Olive Mediterranean Grill

Visited Olive after having visited a similar location in Lincoln Park. This is the perfect food on the go option. Or casual quick lunch. The quality exceeds most sit down options. The choices are great and everything is so tasty and fresh. I have to admit the Baba Ganoush is the best I’ve ever tasted in my life. The staff is friendly and helpful. Highly recommend.

I’m typically a fan of this place. Great food, great customer service, and quick. Today there was challenge. I ordered a steak shawarma sandwich and asked for a some of the Persian yogurt (usually referred to as Tzatziki) in my sandwich. Having only ordered plates before, I didn’t know there was a policy about not being to add an additional sauce to the sandwich. I said I’d pay for some. They said I could buy a side which was $ 3.79. Mind you the side is a large amount that come with pita. Needless to say, it was a turned into pointless argument that didn’t need to be an argument. I then noticed two separate customers that ordered played and had small sides of sauces in little plastic cups… which was exactly what I was asking for. Needless to say, the customer service was sub par. It’s things like this that leave a lasting impression in decisions to return.

Good healthy food with a nice staff. The protein sizes are good and filling! I got the hummus with Mediterranean salad and chicken kabob and Mediterranean chicken and potatoes!

Got take out for lunch. Everything was very tasty and flavorful and the service was fast and friendly.

One star off. At the end of the day, like in the last hour or so, you run the risk of getting served tougher meat from the middle of the spit. Definitely not the same experience.

They are best for catering, buying in bulk. I would NOT buy on individual basis because the pricing is super odd and you can get more for your money elsewhere. Deffinetly a crowd pleaser! The hummus is unreal!
Hummus (⁵⁄₅): Freshly made, with some uncrushed garbanzos on top.
Lentil Soup (⁵⁄₅): not too salty, yellow lentils, spiced to perfection!
Falafel (³⁄₅): pretty good, a little too oily for me, made with green garbanzos

Great food! Diverse options, good service, large space that lets you chill and talk to friends for as long as you want. A little expensive in my opinion though; it pains me a little whenever I let them swipe my card for the almost $ 10 bowl of chicken shawarma.
Compared to NafNaf, I would say OMG is better in many ways except the pita bread — there’s nothing quite like NafNaf pita bread… Overall great place :)

Fast, fresh, and healthy! I’m a huge fan of the OMG (Olive Mediterranean Grill) Plates. It comes with a spread (Hummus, Baba, Persian Yogurt), Vegetables, Grain, half a pita, and a protein! You can get half and half a protein. An extra pita costs only 50 cents. Baklavas are a cheap and tasty add on! Also I really like the soup with a twist if I aren’t as hungry. They add some rice and chicken to their lentil soup and it is quite filling as well. There are a lot of seats behind the front area and the space is very clean. The tables are kind of close to each other though.
I find their food slightly more acidic than most places but I find it more cleansing and refreshing!

This place was recommended to me by several of my friends and it’s pretty good!
The interior is really clean and the girl behind the counter is really helpful as she explained the menu to me. I’ve had pretty good experience overall.
They’re pretty generous the food they dump on your OMG plate (ha, clever). Beef shawarma is always the go to choice for me, along with yogurt, Mediterranean salad, and rice. Their food is flavorful and well cooked. Yum Yum.

OMG what a disappointment!
I heard good things about this place but was disappointed.
The place itself looked dirty and not inviting at all, and the fooed looks not fresh.
I had the OMG plate with hummus, salad and chicken shawarma. The hummus was TERRIBLE. I’ll admit I have high standards for hummus, because we make it at home (ours is delicious by the way) and because I’m originally from Israel. I know hummus. This one was terrible. tasted like something that was prepared 5 days ago and was left outside. The salad and chicken shawarma were ok but I’ve had better.
Don’t think I will be back again.

I had heard such good things about this place a while ago, should have checked the most recent reviews before trying it. Horrible food, dirty space, $ 2 extra for beef shawarma that looks like someone’s leftovers… This was easily the worst dining experience I had in Evanston. The only things I could eat from the combo plate was the yogurt and the salad, which were bearable.
Worst part is, there is an awesome Middle Eastern restaurant just a few blocks south east (I think it’s name is olive mountain) with friendly staff and a much better version of this food. Oh yeah in case you were fooled by the title, this crap ain’t Mediterranean: no olive oil in the salad, no basil or oregano whatsoever, no lemon for the soup? Argh I’m so mad I ate here without checking Unilocal

On this block of Sherman Ave. you have two choices for Mediterranean food, Olive Mediterranean Grill (OMG) or Naf Naf. Between the two, I think OMG has better-​tasting food for a higher price, while Naf Naf gives slightly larger portions of decent food for a cheaper price. Service at both establishments is similar. You can’t go wrong with either choice, so pick the one that suits your situation.

When this place first opened I would’ve rated it 5 stars in a snap! The food was amazing! But, things have, very sadly, gone downhill.
The first thing they did was make the portions smaller. I always get an OMG plate with either kabob or schwarma, and baba ghanoush. At first it was an amazing deal for the amount and quality of food that you got. But, then they got smaller containers and the price stayed the same. The food was still good, so I kept going, though.
This last time I went, however, I was seriously disappointed. The portions were still the same, but now they charge an extra $ 2 if you want a beef option. $ 2 is quite the upcharge for choosing beef over chicken. On top of that, it was grossssss! I was so disappointed. What used to be the best baba ghanoush around was just mediocre and the beef schwarma tasted like vomit. I wish I was exaggerating, but I couldn’t eat it :-(
Whatever you were doing in the beginning, Olive, go back to that, because you used to be stellar! Now, I don’t have any desire to return :-(

My acupuncture school moved down the block and I am exploring the culinary option. A few classmates have gotten food there, so it’s worth a try.
I got an OMG plate (which I thought would be to much food since I generally don’t eat large plates), but it was perfect. Falafel, baba ghanoush, mediter. salad and the couscous, with a pita and side of tahini — loved it all. Final bill was over $ 10 (no drink), but I bet it’s one of the healthiest vegan options around. Nice staff, clean, pretty, I got to eat a meal in peace. :)

Hmmm… It’s been over 1.5 years since this place opened, and even though I originally gave them a 5 star review, I’m no longer as impressed. Firstly, they got rid of their couscous, which was delicious. Also, they raised their prices. A plate is now almost $ 9 before tax, and you have to add an additional 99 cent for steak. Not as worth it anymore with Naf Naf grill just a few blocks away.
The food is still good, even though the chicken is sometimes dry, and service is pleasant, but I think it’s not enough bang for your buck.
Worth going to if you literally only have 3 minutes to spare and want to get some instant healthy (ish) food.

Good, reasonably priced Mediterranean fast food. The sandwiches are $ 6.00 and the OMG plates (which is a sizable portion unless you’re very hungry) are $ 8.00. There are also tapas options if you just want a side of hummus, baba ghanoush, or Persian yogurt spread.
The concept is like a chipotle or subway, where you go through a line and choose what you want. Here, it’s:
–Spread
–Salad
–Protein
–Rice
The food comes out fast and there’s plenty of seating both out front near the serving area and out in back. I got the OMG chicken plate and was satisfied with my meal. The flavors were good, but everything was just a tad overstated. The chicken was tender and spiced well, while I felt that the persian yogurt spread was the standout piece of the dish. It was refreshing and creamy, and the perfect complement to the basmati rice and chicken. The tabouli was also very good and the veggies tasted fresh. As I mentioned before, the portion was quite large, and I could have easily shared with my lunch companion had I known.
My lunch companion was not that hungry and just got the baba ghanoush tapas with pita. Neither of us enjoyed it that much. It was very salty and also green. I had never seen green baba ghanoush before and it lacked the delicious chunky eggplant texture and garlicky flavor.
Overall, good spot to grab lunch. I just hope the next time it won’t be so salty!

I rarely give a restaurant such a poor rating, but «the policies» of this place leave me no choice.
I’ve eaten at the Loop location several times before and have always been satisfied with the food and service. Something has definitely changed.
Unfortunately, at their Evanston location on a Sunday night there were three young guys who were clearly so scared of breaking the rules and losing their job that they completely ruined our dining experience.
While waiting in line, I asked for a taste of the baba ghanoush dip. Any other place would take a plastic spoon, however small, and give me enough to determine if I like it. I’m not joking, this place plunged a toothpick into the dip. That was the taste.
We ordered two of their OMG plates and a sandwich, which includes a salad, starch and meat. Their scoops (ie portion control) were exceptionally small. I asked the server to add a little more humus as the amount he gave was embarrassingly small (and wasn’t even a full ladle). He said he could not.
My son asked that the humus that was part of his sandwich be put on the side. They said that would break the rules even though it was part of his sandwich. Amazing.
Humus is one of the least expensive foods to make. We paid for it, but they refused to give it to us because he didn’t want it in the sandwich.
There is no feeling worse than be nickeled and dimed. One of the reasons I go out to eat is to experience the feeling of abundance, not scarcity. What was even more shocking is that the employees agreed with me but were completely powerless to make the situation right.
We go out for Middle Eastern food at least once a week. I’m going to think long and hard about returning here despite the well made food.
This would never happen at Pita Inn or Naf Naf’s.

Wow. I was surprised by this place actually. I came in expecting another typical Arab shwarma experience. However, I get this strong gut feeling that this place is secretly a Persian place under disguise!
I ordered an $ 8 platter that came out to a total of $ 8.72 with tax. You get 3 sides (a scoop of spread, a scoop of salad, and two scoops of rice) and your choice of protein.
For my spread, of course, I chose the Persian yogurt. In Farsi, this is popularly know as «Mast o Khiar» which translates as «yogurt and cucumber». This is perhaps the most premium mast o khiar that I have yet to experience save for my mother’s and own creations. Perfect amount of salt, thick and creamy yogurt, and the cucumbers were just small enough to distinguish from the rest.
The salad is also under the veil of the «Mediterranean disguise». This is actually a popular regional salad from Iran called «salad e Shirazi», or «the salad of Shiraz», a very popular city in southern Iran. This salad had the perfect amount of lime/​lemon juice, not to sour, but a kick strong enough that makes you crave it more.
For the rice, you have two options: basmati rice or the brown rice. I chose the brown rice vegetable blend, bit I wish I had asked for half of each. The basmati rice looked Persian-​esque but the staff told me the brown rice had saffron in the brown rice. Unfortunately, I was unable to taste the saffron, but I think this brown rice is what makes this place extra unique and label it as a healthy place to enjoy ethnic food because this is probably the chef’s specialty who is probably very attentive to healthy eating. Brown rice has a lot of fiber in there, the veggies obviously do what veggies do, and I believe there is some quinoa in there but I didn’t pay too close to detail.
Protein: chose the chicken kabob because it was orange (probs from tumeric), something representative of Persian chicken kabobs, also known as «jooje kabob». Big, juicy, lean, and a nice kick with the added spice on top of that. I think that description does it the perfect amount of justice. Would buy again.
I should add you also get a small half pita with the plate. I used it most for the mast o khiar but save some to made a kabob mini-​wrap («loghme»).
Staff: amazing. Went out of their way to explain options without me even asking them. Fast and efficient.
Atmosphere: very new and elegant, but casual classy. Great lighting. Chill elevator music. Somewhat busy for a small place — about 8 people in here right now for an early lunch (11:30pm). Plentiful seating and more tables in the back. Clean entrance and overall shop.
Props to the owner for doing a good job Americanizing this place and making it popular among students and other residents of Evanston.

So I took a few weeks off coming here came back and the difference was night and day. The first issue is that we used to get a corporate discount, since we came here frequently and brought a lot of the office. We were notified that the discount was not approved by management, even though we had been getting it for 2 years. I would be willing to overlook that, but on top of that the prices doubled. My tapas went from $ 2.50 to $ 4.50. Also the hummus went from $ 2.50 to $ 3.50 and on top of that it was the worst hummus I’ve ever had. I honestly believe that it been sitting out for multiple days. It was simply gross!!! I spent a ton of money and told countless people about this place, but I’m fairly certain that I’m never coming back here.
Previous review before changes:
This is my new obsession! I always go tapas, because I am obsessed with the hummus and the spicy chicken. The food is always fresh and it’s so much better than Naf Naf. Don’t get me wrong Naf Naf still has my favorite Pita, but the portions, price, and quality are far superior here. The manager Jessie is always welcoming and the rest of the staff is quick and friendly. I am frugal when it comes to my lunch, but OMG is affordable, fresh, and always hits the spot.

I like! If you are in a hurry or just don’t feel like making yourself something to eat, OMG is a great alternative. There are plenty of options to choose from and all are pretty healthy. What I like about OMG is it’s a different flavor of the «healthy fast food» options like Chipotle or Pret-​a-​Manger (owned by BK and McD’s, respectively, btw). Unlike Pret, you can can a hot plate of food and it offers more variety than Chipotle.
I can’t in good conscience give a chain more than 3 stars but does deserve a solid 3.5.