Mt Olive Cusine & Market

Fyi, this location and do not know where they moved.

I found this business today and found Jamal to be extremely helpful with my questions on lamb preparations! This is a great place and will certainly go back! Very good service and lamb very fresh!

I’ve seen good reviews of this place, so I come in and try to order a lamb shish kabob. The guy behind the counter says they don’t have any lamb. Well, that’s funny, because someone after me buys whole cuts of lamb to take home.
So I order the beef shish kabob instead. Now mind you, I’m the only person who has ordered any food. It took them at least 20 minutes to make me two kabobs and really crappy rice. First off, they keep the meat on the stick, so you have to struggle to get the meat off. Second, the meat has GRISTLE IN IT. I’ve NEVER had a kabob that had gristle in it until now. Third, the meat was very chewy and some of it was char burned. Fourth, I try the rice and it’s fairly lukewarm and tasteless — I have a feeling it had been sitting around for awhile. I ask for some sumac to try and drown out how tasteless the rice is, but it does not help.
Ok, so the restaurant food sucks, but what about the market? I bought some canned pickles that I found out later had an expiration date of December 2010. Great. A lot of the food also looked like it had been there awhile, because some of the cans were a little grimy.
Overall, this place is terrible and I’m not going back. If you want good actually good middle eastern food, go to Casablanca on Poplar in East Memphis.

The people working were extremely friendly and hospitable.
The food is delicious and fresh, as you can see them preparing it in the back.
You can dine in, as they have chairs, but your food comes in a togo box if you want to go.
It’s also a Mediterranean market, which is neat if you want to purchase some authentic Greek food to cook yourself.