La Oliva

Rustic yet modern Spanish restaurants serving pinxtos and classic dishes such as tortillas, which my partner and I ordered. Great big slice served with bread and salad, but we wished we had waited 10 mins later when they started serving pinxtos, huge selection! They all looked delicious, will have to revisit to try them next time :)

Go to Amsterdam, find a Pintxos-​bar and have Tapas there. Confused? Don´t be.
What they serve at La Olivia are Tapas. They may mostly have a stick in them, but I refuse to refer to them as pintxos. For being pintxos, they are much too big, too expensive.
That said, the Tapas at la Olivia are excellent. I had a whole Bunch (see pictures) because I came in hungry and they did not disappoint. Good Quality & great taste.
Service was great and the prices they take seem justified (but then I live in Paris were everything is super expensive). Loved the atmosphere too. They really have transported the feeling of a pintxos-​bar to amsterdam — then they serve Tapas there and I still love it ;)

Great food and the wines are great. We had a difficult group with special diet demands and they dealt with that magnificently. The price is a bit steep compared to other Spanish restaurants, but it was definitely worth it. The seating is a bit cramped though and the place is very crowded, so make sure you book a good table on time.

I went here late last night for pintxos and haven’t been able to stop thinking about them ever since! The wait staff was lovely and explained every single option, and I chose 2. A fig filled with bleu cheese and another one with eggplant and bacon. An absolute highlight of my time in Amsterdam, I assure you! Go here. ASAP.

Dutch people are huge.
What does that have to do with a pintxos spot, you ask? Everything. What I found most impressive about La Oliva is the sheer size of the pintxos — they’re sized accordingly, which is great. Stopped in here one afternoon with friends and had the loveliest time drinking wine, eating Iberico ham and gawking at the truly awe-​inspiring pintxos display. Funny enough, I still haven’t tried the pintxos but they’re definitely on my to-​eat list!

La Oliva, you were a nice experience.
Its a Dutchified take on Spain’s pinxtos culture — little bites which are snapped up with a drink. Think smaller than tapas (but these are huge and you can definitely still share).
The quality of the ingredients are goods, the service was nice, and the ambience is nice. Our waiter even let us far through our terrible spanish (graciiiasss!)
At the end of the day, if you select options from the pinxtos bar, youre basically walking through a buffet. They do take the effort to heat anything that needs heating and plate things nicely for you.
The venison was boss-​sauce. Cheese platter for dinner, yay! well done.

My husband and I had an excellent dinner here. The pintxos were fantastic as well as the main plates. We had three pintxos; lardo with blue cheese and mushroom, fried zucchini stuffed with smoked cheeses and topped with onions, and the chorizo tortilla. They were great! Next we had Pata Negra Iberico ham and the clam dish. Finished with Catalan crème brûlée and tiramisu. Everything was delicious, especially paired with cava. Service was friendly and efficient. Go here and enjoy, but make a reservation– they’re busy.

We ate here twice during a recent stay in Amsterdam (July 2015). We stuck to the pintxos, which were fantastic. It’s a lively place with good service. Our only negative was that the kitchen couldn’t keep up with demand at one point and everyone had to sit and wait a bit for more pintxos to arrive. When they did, they were delicious!

Very nice food and service but price is a bit too high for what you get. I had the navajas a glass of wine, shares 3 tapas between 2 people, dessert and paid over 30euros and left a bit peckish. The navajas could have been served hotter.

So sorry La Oliva, I gave you so many chances.
I really did give La Oliva multiple chances to redeem herself over the years. I hadn’t gone there while just walking by and hopes to grab a few snacks, only to be shut down. I had tried to make one too many last minute reservations in hopes of a nice evening. Each time I try Ed’s these spur of the moment decisions I was really treated like a leper. It was so bad on the last time that I’ve vowed never to try and go there again. Although after about a year of holding back I really decided to make early reservation to finally try it once and for all.
Again, once entering and saying we had a reservation there was a sort of confusion surrounded by it. Once we got our seats they were slow to ask us what we wanted to start with or for drinks.
When we did order finally the Peanc shows were brought out fairly quickly and the dishes we ordered from the menu a little bit after that. I can say the food was certainly above average but everything else about them turns me off. I’ve tried it, but I’ll keep searching for better.

I LOVED this place and will be back. The tapas bar is great but the menu items were also outstanding. The photos don’t do the ambiance justice, it’s nice and intimate inside. The wine list was great too:) Try a bottle of cava!

la Oliva is a great local tapas bar nestled in the western section of the Jordaan district. My wife and I came across this place after receiving a tip from a traveling buddy, and we are so excited that we ate here. Its a tapas bar with a wide selection of food to choose from. We sampled many different tapas, my wife’s favorite was a fried zucchini with a tomato sauce. My favorite was a chorizo-​chili with quail egg, it was absolutely delicious! The majority of tapas we tasted were amazing. The staff spoke English and several other languages, to include Spanish. The location is close to Anne Frank’s house and is a favorite of locals, we would HIGHLY recommend this restaurant!

Now turned from a neighbourhood restaurant to a tourist spot with 2 sittings in the evening and no normal time reservations.
Shame. Used to be a good place.

We stumbled upon this amazing restaurant while walking around the Jordaan district. I hadn’t heard of pintxos before, but I’m now a huge fan. The staff were really helpful in suggesting things for us to try. This is now a must stop anytime I’m in Amsterdam!

Wonderful menu and great food but I did not appreciate sitting stuffed in front of the sink at the edge of the bar beside the buffet when restaurant is full at 10%…
I did go there several times but as much as the food is great the staff is horrible and I am not just talking about one of them and this totally kills the experience.
Definitely do not go there by yourself or as a couple… Maybe it is okay for large groups

For a really cosy dinner during the weak or if you´re a larger company this is a great spot! I am not saying that any other occasion is bad but I these would be my choices.
We really loved the place. We quickly went for the pintxos in the bar instead of ordering something from the menu and we didn´t regret it. Broad choice of flavors and rather large compared to other places i´we been to with the similar concept. We shared different flavours and i would say that the only downside might be that some of them tasted more of the bread than the actual flavor.
I wasnt a big fan of their cheapest Rioja but we tried a couple of others from their house menu which were really nice.

The atmosphere: 5
The wine: 5
The service: 3
The food: 3 – 4, depending on what it was. We had the pintxos, and some were prettier than they tasted, so it’s worth trying a few to see what you like.

La Oliva has been getting some mixed reviews, understandable.
First of all, no complaints about the staff… swift and accommodating.
As for the pintxos: depending on the choice, it can be either a hit or a miss. Don’t do as my friend, don’t be tempted by the semblance, go for substance! Instead my friend went for the tower of prawn & serrano ham. Just from the looks of it, I could already tell it was likely gonna be somewhat bland. There was nothing was done to the prawn, not basted with marinade, no pimenton or garlic, nothing… just a plain cooked prawn skewered on top of some serrano ham… but it looks so PRETTY, she said… Me: I’m not going to say anything, but meanwhile shaking my head internally. It’s her mistake to make, if she wants pretty, she can have pretty.
I, on the other hand, went for combinations I knew would work or at least had great potential. In fact, I think I even went for some of the least impressive looking pinxtos. A good decision in the end, cause they delivered in flavor and I was fully satisfied with my choice. And although my friend wasn’t necessarily completely dissatisfied with her choice, after having a bite of mine, I could definitely detect some food envy. Seriously though, how can you go wrong with lardo with mushrooms & cheese or foie gras martini (mango with a chunk of foie gras) or roasted duck breast with an apricot or prune? relish. Anyways whatever it was, it was hella good! Had some tasty cava to wet my throat. Eeek, that sounds narly.
So, as with life, pintxos are all about the decisions you make. However, luckily also as with life, if you’re lucky, you get several opportunities to make the smart choices which I’m pretty sure at least should include some lardo, foie gras & duck breast.

I love the concept, but…
We sat outside (nice location) and ordered a bottle of not very good tempranillo. Don’t even try to order sangria.
The pintxos looked absolutely incredible. To-​date, I seriously haven’t seen food that looks that beautiful in Amsterdam. We got excited and choose 6 items. They came out cooked, much less beautiful, and underwhelming. They need to make them taste better (or be uglier).
Got the halibut for a main and it was good, but nothing special. After all that, and € 80 later, we were still hungry and not that satisfied… so we went and got some nachos at Haarlem.
… just didn’t cut it. For tapas in Jordaan, go Duende, it’s more low-​key and tastier.

my only disappointment is that there were not rows of amazing tapas on the counter top like the photos show on Unilocal :(they only had 4 different dishes displayed.
we had a very good bottle of white wine. And the typical open face dutch style sandwich. but it was good!

Tapas auf erfreulich hohem Niveau-​. Zu empfehlen; frischer Tuna mit Entenleber. Tolle Variationen von Pintxos mit Garnelen bis Ziegenfrischkäse, Auberginen etc. und sehr interessante Salate. Kleine nette Weinkarte. Sehr aufmerksames und freundliches Personal. Nette Atmosphäre. Sehr gut besucht-​unbedingt reservieren.