Olar Noso is a seasonally inspired Mediterranean restaurant that highlights Spanish tapas, paella, wood oven pizza and sangria. It is our favorite local all-around restaurant that is great for both celebrations and a casual-ish night out. The food is consistently solid, creative and the portions are big. We have been here enough times to have our favorites. The meatballs are so good- so tender in a tangy tomato sauce and burrata cheese that I have to ration myself to only a tiny dollop with each bite of meatball. All of their salads are always excellent and so fresh and again, the portions are so big we were able to share one generously between 2 or 3 people. We also always get the calamari which includes shrimp and fried zucchini. Their two dipping sauces are so good; the caper remoulade is smokey and creamy. I play a game of joust with my fork because I never know if I’m going to veer right for the pomodoro sauce or left for the caper remoulade until the very last split second.
The presentation of their food is always so wonderful. I almost always order the paella and it’s big enough for 2 to 3 people. The paella is good, not the best, but good enough that I’d order it again and again even with so many other things on the menu I haven’t tried yet. They have two kinds of paella: Valencia has seafood, chicken and chorizo while the Marinera is seafood only. I found the chicken to be dry in the Valencia but the seafood is plentiful and always cooked well. The last time we were there, Alfred had planned to order the Meat Lovers pizza, which is another dish we almost always order there. He had a last minute change of mind and he ordered the pork chops. I was obsessed with the potatoes in his dish and kept stealing them off his plate. They were so crispy on the outside and tender inside. His pork chop was good and cooked a nice medium, but FOMO hit him and he ended up ordering the Meat Lovers pizza halfway through his meal. I gladly took some pizza too.
Alejandro
Fried Calamari “Misto”
Mom’s Polpetti
Bucatini Amatriciana
Bacalao Matrimonnio
Wild Norwegian Salmon
Grilled Iberico-Duroc Pork Chop
Bone-in Cowboy Ribeye
Bodi had the cowboy ribeye and as you can see, he dug in before I can take a picture. Alfred and I have a general rule not to order steak from a non-steakhouse restaurant because we are always disappointed. But Bodi saw ribeye on the menu and couldn’t resist. He ordered it medium rare but it came closer to medium. It was ok, but not great. My cod was cooked perfectly and again, portion was very generous. I wasn’t crazy about the scalloped potatoes and the flavor of the whole dish was unremarkable. Good but nothing that wowed me.
Overall, a very solid restaurant. It gets so busy and noisy but we are ok with that. The biggest standout is the service. Always attentive, friendly, they know the menu and drinks, water glasses always get filled, tables unobtrusively cleaned between each serving and just all-around excellent to the point where it’s just noticeable how great the service is. During one visit a few months ago, our entrées took a little longer than usual to arrive. Not terribly long, but just enough to start wondering where our food is. And we were just happy to continue to wait because we have been there enough times to know that they won’t forget us. A manager came by unsolicited, apologized for the delay, and told us dessert is on the house. We really appreciated that they did notice without us having to say anything.
Overall, the food is consistently good, the presentation is so nice, the portions are big, the quality of the food is excellent and the service is the best you can get.
8 out of 10 from me.
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