What to Eat in Birmingham

Last week was our 7 year wedding anniversary. Adorable, I know. Since we’ve been kinda obsessed with this blogging thing lately (have you noticed?), we decided to try a place we had never been to before with the hopes of writing an adorable, romantic blog post about our new find. Well-epic fail. This is not that post, because the place we went was just … meh. We were both so disappointed that we decided to have an anniversary do-over – adorable, yes, I know. At a tried and true local gem that we have been to at least a dozen times. It’s one of our absolute favorites. And we were shocked when we realized we had never written about it. This is THAT post. Welcome to the Olive Branch.

The Olive Branch is located in Cahaba Heights across from the fire station. On our anniversary-plus-one evening, we arrived at sunset… which made for a beautiful picture.

The observant will note that in the parking lot below the Olive Branch is Doodles… Stay tuned for the companion post. But I digress.

Here’s a pic of the front of the restaurant:

Since it was such a perfect September night, we chose to sit on the beautiful deck to the right of the restaurant. Romantic for sure. When the waitress came for our drink order we knew what we wanted to eat – all of our favorites.

Starting with the hummus. Theirs is very lemon-y and smooth, served with soft pita. I don’t think these pita are homemade but they might as well be-they’re always perfectly soft and fresh-tasting. I love that they give you a few veggies, too.

Next, fried cauliflower. I think these are flash fried and then doused generously with lemon juice. Addictive.

Just because it’s so beautiful… Now the glamour shot:

Then, the entrees. The kibbeh plate. Baked kibbeh-a combo of lamb and beef in this case, I think-cooked with lots of spices (we could taste the cinnamon!). Soft, moist, and the most amazing flavor imaginable, with yogurt dipping sauce. I have craved this every day since we ate it:

I love that all the entrees come with a little hummus and a piece of fruit. Makes for a complete meal. It’s served over a bed of very flavorful rice pilaf, and a light Greek salad with feta is the perfect complement. Now for a closer shot so you really can see this is a unique meatloaf:

Next up: stuffed squash. They once told me that grandma makes these every morning-she cores out the yellow squash, then stuffs it with a lightly seasoned mixture of ground beef and rice. Delish. We ordered ours with tabbouleh-a mixture of tomatoes, cucumbers, and parsley with a light dressing-the perfect consistency and very refreshing.

Now in cross-section:

The Olive Branch is our go-to place for an any-night-of-the-week romantic, solidly yummy, meal. So, the moral of the story is: when you want to have a romantic anniversary dinner with your partner, it might be better to stick with what you know. So Mr. Foodie, thanks for 7 years of foodie adventures and missteps, and for always having something predictably wonderful in case plan A doesn’t work out. This post is for you.