Olio Restaurant - Al Yamm Villa Resort

I’ve traveled all over the world and eaten at many terrible restaurants, but this was on another level of incompetence. We waited over 1 hour and 20 minutes for our food while the restaurant had only 4 tables occupied. During this ridiculous wait, empty dishes were left on the table, not cleared, and no apology, no bread, no drinks, no compensation of any kind was offered while we waited for the main dishes. When the food finally arrived, it was excessively oily, bland, and completely overpriced. The menu and pricing pretend this is a 10-star Michelin restaurant, but the reality is disorganized, careless, and unprofessional. To make it worse, when we complained, we were told they were prioritizing in-room orders over dine-in guests. That says everything about how little they respect customers sitting in the restaurant. Poor service, poor food, zero accountability. Hands down one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. Absolutely disgraceful.

We visited Olio twice during our two night stay, even though we were staying at a different resort because it is that good. Their complementary bread was super oily, very flavorful, and just perfect. The lasagna was soft, and bursting with flavor. The calzone was simple and elegant. The roasted potatoes were delicious too. On the second day we tried the vegetarian pizza and it had character, the zucchini + bell peppers + black olives was a great combo. The baked eggplant was excellent too. We ordered Grandmother's Apple embrace for dessert, it was good but not great. Overall, I think this was one of my favorite Italian restaurants in UAE as the food was great and the atmosphere was different due to the surrounding nature and friendly animals.

Olio Restaurant has an eviable location, looking onto the white sand beach of Al Yamn Villa. The menu is extensive, featuring a choice of seven pizzas, two rissoto dishes, veal, pork, lamb, beef dishes, sebass and shrimps, and four pasta dishes. As you would expect from an island resort, the prices are on the premium end. The tempura and spaghetti al ollio with shrimp were average. The real stars of the menu were the apple pie and foccacia bread. The service was extraordinary - diligent, efficient, and gracious.

While we were staying at Al yams we had the full board package and we had all our meals here, me and my wife like to get a few dishes and share so we ended up eating through the entire menu. To start the restaurant was nice and spacious and we opted to go for later lunches and dinners and we always ate almost alone. The service was exceptional, our waiter was amazing and spoke extensively about what was fresh and what was popular and I am more then happy to take suggestions. There was a good selection of fresh pastas pizzas meats and other Italian classics which we absolutely loved! Our favorites were the sea bass, the grilled prawns, the steak and the pesto fettuccine which was made fresh and was stunning! A lot of the produce was local, the fish came from Ruwais and some items grown on the island, the eggs also came from the island which was great to see. The weakest course in my opinion was the desserts which I think could do with reviewing. My suggestion would be asking the waiter what’s fresh and you will be very happy

Excellent food with great service and attention to detail. We had the caprese, burrata, ravioli and ossobuco which were all really well prepared and right portion. Would absolutely go back when visiting.

Great atmosphere with great staff here. Ordered lasagna, fried gambás and sea-bream. All tasted very good. Though only one thing is that draft Stella tastes a little too sour which may come from its oldness. But all other things are just fantastic.

The restaurant ambiance is very nice with pool sitting area. You must try the quattro formaggi pizza, fried prawns and zucchini and delicious tiramisu. The staff is very professional and kids friendly. Special thanks to Angel who helped us select some of the best food on the menu.