Fig & Olive is a chain of Mediterranean restaurants, that has 4 locations in NY alone, with 3 in the City. We went during restaurant week last winter. Its regular menu is priced mid range, with $39 lamb chop and sea bass being the priciest item. We choose F&O for RW because it seems to have petty good choices, but I happened to choose maybe the most uncomfortable location. At its meatpacking district and 5th Ave location, both have good size dinning room where there is actually room to maneuver. We went to its uptown location, across the street from Bloomingdale’s. It is a long room, where the front bar room is converted to sitting during a busy night. We were seated in the front bar room. There were 5 other parties cramped in the elbow to elbow space, waitresses barely have any room to move around. At the same time, there were people coming in and out from the front door right behind us, and plenty of people standing in the already very crowed space waiting for their table. It was way too crowed, and uncomfortable.
Hugh plate of bread plated felt oversize on the tiny table. There were 3 different kinds of olive oil presented. All were very fresh, but I failed to tell the difference. Bread however, while soft and spongy, was cold. đ
mushroom croquette was tiny, hiding underneath a full plate of parmesan.
Bell pepper, shallot, horseradish, lemon, cilantro sweet pimenton aioli
Crab cake was good. Plenty of crab meat. I love the cilantro sweet pimenton aioli, and I actually would like more of that dressing.
Grilled Maine lobster, arborio rice, asparagus, lobster stock
big pieces of lobster, very well cooked. Risotto was a bit too salty for me.
Black tiger shrimp, sea scallop, calamari, mussels, saffron rice with chicken, green pea, red bell pepper, artichoke, saffron aioli, pimenton & oregano â Hojiblanca Olive Oil
Plenty of seafood. But this Paella needs could use a 3rd piece of lime, but otherwise, very good plate.
Love the shortbread cookie, it was airy, and very buttery. But I hated the amarena cherry, it is just overly sweet and just bursting syrup. Fresh cherry of blueberry would have been so much better.
White chocolate is the way to go with this. Good balance of chocolate and creme.
For Fig & olive, I would definitely choose a different location, or indicated in my reservation that i want a table, a real table. And on second look, I found on F&O’s website, that they do have a Pre Fixe for $38 from Sunday to Thursday. So, if there’s another place you want to try, may be you can save F&O for another time, and hope on regular days, it is not as packed.
(see Fig & Olive Winter 2015 restaurant week menu)
