Oleana Review

Overall rating: 91

Food rating: 94

Oleana: Excellent food in Inman Square

We ate at Oleana back in February, 2013 and again in April. It takes weeks to get Saturday night reservations there.

This is clearly one of the top restaurants in Cambridge, and probably the best one serving non-American/non-European food. The cuisine is mostly Turkish, with wonderful spiced dishes and aromas.

The space is nice but tightly packed. On our first visit, I was seated facing toward a wall that was long enough that really there was nothing to see other than the wall without swiveling my head. Other tables were close, but the noise level was low enough that it was possible to talk and be heard, yet loud enough that conversation across the table felt reasonably private. Not so on our second visit. We were so close to other tables that conversation couldn't really be private, and it was impossible for the woman sitting at the table next to us to leave without risking her rear-end brushing the food on our table.

Our server was great on the first visit. We asked for recommendations and he was happy to make suggestions, all of which were excellent. We also had a number of questions about the food that he got answers to after checking with the kitchen. The server the second visit wasn't as helpful with recommendations, but was very good about not rushing us.

Each time, we were given three kinds of bread (including some near cubes of bread that I did not recognize but were very good and much softer than they looked), served with olive oil.

On the first visit, for appetizers, we had quail kebab which was very good, and tamarind-glazed beef and eggplant that was wonderful. On the second visit, we had beef kibbeh nayyeh (I think) which was very nice, asparagus fatteh with chick peas and pine nuts that was interesting and tasty, and sfela cheese saganaki with sesame and figs that was and incredibly interesting blend of flavors. My wife really loved this last dish; I liked it a lot.

For main dishes on the first visit, we had scallops with a butternut squash crispy pie that was also wonderful, and a striped bass special that was very good except that the fishy taste of the bass didn't work all that well with the spices. On the second visit, we had the scallops again (again wonderful), and tamarack tunic lamb with Turkish spices which was excellent but had a lot of similar flavors to the kibbeh nayyeh; I wouldn't really want to have both in the same meal.

There was a comment on TripAdvisor that the food was too salty to eat, and this had me concerned before our first visit as I've felt like a lot of restaurants are oversalting things lately. However, while there were many spices and tastes mixed together, I did not find things to be overly salty and thought the level of spice was exactly right.

For dessert the first visit, we had Turkish-style profiteroles that are served with warm salep, a drink made from orchid root (one of our questions for our server was about this). You sip the salep along with the profiteroles. This was different and all very tasty. We also got the tangerine caramel parfait with a chocolate tart and Aleppo honeycomb (the Aleppo chili was another question). This was very good, but not as exciting as it sounded. The second visit, we got the chocolate pave, the best part of which was a wonderful labneh sorbet with kumquats, and the baked Alaska, which was really good.

Overall, both times were really great meals. They were also quite expensive meals with glasses of wine at $13 each and all the dishes several dollars more than you might see at comparably good restaurants in the area. The biggest downside to Oleana is how tightly packed everyone is. There is apparently outdoor seating once the weather gets good, and I look forward to trying this down the road.