Review The Fat Olive Country Restaurant - Johannesburg

28th of February
I was so excited to review The Fat Olive in Muldersdrift. I made a booking a week ago because Sunday lunch is very busy in this lovely Country Restaurant. We drove past it half a year ago and tried to get a table, which was impossible at the time because it was fully booked. I learned from that mistake, and made a booking for the 28th of February. Off we went.

After a horrible drive home from a party in town on Saturday night, we did not sleep much. Our car broke down at 2.30am, not so great! The fucking car gives us problems for months now; empty battery, replacements of very important things I do not know anything about, and now the fan stopped. The motor was overheating constantly so what we did is, we opened the hood of our car and drove one minute (with an open hood!). Stopped five minutes. Drove one minute. And so on and so on. In the middle of the night you avoid phoning a friend for help (only if you really have to) and a towing company is so fucking expensive. At 4.00am we parked in front of our house (it felt like we had a million stops), relieved and tired. And we woke up early because some idiot rang Peter about business, after three hours of sleep. Sigh.

First impression at the entrance:

• Country style
• Peaceful and quiet area
• Nicely laid tables
• Lovely water feature
• Minimal décor
• The farmhouse could use maintenance

We arrived at the restaurant on time and we asked for our table. The waiter pointed us a table which was the worst table I could imagine, right in front of the entrance. Not really romantic if waiters and guests pass by your table every fucking minute. Or half a minute as it was crowded. We asked for another table and we were pointed a table in the corner, looking at 12 feet from our neighbors sitting at a higher level in the garden. They must have asked for a table in the garden, I didn't. So first tip, ask for a table in the garden area!

Anyway, the feet were somewhat clean and I managed to look at the garden around the feet and enjoyed the people having lunch next to us and at the other tables. Our waitress was really friendly, she explained the specials of the day (four) and brought still water, bread and butter and our porcupine wine. Lovely taste, nicely cooled and clean glasses. Cheers and back where we left it late last night! There was a whole in our tablecloth by the way, that said and done, we had a look at the menu on a blackboard.
Not really hip or fashionable menu's but I figured maybe that is not what they want to represent. A good variety of the menu but when we drove there we figured this would be a restaurant without boring peri peri chicken livers on the menu, unfortunately it had. Still, the other dishes were promising.

We ordered Escargots baked in Wine, Garlic and Gorgonzola

& Aged Brie wrapped in Phillo Pastry, with Strawberry and Hazelnut as starters. 

 

The Gorgonzola taste was very strong, you could not taste the fucking escargots anymore. Last week we had canned Escargots from Pick & Pay, cooked in the oven with garlic and butter. To be honest, our own easy Escargots tasted better. Too much Gorgonzola guys!
The Aged Brie was okay, I missed the strong Brie taste so I wondered how 'Aged' it was. I loved the combination with the sauce though and the fresh salad on the side.

For main course we picked Pork Fillet Medaillons with a peanut, wasabi and coconut sauce & Beef Fillet Special topped with bacon, pepersauce and brie.

                                                 The Pork Medallions

were tender and had a lovely taste but full sauce. I could not finish the dish, not even half because of this. We took this dish home as a doggy bag and were surprised how much the bag weighted! That mush have been a real challenge for my stomach!

The Beef Special with Brie AND Bacon was too filling as well. It is just too much that your resend the taste after a few bites. Even though de Beef is cooked properly, and the fries were crunchy, too rich! Full cream, rich cheeses and bacon in all dishes we had, our stomachs are not up for that amount of fat!

After main course the waitress forgot us a bit so we enjoyed the rest of the wine, and peeked on the dessert menu. The only thing we could think of ordering was two scoops of vanilla ice cream to share. In my opinion it would have looked better in a bowl but anyway.

Once home we experience that feeling you could have after Christmas dinner, the rich food makes you sleepy and that's what we did. Not eating anything for the rest of the day, as we still felt overeaten at dinner time.

Overall experience?
Okay.

Value for money?
It was promising at first but the food did not value the money.

Food         2/5
Service     3/5
Ambiance 2/5

Overall review
2.3

Warm regards,

Abigail Summer