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| - Tucked away in a smallish strip mall next door to a Peruvian restaurant (the picture of the restaurant here is actually its former location, where the Peruvian place now is), Oliva's mix of Italian and Turkish cuisine is somewhat unexpected, but it's a good place for groups because almost everyone can find something.
When you sit down, you get a small basket of Turkish bread, which isn't like pita bread but more like squares of puffy, light foccaccia. We ordered the appetizer combo ($14), which included hummus, olive tapenade, Carrot Delight, and a slightly spicy red pepper dip. For entrees, our group was evenly split between Turkish and Mediterranean. I loved my beef shish kebab, especially the flavorful rice, which sort of reminded me of dim sum sticky rice. The yogurt sauce was envied by my calzone-ordering tablemates, although they were very happy with their giant calzones. The house salad comes with a tangy lemony vinaigrette that's really good and worth trying.
We came in fairly late, an hour before closing, when there was only one other table. Soon we were the only table, and from then on we were kind of obsessively stalked by our server, who was popping in every two minutes to refill the bread, ask if we needed anything else at all, and generally hurry us out the door. I didn't care for that part so much - if you're open till 9, you're open till 9. Quit bugging us about the damn bread.
In addition to the shish kebab and some veggie Turkish dishes, there's also a sprinkling of traditional pasta dishes, a few salads, and individual pizzas. Prices ranged from $12-16 for dinner entrees, and it looked like they also did some pizza delivery or takeout at the counter. The vibe is casual and friendly and overall I enjoyed it... that server just needs to chill out a little.
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