Olly Fresco’s: Southport

When I first started working in the building there was a good variety but I noticed a decline in the hot buffet food and there soups are made with leftovers that are not appetizing. The guy behind the sandwich bar needs to smile, grumpy pants

Have been eating here for years as I work in the building.
Olly’s is hit and miss but mostly miss these days. Very over priced and I guess that is what you get in this business building, where they are assured patrons will buy their food rather than go out at –30C.
They had a wonderful chef when they first opened, but he went off to the Petroleum club, which was a shame, as he really enjoyed feedback on his food and also took it well. The new chef has obviously been working in a prison environment, putting out mainly institutional type offerings, as he is not the least bit interested in what you think of his menus or lack of variety. You can bet your life insurance on the fact he will have three bizarre soups daily, with coconut or curry or lime chili with pomegranate slices… but not too often a basic chicken noodle, or tomato, mushroom, soup.
He gets very upset when asked to provide just one «normal» selection, and can be quite intimidating with his full sleeve tattooed arms waving in the air in anger at your suggestion.
A previous reviewer mentioned the short order cook, and he is actually a lovely guy but has been dealing with intellectual light weights for years in this building. The types who are at the front of a busy line up at his station, who will ask «is there any tomato in the tomato soup?» That sort of customer. He is also always the one to pick up slack for the others who work there. The owner’s family works here as well and have a different speed of service than the short order guy (guess they are the only ones not fearful of being fired!). If you are respectful to him, you will receive it back in kind.
The buffet food has gone downhill since new chef arrived so cant comment much on it except to say most of it is way over salted and the greens are pretty wilted and gee if you love quinoa, this is the buffet for YOU! You will find it in pretty well every offering here. Most people I Know skip the buffet now, as it is really hit and miss on how you will feel for the rest of the day if you had it for lunch :(

My review is going to be pretty limited. I eat here to be healthy and save money. This place serves both up in a styrofoam package. I eat here a lot. A lot. Like Jared from subway a lot. I continue to come back because the people are really nice. Lets be honest. I can get a pre-​packaged salad thats just as healthy at the two grocery stores right close by but the folks here are cool. The tatooed chef in the back looks like he would be a dick, but he is really nice and even makes you laugh if you chat with him. The no non-​sense coffee lady is actually really sweet and seems to genuinly care that youre having a good day. Sometimes she wears lulu lemon pants to work… I’m not going to comment further on that…

I ate at Olly Fresco’s regularly when I worked at Southport, from the opening day of the restaurant, off and on until last June when I departed for another location. Needless to say the restaurant did not suffer in comparison to the Alberta Health Services on-​site cafeteria which it replaced. But that is not compliment enough. The entire concept of the establishment was a turn-​around from what had been present in the building before. What Olly Fresco’s offers is sensible, healthy food for the business class/​office worker. Breakfast service starts early, and there are fresh pastries offered up along with grilled sandwiches, eggs, toast etc. made to order. Lunch is either buffet style, with different menu items of fresh selections daily, or a soup and sandwich bar, salad bar, daily special, and grill selections. And as I understand it, there is no deep fryer. You can find fresh fruit in the cooler, varieties of cold drinks, hot drinks, snacks for when you’re bad or need extra energy during a long meeting, etc. I can’t say I was fan of everything they prepared, but I did like the pricing (you paid per weight, so if you only wanted a handful of spareribs and some salad for lunch, you paid less than if you loaded up your plate with rice and roasted potatoes and green beans on the side to boot). The place was clean and service for the most part friendly. Only exception was the thoroughly nasty specimen working at the grill station/​sandwich bar. I stopped going to the Olly Fresco’s because of his thoroughly rude deameanour, and in my last year at Southport, I know from talking to others in the office towers there that they lost a lot of business because of him; certainly I would have spent several hundred dollars more were he not so offensive to have to deal with on a daily basis. It was easier just to leave and head over to Southcentre, or even walk to one of the other restaurants nearby than have to put up with his moodiness. That inability to treat customers with respect put a real damper on the whole experience. If not for him, this would be a four-​star rating.

Not the biggest fan of this place but when it’s –30 out and you’ve got nothing else to eat, then by all means, check this place out. But if it’s a nice out and you’ve got a full lunch, skip this place and take a walk towards the nearby plaza instead.

«OMG You should review Ollies!» Sabz cheered, forgetting the rage we had after some crazy lady almost ran us over at the parking lot. Apparently we miscommunicated the pace of our walk and should’ve clearly jumped out in front of her so she could stop. Hag.
Anyways yeah Ollies rules! I met up with Sabz on our lunch break because we were both within the vicinity. I didn’t know what to expect based on how Sabz raved about this place. I imagined a fancy Italian grocery like Lina’s or Sunterra and it sounded like I’m about to have a $ 20 dollar meal.
Wrong! It’s located in one of the office buildings in Southland. I have a bias against cafes catered specifically for office workers since all they care about are costs and bank on convenience and location to force people to eat at them.
But Ollies is a great exception. I followed everyone’s example and grabbed a lunch box and piled on the day’s specials. They have salads, main courses, and side dishes. They had a great selection of food that according to Sabz, changes everyday. They had well known items like roast chicken and mash potatoes to unique specials fish cakes, quinoa, roast squash. When I piled everything into my box I expected to pay over $ 20 but it came to a cool $ 12!

I am so happy Olly’s exists near my office. Today I went and loaded up my little box with:
Roasted yams with honey
Roasted chicken
Perogies
Green beans with almonds
Quinoa salad
Scalloped potatoes
Rice with beans
Green salad
Yes I was very hungry, so I went buck wild! It all came to less than $ 8! And everything was SO good!
Oh, did I mention that Olly’s does breakfast too? As in, you can go and order an omlette! With veggies, cheese, whatever! I once indulged and had a bagel with smoked salmon too. Mmmmm…
Truly a gem! If you dont have an Olly’s near your office, I suggest you change workplaces and find yourself a job near one!