Olive Branch

Wonderful place with very nice staff. Simple and yummy Mediterranean food. They finally redecorated (slightly) their establishment after 10+ years. Very nice spot for take out lunch at the Bonaventure.

Came here for lunch one day and tried the beef kabob wrap. This place is very hole-​in-​the-​wall and is surrounded by other restaurants that look like they don’t get too much foot traffic. The wrap itself was decent, it was a little on the salty side and fell apart pretty easily. Also, the food took a little long to order, despite their only being one other customer in the store.
Overall, decent place to go to if you’re craving this cuisine, but not the quickest place to grab a bite

I often don’t eat dinner until 8:30/9:00 which limits my options within the hotel to grab something quick. I was glad to find the Olive Branch still open this evening. I got a chicken salad with pita bread & hummus. Wow — what a deal for only $ 7! The chicken was cooked to order over a fire grill & quite tasty. Healthy and delicious — give it a try!

I Unilocaled good food, and this place popped up. I’m always on the hunt for good grub at a good price, so I tried it as a lunch option near work in DTLA.
The lady behind the counter couldn’t understand my questions & didn’t recommend anything — maybe there was a language barrier. The older man there helped get my order going, so I perked up after that! I got the half chicken, greek salad & potato salad. Service took awhile — only because the order in front of me was about 10 orders in one — and mostly for the falafel sandwich — which I may try the next time.
The salads were freshly made, and tasty. They do pile it on, I ate this for 2 meals+. The reason for only 3 stars? The main attraction I was reading about was the roasted chicken. The ½ was a huge portion, granted, but it was really, really bland. The garlic sauce everyone raved about was ok — it had flavor, but I was expecting minced garlic pieces in it — it was more of a creamy sauce than anything else. I used it on the chicken, but it just wasn’t enough seasoning :(

My co-​workers and I often go here for lunch. We love this place for the RIDICULOUS amount of food they stuff in each box. You’ll end up paying way less for this much food anywhere around. Most people get chopped chicken with all salad for sides. You can also get warm rice, pita chips, and pita bread. Come earlier to avoid less choices and long lines!

The food is fresh, made to order and reasonably priced. Their falafel is some of the best around and they are EXTREMELY generous with the side salads. Go for the hummus and the salsa & chips. DO call your order in ahead of time if you are in a hurry. This is NOT fast food. So, everything is slowly and meticulously prepared. The old guy doesn’t smile much, but he truly has a heart of gold.

Got dinner here between sessions of my conference in the Westin. Olive Branch turned out to be not only cheap but quite good. I got grilled salmon, which came with basmati rice and a Greek salad. I wasn’t sure what to expect at $ 6.95 — especially considering how expensive everything else around here is. But what I got was a very generous– and quite delicious– meal that more than kept me full through the remainder of my meeting.
The salmon was a decent-​sized piece, and the quality was good. It wasn’t seasoned, so I’m glad I accepted the garlic sauce that was offered. As others have noted, the sauce’s consistency is a little disconcerting (something about its semi-​solid, room-​temperature state seems to scream «trans fat»), so I used it sparingly. The rice was well cooked though unseasoned as well. And the salad was excellent– very fresh, with feta and a nice, light, lemony dressing. Excellent, really.
The gentleman working is not very communicative and moves rather deliberately, which might explain why some reviewers find him not terribly approachable. I thought he seemed nice enough– there was a language barrier, but he was certainly pleasant and did a great job preparing my food.
You won’t have your food immediately– but you’ll have something that was freshly prepared AFTER you ordered it. It took a while– but part of that time, the salmon was cooking, and during the rest the gentleman was cutting up tomatoes for the salad. Just not going to complain about that. I’d definitely come back– just not if I were in a hurry.

Ordered the shish kebab and it was disgusting. Dry, old, no flavor. It was not fresh — i saw the owner reheat previously cooked meat. From the hard dry chewy texture he clearly cooked it 1 – 2 days earlier.

The best falafel sandwich I’ve ever had. Homemade flavors and large portions. The tabouli and hummus are really good, too! So is the half chicken… moist and cooked to perfection. Cash only.

I’ve been coming here for almost 10 years and Tony is STILL the man. A rare establishment that offers both quantity and quality for a CHEAP price. I hate to give this secret away, but I have to be grateful to those who treat me well. In all honesty, I’ve been coming to downtown LA about once a week for the past 3 years and I eat lunch here 95% of the time. That won’t be changing anytime soon.

I only really come here for one thing: garlic sauce. This ain’t your ordinary garlic sauce from say, Zankou… the Olive Branch’s version has a much stronger garlic flavor and the consistency of mayo. I try not to think about what they use to make it, but it’s so painfully obvious. If that kind of thing bothers you, there’s no point coming here.
Their menu is sort of weird; I don’t think I’ve ever ordered off it. My co-​workers introduced me to this place and they always order chopped chicken (explanation to come) so that’s what I’ve always gotten. Chopped chicken is grilled chicken breast, chopped up into slightly-​bigger-​than-​bite-​size pieces. It’s… okay. Sometimes the outside pieces are dry. Why do I keep getting it? It goes great with the garlic sauce, duh! I always ask for extra garlic sauce and the lady behind the counter usually makes fun of me, which normally I’d be fine with, but she totally makes me feel fat. I kind of hate her for that.
If you become a regular here, beware of fluctuating prices! I order the same thing every time, yet I pay around $ 5.50, +/​-​$ 0.50. It’s almost as if the owner just pulls a number out of thin air that day. Maybe he has a reason, who knows. I’m too afraid to ask him… sometimes I get a Soup Nazi vibe from him.

The food is absolute garbage. The space in unkempt and needs a to be wiped down with a gallon of bleach. The man/​woman behind the counter are less than friendly.
At your own risk, I think I saw the man swat a cockroach while he was serving my coworkers food!!!

From reading through the other reviews I expected to be giving a higher rating… but in good conscience I can’t give more than 3 stars for my first visit.
First, I had a little difficulty finding them and almost walked past. I didn’t realize it literally IS a hole-in-the-wall…not that that’s a bad a thing necessarily. So then I walked in and was confused because I didn’t really understand the menu on the wall. So I basically told the lady behind the counter it was my first time and what did she recommend? She steered me to the chicken fillet… so I went with it. It was good, not great. It tasted like my Ddad’s BBQ’d chicken.
I took rice, tabouleh, and hummus with pita. The pita wasn’t even a whole pita, but one-​half. It’s ok I didn’t eat it all. The tabouleh was a lot different than I’ve had before; it was mostly parsley. Pretty darn good I admit. The rice was ordinary. The hummus was really good and plentiful. Maybe it’s just me but overall it seemed something was missing. Perhaps I should have opted for potatoes not rice?
The owners were friendly as everyone as said.

My coworkers have been talking about this place for some time now and I finally got to try it out. Oh boy, I wish I would have come by this place before, loved it.
The food is good, the portions generous, and prices are amazing for DTLA at $ 6.25 for a full combo.
This place does get busy at lunch since everything is made fresh and only 2 — 3 people run the show. So I would not recommend going around the 12 – 2 lunch rush.
I had the ¼ chicken with salad, hummus, chips, and amazing garlic sauce.
The owner was very nice and friendly. I’m a BIG fan of mom and pop shop like this.
CASH ONLY

Did a ton of food for our big group, most everything was good, chicken was a bit dry, but hummus, falafel and baklava were amazing!

The Olive Branch is a great place to grab a good reasonably priced lunch in downtown. It can get busy at times because the meat is cooked fresh.
Bring your appetite as they will pile on the sides from salads, chips, rice and tabouli. Their hummus is very good and is made fresh.
the place is small and does not look like much but give this place a chance and you wont regret it.

I was on vacation for a few weeks before It hit me. It started as a strange sensation that made my taste buds tingle. I woke up the next day and all I could think about was how much I missed the Olive Branch’s chicken lunch special. It consumed my life. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat anything else, I couldn’t talk to my family about it, I just needed to get back to the OB. Almost cutting my vacation short, I was only content when I was back standing outside this small, outdated, faded little place in the wonderfully tacky Bonaventure hotel .
But enough about that, the portions are fresh and huge and the food is sooooo inexpensive ($ 5-​$ 6 lunch specials, You might get charged different amounts on different days but it will usually stay between these dollar amounts. No one exactly understands the Olive Branch’s pricing scheme, as it is based on ancient Greek mythology). If you’ve ever gone out to get lunch in downtown LA during the week you will know that the going rate is $ 10 and up (I love you mendocino farms but you’re wayyyy too freaking expensive).
Think of this place as LA’s own Soup Nazi, except for instead of soup its greek food, and instead of a the nazi it’s an incredibly friendly old man who is the chef/​owner of the place. He’ll gladly give you extra tabbouleh, hummus, chips (which are home made and delicious), olives, w/​e.
In terms of what to order
–Everything
–The Chicken Fillet is so good, mainly dark meat chicken roasted over an open flame giving it a charcoal, summer bbq flavor (same with the ¼ chicken)
–Falaffel wrap, fantastic, add avocado to it
–Hummus is home made and they don’t hold back
–Tabbouleh is so fresh and so good.
Avoid
–Buying drinks, they tend to be a little pricey (but with the money you’re saving from the food it kinda evens out)
Final Thought
If you are anywhere near this place when its open (which you probably aren’t unless you work downtown) GO!!!
If not and you’re just feeling adventurous I’d still recommend it, it is without a doubt the best Mediterranean inspired food I’ve had in LA

Had the falafel wrap for $ 4.99. Was packed with fresh lettuce, tomato and tahini, which made it a bit of a wet mess to eat. Would have preferred hummus or a garlic paste inside, but I’m not sure if that’s authentic or not. Really felt stung by the $ 2.00 Snapple price. Won’t do that again. Pretty close to the outdoor seating, which was quite nice. Beautiful day for it.

They have been at the Bonaventure for 22 years and counting! It used to be Uncle Moustache, with the name change to Olive Branch years ago. I’m so happy that they’re still here. Middle Eastern food, with wraps, plates, pizza, baklava, and I saw now they have smoothies.
They make the best baba ghanoush! And really great potato salad! The chicken is grilled over an open flame, so you get the good charred flavor. Today I got the chicken special, with hummus (which was a bit off today, not very flavorful), garlic sauce, potato salad – I love that potato salad, tabouli, a few peppers, all for a whopping $ 6. I think they would have thrown in a few more sides. I was so full, I couldn’t eat dinner.
Their pizzas are good too. They used to put homemade yogurt cheese on one of them. I’ll have to get one tomorrow.
There are some restaurants in the Bonaventure that have been doing business there for many many years, and I’m glad to see they’re all still there. The food court at the Bonaventure used to be bustling, and it used to be hard to find a seat. Now it seems much of the business has gone elsewhere. The Westin marketing dept really needs to get off its butt for this hotel.
I’m just happy that Olive Branch is still there.
Update: no more pizzas. oh well.

A hidden falafel gem tucked inside the scary Bonaventure Hotel in downtown LA. You would never really just happen to bump into this place. You would never really want to walk inside the doomsday Bonaventure in the first place.
Alas, my trusty colleague, an 8 year downtown financial district veteran, showed me the ropes on this one and I am forever hooked. I’d been looking for a good falafel place — and the ones they sell at the farmers market look and taste like fresh horse doo doo. OK, well let me retract that first part because all falafels look like horse crap, but at least the ones from the Olive Branch came from a pretty horse.
The falafels are made to order and fried with some special metal hanging device found only in ancient Lebanon. Mom and Pops are running the shop as if they were straight off the streets of Beirut. They make their own tahini sauce, hummus, garlic sauce and cut all the veggies right in front of you. You can see Pops in the back tending to the chicken on the grill while Mom takes a few orders as she assembles a falafel masterpiece.
A falafel and a side with homemade chips plus olives will run you about $ 5, add another side and we’ll call it $ 7. My favorite side is the tomato and feta salad (they sure do know how to please a Greek). It goes amazingly well with the falafel.
The Olive Branch has a few other specialities, including fresh baklava made from peanuts. The baklava is light and crispy, but I make it myself and don’t get too jazzed about other people’s baklava. Usually it’s just bad, but their baklava is interesting.
This is the best place for hole in the wall falafels I’ve had in Southern California. Just be sure to bring cash as they don’t accept plastic and be careful of the Bonaventure!