Elegant, friendly, and not overpriced. Â I can speak only for the bread and the chile relleno (good) and the squash soup (a bit sweet), and have no complaints. Â My meat-eating friends--that makes them sound like something out of Jurassic Park, but they're quite civilized--ordered a bunch of other stuff including sea bass, and everyone was pleased. Â Chef Oliver, who is from Guatemala, came out and chatted with us.
The place is apparently easy to overlook if you're driving. Â I arrived late via the Halsted Street bus and a five-block walk east, to find none of my party from Hyde Park there. (It's an OK solo walk from Halsted, not desolate at night, but not especially lively, and my hopes of finding an old-school bar on 31st Street to rival Berenice's, or indeed any bar at all to file for future reference, were dashed.) After 20 minutes my cronies arrived and explained that they had spent a long time circling the place without seeing it. The hare and the tortoise . . .
We had a great dinner at Oliver's the other night; finally got a chance to stop in (cold Sunday night, not busy!). Had the scallop appetizer with a buerre rouge, very delicious. Also the plantains with little savory nuggets of beef and a touch of saffron. Soup of the day was chipotle with tortilla strips, good. The entrees really shone: Sea bass with tomato slices and crumb topping, and a NY strip with demiglace, mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. The steak was excellent quality and perfectly done. Dessert was a lava cake with a scoop of ice cream. We were very happy with our visit. The server was very earnest, and we enjoyed chatting with the Chef. The way the dishes are assembled displays a mastery of kitchen organization. The space is small so if they're busy it could get pretty loud and close. One thing to note is that you may need to use the salt shaker as this food is not as extravagantly salted as at many places. Not cheap but worth it. And some reviews might mislead you; the food is not small - depending on what you order you may end up taking some leftovers home.
Review Source:YES! YES! YES! This place is AMAZING!!! Â and I am glad it is in my neighborhood. Â
I went to Olivers on a Friday night, before catching a movie. Â The service is highly personal. Â We were greeted by the chef upon our arrival and the attention by the chef continued throughout our dinner. Â We ordered two appetizers. Â These are very small bite size appetizers but very tasty. Â For my entree, I ordered the lamb which was very good. Â These are small portions but they are full of joy and joyness for your tummy!
Another plus is that Olivers is BYOB... and who doesn't love BYOB???
Good luck to Oliver...hope he's successful and stays in Bridgeport. Â We started with the caesar salad in a bowl made out of cheese! Â The scallops and shrimp were very good apps. Â We had the medallions and skirt steak as entrees and they were both cooked perfectly. Â The chef also brought out some jewish artichoke soup for us to taste and it was really good. Â I forgot what we had for dessert. Â
We came back a second time with friends and the kids and everything was wonderful. Â My husband also had his "work" holiday dinner here with the co-workers and they were there for hours. Â Oliver, the chef, is such a friendly, great neighborhood guy. Â BYOB, by the way.
This would be a 4.5 stars but since I cant give 0.5 here, I put it at a 4. Unfortunately this place doesn't qualify for a 5. My friends and I (total of 8 people) came here on a Saturday. They're pretty booked for Saturday so the earliest reservation time we got was 7:45pm. When we got there, our table was ready and all. Our waiter Ramon was nice and friendly. All of us were hungry and knew what we were eating immediately. I ordered the roasted chillean sea bass. It was really, really good! The portions are small, especially for the price you're paying but it's a bistro so I expected small portions. My husband ordered the beef tenderloin. He loved it. He and another friend ordered a bowl of corn chowder.. we all tried it and it was so salty! There weren't any corns in there...except for maybe one piece. Majority of the stuff in the soup were veggies (carrots and celery). Another friend ordered their cream of mushroom soup..that was very salty too. The soups were a turn-off so that is why I can't give them a 5 stars. The entree itself for everyone was delicious! Some of the entrees ordered were salmon dish, their special striped sea bass, short ribs, chicken, etc.
If you're a guy, you should order two dishes. Couple of my guy friends were going to hit up Maxwell's or the Chinese restaurant to order some more food because they were still hungry afterwards.
Another thing we didn't like was that the chef Oliver did not come by our table to check how we were doing. He went to every table except for ours. Not sure why..maybe because we were a full Asian table? Regardless of what it was, we didn't find that nice since he did not stop by. He literally walked right passed our table and moved onto another table. Few of my friends pointed that out and that was how I became aware.
Loved it. A restaurant you can actually carry on a conversation in without shouting. A lovely spot. Delicious food, friendly wait staff. Thought it was nice that the chef came out and said hello and asked if our meal was OK.
Loved what I ordered, but eyed my tablemates dishes and thought, "I'm having that next time."
Portions are rightsized and the price was quite reasonable.
Will be back.
Went for dinner with the hubby...This would be a great place for a group so you can try everything on the menu because it all looks so good.  We were able to knock back 3 apps, 2 salads, 2 soups, one entree and one dessert  and it was very reasonable.
Shrimp, scallops (yummiest), pot stickers...all great. Â Squash and Mushroom soups, deeelish. Â Loved the squash. Â Cesar salad in a parmesan pastry puff...great presentation...nice and light. Â Hearts of palm salad good. Â Sea bass was delish. Â Not a huge portion, but very reasonably priced.
Fruit egg roll dessert was good...outside crust a little thick for dessert, but insides were stellar.
The only disappointment off the top was the table bread. Â Pretzel rolls and buns...just so-so. Â I would hope to see a change there, but it won't stop me from coming back over and over. Â Best part, it's walking distance to the Cell, so now we have a place to eat before or after Sox games!
BYOB is always brilliant.
4.5 stars for Olivers! Been there twice.
Consistency!
Must have reservations for Fri or Sat nights, best made the week prior.
Our last visit, we took what was available for party of 8, 5:30PM on a Saturday Night.
°Friendly personalized service.
°Excellent reasonable menu.
°Specials not on the menu change nightly.
We ordered ALL of the appetizers, great and reasonable. Prices like $5 each, expect quality and presentation, NOT quantity.
The soups are fantastic, I have had two different ones and both were great.
Couldn't make my mind up on salad, so ordered the Cesar Salad. While not huge, it came with a huge surprise. Cesar was served in an edible bowl made of thin parm cheese. Crunchy and perfectly done, excellent compliment.
For my main course, chose the Steak Medallion, it was great. Cooked perfectly and fork tender. My date had the Fish (Soul stuffed with crabmeat) which was excellent as well.
Dessert for me was the Chocolate Cake, again excellent.
Olivers has a small corkage charge that is more than fair.
WILL BE GOING BACK SOON, but with reservations.
I hear they are serving brunch now?
About the only negative is the noise level is high when the restaurant is full. That may be objectionable to some. Solid 4.5 stars!
My family and I have been going to Oliver's Cafe almost every week. Â What can I say? The food is delicious and byob is a plus. Â My favorite is the chilean sea bass, short ribs and lamb chops. Â The au gratin potatoes are to die for!! Â
The location is great and parking is ample. Â Oliver's Cafe is pretty packed on weekends, so reservations are a must.
Chef Oliver's namesake eatery is off to a fantastic start!
I made my way here on Halloween with a couple of fine fellas (pimp status) for some dinner. It was the best idea to get me away from all the ankle biters that kept knocking on my door and begging for candy. Pfft! Really, I just totally forgot it was Halloween so I didn't have anything for the kids. Figured it was the perfect time to try the new kid in town.
We shared the pot stickers and the gulf shrimp with corn avocado ragout to start. Both were excellent and ran $5 a pop. We each ordered a different salad. My fella got the hearts of palm salad. He'd never had them before, but now he's hooked. Other fella got mixed greens with beets, gorgonzola, and walnuts. Super good. The highlight, however, was my cesar salad served in a parmesan bowl. There's nothing I love more than a cesar salad when it's done right. This was done right.
For dinner, the fella went with the rack of lamb. It was perfectly cooked. Melt in your mouth delicious. His partner in crime went with the stuffed poblano pepper. This was the low light of everything ordered. It was good, but not great. Something that I could easily make at home. I ordered the pork tenderloin. It was served with chorizo, swiss chard, and chayote in this amazing cider sauce. I ended up dumping my wild rice into the leftover sauce just to soak it up. What? We were out of bread.
For dessert, we shared to two items. The apple, pear and raisin egg roll served with ice cream, fresh berries, and carmel sauce. Really good. But the carrot cake. Oh my, the carrot cake. It was served on this orange ginger sauce that really stepped it up. I really want another slice of carrot cake.
Chef Oliver stopped by to make sure we were enjoying our meals. He talked a bit about the dishes, and his plans for the place, which will include a weekend brunch in the next couple of weeks. I can't wait!
Our food was great, especially at this price point. The service was spot on. Best of all - IT'S BYOB!!! Only thing I'm not in love with is the decor, but it is miles away from the dingy, whole in the wall thai joint that used to live here. Major upgrade for not just the space, but for my hood.
On second thought - this place sucked. The whole experience was terrible. So don't come here. That way, you won't want to move here, and I can keep the cheap rent and plentiful parking that I oh so love about my neighborhood.
We stumbled onto this restaurant randomly and I couldn't have been more pleased. Great atmosphere, good service and excellent food at crazy good prices.
The food is fresh and delicious. It's easy to see the care put into preparing the food, we will definitely be returning soon.
Also, only $3 corsage fee for byob
Haven't been this excited about a restaurant in a long time. And it's right in the neighborhood! I just finished eating dinner here with some friends - Already thinking of when to go back and try more dishes before they switch up the menu. To start, we had some fresh bread, scallops, and the butternut squash bisque to make a rainy day much more bearable. Our table ordered the chilean sea bass, beef medallions (perfection), and beef short rib. All so wonderfully scrumptious that we cleared our plates quick. The chef, Oliver, greeted us afterwards and chatted for a bit. Great guy who really knows the kitchen, awesome service, amazing food. Â Very cozy atmosphere..It's a new spot but it's definitely getting a LOT of attention, so I strongly suggest making reservations for the weekends. BYOB & plenty of street parking available.
Review Source:Chef Oliver has truly taken this local former Thai food café in the Bridgeport Community to the next level... or four!
I spotted this easy to miss café while strolling by a couple weeks ago and the thing that snagged my eye was the rare, succulent Chilean Seabass listed on the front door menu. My friend beat me to order this so I switched to be wild mushroom fettuccine which had a creaminess and savory quality that really shows that Oliver has been in the kitchen for a long time.
Our other friend ordered the short rib that Oliver strongly suggested and I can say that plate was cleaned rather quickly. Oliver soon bought out a complimentary sample of prime rib later.
Be forewarned that the place is extremely small but it's intimacy and culinary delights more than make up for that. We had the pleasure of dining there last night and we spotted a table of about 20 people enjoying his offerings. We were initially concerned that would take forever to get our dishes to the table but that did not happen as the service was speedy courteous and very welcoming.
I already love this special byob!
----
Update:
After my third visit and his phenomenal foie gras entree, 5 stars no doubt dammit the passion is HERE!!!!
Perfect.
Food was perfect. I'm still in awe. I just left there. I had the fettuccine in a roasted red pepper sauce. I cannot describe what just happened to me. The dessert egg roll was also from another planet. I want to move to that planet.
My girlfriend and I moved to Chicago in June of 2011, and today was our favorite dining experience since we moved. I am not kidding.
As others have mentioned, the service, music, and atmosphere were perfect. Our waiter was nice, attentive, and knowledgeable. It was also cool to speak with the man himself, Oliver!
Lastly, and this is a minor point, but I love the lighting! It's darker and cozy, really putting you at ease.
I will return. Nothing can stop me.
Absolutely LOVED this new little restaurant. 5-star food...as good as it gets!! We took the chef up on the sampler meal of all five courses and was totally impressed by each item we offered. Presentation was outstanding...the taste was fabulous! We went home full..but not stuffed...the soups and appetizers...WOW! I'm bringing my friends for a girlfriend night later in the month. I actually appreciate the savings of BYOB which ends up being a big part of our usual bill! Waiter was very attentive...Oliver is great!!
Review Source:I love this place! Â Excellent service, food, music and decor. Â Enjoyed the tasty butternut squash soup, scallops & shrimp appetizers, delectable sea bass which melts in your mouth, chocolate cake and cinnamon/pineapple egg roll that is a must repeat. Snuck a bite of friend's short ribs which was rich and succulent. So happy a top tier restaurant like this is in Bridgeport. Â Oliver, his wife, and the staff are friendly, attentive and care about their patrons. Â Parking is ample - no meters, no tickets. Will be back often.
Review Source:A truly fantastic experience! Â The environment was very welcoming and intimate, the service was excellent, and the food was absolutely outstanding. Â We started with the butternut squash soup, had the plantains with beef stew for an appetizer, entrees were the short ribs and sea bass, and dessert was the cinnamon apple/pineapple egg roll. Â Every single thing we tried was very unique and delicious. Â Will absolutely be back soon!!
Review Source:
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