✭✭✭1/2
Review: Wild Olives in Boca Raton
By John Tanasychuk
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Important: This article was last updated on February 26, 2010. Please call ahead to confirm hours, prices, dates and other information.
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 Shops at Boca Center, 5050 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton 561-544-8000 wildolives.com Cuisine: American Cost: expensive Hours: lunch, dinner daily Reservations: any size party Credit cards: AE, MC, V Bar: full service Sound level: pleasantly conversational Outside smoking: yes For kids: high chairs, boosters, menu items on request Wheelchair accessible: yes  |
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First impression: While chef Todd English is the marquee name here and at some 20 more restaurants across the country, he couldn't have a better person in charge of the kitchen day-to-day than chef Jamie Pruitt. While I expected an English-style, Mediterranean menu, Wild Olives is contemporary American with modern riffs on Italian, Asian, even South Florida-style cuisine.Background: Southern Palm Beach County's hottest restaurant of the season is a partnership between English and three South Florida restaurateurs.
Ambience: Not much has changed since Opus 5 was housed in this same spot. It feels very big city sophisticated, with a glowing bar on one side of the room, big banquettes on the other and a dining room full of white table-clothed tables with comfortable chairs.
Starters: Long rectangular flat breads with thin crisp crusts are excellent shared starters. Margarita ($14) is the simplest, with a light layer of rich sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil. It will be difficult to go back and not order the Tomato Basil Bisque ($7) a bowlful of richness served with a grilled cheese crouton. A Boston Bibb and mache salad ($12) with blue cheese and shave red onion comes together perfectly, with a toasted walnut vinaigrette. Yellow fin tuna tartar ($16) comes bound inside a circular strip of cucumber on a plate dressed with rock shrimp, sesame dressing and whitefish caviar.
Entree excellence: While lots of thought has gone into what goes on each plate, presentation is never fussy or overly dramatic. Spicy rock shrimp, lump crab, arugula and tomato and are tossed with cavatelli ($26) in an extraordinary pasta. One of the best beef preparations I've sampled of late is the Brown Sugar Cured Bone In Rib-Eye ($31). It's not only tender (and literally juicy with veal jus), but comes with perfect parmesan whipped potatoes and an assortment of oven roasted root vegetables. Pan Seared Florida Grouper ($26) gets much of flavor from sherry butter, but that lobster polenta is a nice assist.
Sweet!: Desserts are as inventive as the savory side of the menu, with plates containing multiple complimentary elements. Chocolate Trifle ($8) starts with an intense piece of trifle decorated with whipped cream. Warm pecan chocolate chip cookies are the centerpiece of Cookies and Cream ($8), which are plated with vanilla gelato. Only the apple cobbler ($9) disappointed. The dish is described as being served with a buttermilk biscuit, but there was no visible biscuit or other pastry in this overly sweet concoction.
Service: Despite a few lapses and some confusion when dishes were delivered, service was much better than I'd heard from others. Some of the staff are carryovers from the previous restaurant.
Contact dining correspondent John Tanasychuk at jtanasychuk@sunsentinel.com or write to him in care of Sun Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301.