H’e’aven In CT (Olea)

Olea- Exterior

Olea- Interior

Olea- Interior

Olea- Interior

Ox Tail Croquette

Octopus

Lamb Chops

Squid Ink seafood Pasta

Squid Ink Seafood Pasta

• TRAVEL REVIEW:  I never had the “college experience” or went to different campuses like other college students did while in school.  I was too busy working, paying rent, you know… The typical life of an actual “adult”.  No complaints though, the school I went to wasn’t necessarily known as a party school so I don’t believe I was missing anything.  I decided to be a “college tourist” for a couple hours until dinner came around.  Amtrak was my source of transportation for this trip.  A five hour train ride wasn’t so bad.  I always told myself I’d do any train trip if it was 8 hours or less.  I decided to go to New Haven, CT for dinner which means I had to find something to do to kill time.  One of the things that came up on my google search was Yale’s Campus.  I decided to walk around the campus and visit the art gallery.  I’m not big into the arts, but I force myself to try something new when I go on my trips.  If you’re into art, I would think that the art gallery on Yale’s campus would be a great place to visit.  I enjoyed some of the pictures, or the ones that I actually had interest in looking at, as I’m not into the whole medieval times scene.  The campus was pretty big so of course I didn’t have time to view it all.  It was around 90 degrees so I didn’t stay outside all day, I figured I’d catch a movie until it was time to go feast.  Going to see movies is my “go to” if I don’t have anything else planned.  I enjoy the movies above all. It’s cost effective, it’s cool, you can take a quick nap (haha), and you  work up an appetite before dinner eating popcorn and snacks.  I saw the secret life of pets, which was an awesome movie! Go see it if you can!  Even if you don’t have a kid to take with you.  We all have an inner kid in us somewhere.

• RESTAURANT REVIEW : Dinner Reservations were at 5 p.m. and you know how I feel about being the first one in the restaurant… I honestly believe the quality of the food is better, restaurants are cleaner in the inside, and food hasn’t been sitting underneath a heater all day because the waiter(ess) forgot to pick it up.  Ok, that’s my rant, haha.  First off, the restaurant is beautiful! It’s not the biggest but it’s definitely very nice and quaint in the inside.  The outside of the restaurant isn’t anything too spectacular, but “they” always say never judge a book by its cover. The restaurant was empty for about 30 minutes after that it got packed pretty quickly.  I decided to take this time to take pictures of the restaurant and positively decide what I wanted to eat for an appetizer and dinner.  For the appetizer I decided to order the oxtail croquettes and the octopus.  The octopus was amazing!  It was grilled to perfection and the toasted saffron rice was a nice accompaniment.  The presentation was beautiful and it wasn’t too rubbery.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone out and had octopus and it was rubbery.  This was perfect.  I also ordered oxtail croquettes which were stuffed with oxtail meat and mushrooms.  The croquettes were a little dry but still good.  They weren’t my favorite, but I figured this was an appetizer that I would “try” and take a chance on.  For dinner I ordered the rack of lamb and the squid ink seafood pasta.  Both were absolutely amazing!  I ordered the rack of lamb medium and it came with a Dijon mustard- mint puff gnocchi (which reminded me of tator tots), oyster mushrooms, carrots, green peas, and curry air.  Let’s comment on the curry air.  The curry air, actually tasted like curry.  It was in the shape of bubbles but actually had a taste to it.  The lamb lacked seasoning though, it could’ve had just a tad bit more salt and pepper and I hate asking for salt and pepper at restaurants as I think it’s a disrespect to the chef.  The second dish was a Catalina style pasta with mussels, clams, and wild shrimp.  This dish was beyond great.  It wasn’t the biggest dish so it didn’t fill you up but it shouldn’t leave you hungry after eating it.  They provide you with about 5 shrimp that are a nice size, 2 clams on each side, and mussels mixed in the pasta.  The pasta had some type of buttery sauce inside of it once you unraveled it.  I would definitely order this pasta again and would recommend it to anyone.  Overall, I would give this restaurant a 4.5 out of 5, only because the lamb wasn’t seasoned.

                     RATING- BUSINESS CLASS

• Where to Next?  Dinner Reservations: In a couple weeks, we have to catch a flight for this one.  I’ll see if there are any hidden gems in between the time we catch our flight.  See you soon!