Olive has been fairly successful in the cities of Mumbai and Delhi, and by the looks of it, it seems to be just as successful in Bangalore. The entire credit possibly goes to the ambience. That's right, the ambience is excellent, but the food, far from it. Or perhaps we had just ordered the wrong item on the menu. However, even if you order wrong, at worst you should expect to dislike the taste somehow. What you don't expect is for the pasta to be chewey and taste like rubber dipped in oil.

The food was stale, and I woke up in the middle of the night with a horrific stomach ache. This is not what you expect when you go to an exclusive restaurant. The least one expects is food that doesn't make you sick. I guess tasty food is too much to ask for.

Although it's true that we did get served bad food, it is possible that certain other food, perhaps seafood or other non-pasta dishes were fresh. Or maybe it was a bad day. Perhaps the mistake we made was that we went on a Tuesday night. I wouldn't be surprised if we were served all that extra food that may have been prepared over the past weekend! If you must visit Olive, do play it safe and go on a Friday! The only thing I ate that seemed fresh was the bread in the basket.

The cocktails weren't good either, which was something that surprised me. It's not that difficult to stir up a good drink, is it? And if I can get a Screwdriver right, I wondered why the 'professionals' behind the bar couldn't.

So now that we figured out that the food was stale, not too tasty, and the drinks were average, we decided to skip trying to finish our meal and ruin our palates and stomachs, and asked for the bill. And what do we see? Service charges of 10% are included in the bill - possibly to guard against disgruntled customers choosing not to leave a generous enough tip. Also, many of us are so used to leaving a tip, we may not realise the tip is already factored into the bill. And of course the waiters aren't going to be stupid enough to tell you that! So if you don't read the bill carefully, you may end up tipping double! Remember, when at Olive, don't tip!

The place does get a thumbs up for ambience, though. They certainly didn't break the bank when decorating Olive, but the white cane chairs, coloured cushions, lanterns, flowers in mugs, all add to the casual chic look of the restaurant. Come here for some great ideas on decorating your home, come here to check out the crowd. Come here to hang out at the bar with friends, or come here to sit outside and enjoy the wonderful Bangalore weather. Don't come here for the food.