had speck sandwich. Thoroughly enjoyed every bite. Cocktail, wine and beer list is simple/​small, but tasty. Look forward to coming back next time we are in town.
By the way, noticed some reviewers were disgruntled when items of interest were no longer available. Our waitress did a great job of notifying us in advance trust they were out of the kale and the beet salads.

Wow.
I’ve always loved the Tower Grove/​Botanical Heights neighborhood, but Olio makes it that much better. How things have changed in STL over the past 4 – 5 years!
From drinks at the bar to a lovely fall dinner on the outside patio, this experience was pretty damn awesome. Bonny Doon rose on special? Yes. Famous egg salad? Uh-​huh. Hummus? Mmm — and that’s just the starters. Portions are on the smaller side by Midwest standards, but plenty of food for three people to appease their initial cravings.
For the main, I split the Chicken Tagine and it was the most tender meat I’ve had in awhile. Chef Ben Poremba obviously has spent some time in the Middle East… the menu states that there’s «nods» of the region in his cuisine, but I’m going to suggest it’s more of a hand raised in the air.
Dessert in a pie? Skip it. I was imagining a mason jar with fresh crust and fillings, but we got a little cylinder with pudding. Something you could find at Walgreens or a corner store. But that didn’t damper the rest of the meal at all. Everyone at the table left happy and full.

Excellent little restaurant! I have been here a couple times already and have had different things every time and it is just awesome. I always start with the Bruschetta which have Blistered Cherry Tomatoes. I recommend trying whatever the specials are for the day. Today I had Spanish Sausage Dish which had some amazing flavors. The time before the on the menu I had Chicken Tagine which has Saffron Rice, Apricots, Toasted Almonds and Harissa. These guys seem to know what they are doing. One of my all time top 5 restaurants in St. Louis.

I’ve been eager to experience Olio since I discovered how the former garage was transformed into this amazing restaurant.
The décor did not disappoint; it’s beautifully put together both inside as well as the outdoor garden area.
Gretchen was nice; meek but nice. I mentioned I had an itching for hummus and she recommended I try the Eyal; it was delicious. The shrimp in the Eyal hummus was sauteed and seasoned to perfection it also came with plenty of dough; pita as well as ciabatta. but I truly felt like I probably could’ve dressed up a container of Trader Joe’s Mediterranean Hummus and not known the difference. Don’t kill the messenger I’m just being honest here. There was a lot more oil than I prefer and the serving size was quite small for $ 12 before tip.
Next, I wanted to try the roasted cauliflower but Gretchen advised me they were out.
Then, I wanted to try the Roasted Beets salad but Gretchen advised me they were out.
Finally, I gave up ordering anything else however, Gretchen did advise me they were out of Romaine Hearts. I thought to myself, «Why are you guys open?»
Maybe I picked a bad day; but in the restaurant business a bad day can cost you 2 stars on the Christy Scale.

Olio is easily a «must visit» for foodies in St. Louis. I came by for the first time and was blown away.
The space is super trendy with awesome outdoor patio seating available. From start to finish, Olio has amazing service. I would put them at top 3 service experiences I’ve had in town. They were super professional, friendly, and helpful. On top of that, they have an amazing menu.
It’s basically intended to be small plates/​shared but you can order however you want. My dining partner and I shared the baby octopus salad, hummus and bread, as well as a marinated zucchini dish. The baby octopus salad was delicious and not seafood-​y at all. The hummus was fantastic as well as the fresh bread. My favorite was the marinated zucchini. The flavor was unlike anything I’ve had before… especially on a vegetable dish. I highly recommend it.
For dessert we had chocolate and sea-​salt carmel pie from Choquette. It was sooo good and well worth it.
The other nice thing about Olio is they have a huge drink selection of wine, cocktails, and beer. I can’t wait to come back and explore their large and unique menu.