Gina Agderian
Google
Recently ate at Olympia Tea Room with my husband during a recent weekend trip to RI. The restaurant is located in downtown Watch Hill, but unless you have a window seat or you’re sitting outside, you don’t really get much of a view of the water, if that’s something you’re looking for.
The interior of the restaurant is very cool. Dark wood, very old New England. There is history in this restaurant, which we appreciated.
We arrived early on a Saturday and were starving after a long day of mansion tours in Newport. We were seated promptly and got lucky with a window seat. The service, like the food, was “fine.” Not amazing, not horrible. My husband got the pizza appetizer and said it was good…we are from the NYC area, so we are pizza snobs. I had the avocado carpaccio, which was refreshing and satisfying. We both had a burger as our entree, and they were, again, fine. The bun was dry and the burger was well done when I had requested medium, but it wasn’t horrible.
All this to say, the prices for food that is just “fine” are absolutely outrageous. My husband and I live right outside the culinary capital of the country, and the prices at Olympia Tea Room match those of NYC, but the quality is lacking. I understand that it’s Watch Hill, and I don’t mind paying extra for great food and service, but I’ve eaten at many excellent restaurants in wealthy parts of the Jersey shore that, while not inexpensive, deliver in both food and service and justify their prices. I feel like there is such a huge opportunity to make this an absolute knock-your-socks-off restaurant, and it’s really just missing the mark. Our table wasn’t entirely clean upon arrival, my fork was dirty, and while I know it isn’t supposed to be a “fancy” restaurant, the details are important when charging the prices that they charge.
Something that rubbed me the wrong way was that there were two guests that were leaving while we were eating. One was an elderly guest with mobility issues. One of the staff members (hostess, manager, not sure…she wasn’t a server) moved out of their way, but did not take the extra step to open the door for the guest with mobility issues (they had a walker). The woman just looked at them as they left. Not a huge deal, but it doesn’t matter what type of restaurant it is…if you see an older guest (or any guest) who has trouble walking, you should hold the door open for them instead of standing near them and watching them leave.
Olympia Tea Room has a lot of potential, but unfortunately, this is a one and done for us.