If you go to Olive & Ivy, skip the appetizers.
Sam Fox, the Scottsdale entrepeneur who’s launched a dozen successful Fox Restaurant Concepts, no doubt would wince to hear my advice about his stylish eye-candy emporium nestled between Scottsdale Fashion Square and the Arizona Canal.
Not that there’s anything wrong with its California-meets-Mediterranean starters. But trust me: You’ll want more than one slice of Olive & Ivy’s hearty bread. Fresh from the oven and sliced thick, it comes with pesto-infused olive oil and, best of all, it’s free.
On my first visit, I don’t discover how tasty the bread is until after I order an appetizer. I don’t make that “mistake” on subsequent visits. The only challenge is not to spoil the rest of my meal, because most of the entrees I sample at Olive & Ivy are just as impressive.
Take the braised short rib ($27, pictured below), a flavorful and impossibly tender square of beef resting on a creamy bed of mascarpone polenta. The following day, I still can’t get it out of my mind.
• See a slideshow of more Olive & Ivy photos
Same goes for large ravioli stuffed with ground veal and spinach in a rich cheese sauce ($21), and a subtly spiced curry chicken salad with toasted almonds ($11).
Even side dishes delight. Seared scallops are accompanied by rectangular agnolotti, similar to ravioli, filled with truffled corn ($26). Alaskan halibut is paired with a delicious casserole of pasta, sweet corn, asparagus and cheese ($27).
The only things I try that fail to register on the “wow” meter are fig and proscuitto flatbread ($14), whose salty-sweet balance tilts too far toward the latter, and a turkey, havarti cheese and strawberry-rhubarb jam sandwich on soft walnut bread ($11), which cries out for a crunchy element.
Desserts, however, have no letdowns. The sour cherry crossaint bread pudding ($7, pictured below) is my favorite, but a close second are the strawberry-rhubarb fritters, golfball-sized spheres dusted with cinnamon-sugar and served with a vanilla dipping sauce ($7).
One word of warning: Olive & Ivy is loud. As in difficult-to-carry-on-a-conversation loud. But you’ll probably be too busy trying to take in the eye-catching décor anyway.
An array of orange and yellow lamps hang from an angled wood panel suspended from the high ceiling. Reddish-orange drapes frame floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on a waterfront patio with lots of upholstered furniture.
It’s easy to see why the patio is one of Scottsdale’s nightlife hotspots during cooler months, filled with see-and-be-scenesters sipping one of nearly 40 wines available by glass or bottle or one of 10 beer selections, including Italy’s Peroni.
Olive & Ivy
Where: 7135 E. Camelback Road, Scottsdale (between Goldwater Boulevard and Scottsdale Road)
Open: Lunch and dinner daily; brunch Saturday and Sunday
Info: (480) 751-2200 or foxrc.com/olive_ivy.html
Twitter
Facebook
Well.. Im home from Olive and Ivy. I have to say. Deeply unimpressed. Before our meal we opted to have some salads. I had a salad called the Mediterranean. It was ok at best. The highlight of this salad was the toasted almonds. They were sweet bits of delight. The dressing claimed to be oregano based, but it lacked any and all flavor of oregano. The cucumbers in the salad over powered all other flavors. The lady chose a classic caesar salad to start off the evening. It was as good as the salad as you get from your grocers refrigerated section in the produce department. It might have even been Dole branded. Accompanying our salads were room temperature sliced bread and a pesto like sauce. The bread had a almost focaccia like quality to it but there was no crispness to it. It was soft from crust to the inter most part of the loaf. The pesto creation was good. Fresh and tasty. I put a bit of freshly ground pepper on my piece of bread and that really enhanced the flavor of this accompaniment. After our salads I was looking forward to the main course because I was hoping that this was not going to be the theme to the rest of my night. Now time for the main course…. I had the ribeye. The demi glace was burned. It tasted very bitter. A good demi should be slightly sweet. The ribeye was swimming in this sauce that disgraced all of the mother sauces. It had sides of garlic spinach and a potato puree. The spinach was cold. Popeye wouldn’t even touch this stuff. The menu claimed there was garlic in the spinach. I tasted it. I think not. As for the potatoes…it was like eating very soft luke warm yogurt with a fork. They should have placed a spoon on the plate to eat the potatoes with. On a good note. The steak was cooked to medium like I requested. The lady had Ricotta Cavatelli. The menu described it as a traditional bolognese and with pecorino cheese. Was that jalapeno that I tasted in the sauce? Way too spicy to be called traditional. Nothing out standing about this meal. No flavors came through….sauce was not simmered for more then five minutes. It didnt have the deep complexities that good pasta sauces are suppose to have. It was not like your grandma or mom cooked…ever… Over all. The company that was with us at Olive and Ivy was great. That was the biggest plus to the place. So if you want to go there and eat..bring some quality people..cause you will not experience quality on your plate. One major nod to Olive and Ivy is the service. I have to admit. It was good. A little slow to sit with reservations. Still waited well over a 1/2 hour but the staff was helpful.
Thanks for sharing J.. this place IS very disappointing.. from the lackluster food (have they ever heard of what’s called salt?) and presentation to the subpar service.. out waiter and one of the managers was so busy hitting on a table of girls they they didn’t noticed we were not only out of wine but water as well.
This place is all eye candy but on our last and last visit the cushions were dirty and the place was looking a bit work out.
You’ll notice that throughtout all Jess Harter’s reviews, there is a tendency to pull the punches, just in case there are some advertising dollars on the table with the restaurants he reviews ….. hardly an unbiased opinion …… same reason Nikki Buchanan got fired from Phoenix magazine ……..
BTW - Olive & Ivy has the lemmings standing in line for mediocrity ……