About a year ago I stumbled upon La Oliva, a then brand new tapas and pintxos bar in the Jordaan. I tried it out and posted about my disappointment. La Oliva is perfectly located on a pretty corner smack in the middle of the Jordaan. And the restaurant looks great with its stylish decor and display of cured hams, wine bottles and pintxos. Unfortunately the food is average and high-priced and the service pretentious.
Over the last few months I had heard several positive reviews of La Oliva and some dutchgrub readers left comments saying that the food was delicious and the service nice and helpful. So I decided to try again and did a few days ago when I was in the area.
Unfortunately I must say that I was right. I wanted to like La Oliva, because it looks great and Amsterdam needs a good tapas bar. But I didn’t because it’s all about appearance and not about food.
The pintxos were lukewarm and stale, especially the tortilla. And the ingredients were of inferior quality, which really ruined the Serrano ham appetizer. And to add insult to injury, the little tart with tomato sauce actually seemed to be deep freezer quality. Then we had some tapas and a dish from the main menu, which were small and rather bland. The wine was ok but very expensive at € 40,= for an average bottle of tempranillo.
All in all we paid more than € 150,= between the three of us for average food and wine and left as disappointed as the first time. So, no, don’t bother about La Oliva. Really.