Lunch, Anyone? Dates and Olives

Open for only two months, Dates and Olives already has a large and loyal customer base. Photos by Smaranda Tolosano (CAS’17)

When Brighton’s popular Japanese restaurant Bento, famous for its box lunches, closed two years ago, fans bemoaned losing a restaurant with reliably quick service and fresh ingredients. Happily, Dates and Olives opened in its stead recently, offering fresh Eastern Mediterranean food at a price affordable for students. And its quick-serve counter-style service makes it just right for a lunch on the go.

Chef-owner Renita Mendonca will be familiar to fans of the Food Network show Chopped. Having worked all over the world, Mendonca is committed to serving food from local farms, prepared fresh daily. The restaurant’s build-your-own-meal option allows diners to choose from several toppings and sauces. We stopped by on a recent afternoon eager to try some classic Mediterranean dishes.

We began with an appetizer of muhamara ($4), a roasted red pepper dip made with walnuts, pomegranate, herbs, and lemon, with pita bread. Fresh and flavorful, the dish had a texture similar to that of a salsa dip and strong peppery and herby flavors. Our one complaint: it came with just one piece of pita. This dish is so good, you’ll want more bread to sop it up with.

Other appetizers include Baba Ghanouj ($4), roasted eggplant puree with onions, tomatoes, mint garlic, and pomegranate molasses, with pita; Yufka chips ($1.50), made with Turkish-style bread; and hummus ($3.50), chickpea, tahini, and sesame spread, with chips or pita.

For the entrée section, customers build their own meal from a series of options. First, you pick one starter, either a rice bowl, a salad bowl, or a pita pocket, then one entrée, chicken ($8), beef ($8), falafel fritters ($7.50), or grilled vegetables ($8). Next, you choose four toppings from a selection that includes hummus, eggplant dip, lettuce, olives, feta cheese, carrot raisin salad, red cabbage slaw, millet tabbouleh (a mixture of parsley, grains similar to quinoa, onions, tomatoes, mint, lemon, and olive oil), picked turnips, yogurt mint sauce, hot Zhoug sauce (a type of hot sauce), and Tahini sauce (a dense paste-sauce made from crushed sesame seeds).

We ordered two entrées: a rice bowl with falafel fritters, hummus, Tahini sauce, feta cheese, and lettuce, and a salad bowl with falafel, couscous, carrots, and hummus. We rounded out our meal with a house-made Lassi ($4), a traditional yogurt-based drink sometimes made with fruit (ours was made with mango).

After taking our order, Mendonca went to the kitchen to fry the falafel fritters, explaining that she makes the food in small batches to ensure freshness. Although this extra step takes her and the staff more time and requires a bit of patience on the part of customers, the delicious, freshly prepared dishes make the brief wait worth it.

Our entrées were crisp and light. The falafel fritters were warm, crunchy, and soft. Although the rice was undercooked in places, the creamy consistency of the hummus combined with the vegetables’ crunch and the sweet tang of the Tahini sauce made up for the occasional hard kernel. The salad bowl offered the same pleasing blend of tastes and textures. Both dishes could have use more Tahini sauce, as they were slightly dry. The mango Lassi was packed with flavor. The consistency was a bit unexpected: instead of being thick like a smoothie, it was similar to what you’d find in a Go-Gurt, but enjoyable nonetheless.

If you still have room for dessert after your meal—unfortunately, we were too full—the menu has several notable choices, among them rice pudding with cinnamon and vanilla ($4) and date cake with Labneh, a whipped cream cheese ($4).

As well as its Mediterranean lunch and dinner menu, the restaurant serves a traditional brunch on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with eggs, bagels, French toast, home fries, bacon, and sausage.

In addition to the tasty, healthy food at budget-friendly prices, Dates and Olives has a warm atmosphere and great customer service from a friendly staff. While we were there, Mendonca greeted several customers by name—even remembering what they’d ordered on previous visits. This restaurant deserves to become a neighborhood fixture.

Dates and Olives, 160 Chestnut Hill Ave., Brighton, is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Monday); phone: 617-515-0010. The restaurant offers dine-in and takeout service and accepts all major credit cards. Take an MBTA Green Line B trolley outbound to Chiswick Road and walk five minutes.

This is part of a weekly series featuring Boston lunch spots of interest to the BU community. If you have any suggestions for places we should feature, leave them in the Comment section below. Check out our list of lunchtime tips on Foursquare. 

Jennifer Bates can be reached at jennb7@bu.edu.

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