Olive & Ira’s

I am always looking for a new breakfast place in Omaha. Checked out Olive and Iris, which is the restaurant embedded in the boutique Magnolia Hotel.The Magnolia has a dedicated parking lot that charges a fee. However, there is also street parking and Sundays there is no charge if you're stopping in for brunch. Being located a bit away from downtown and midtown this area tends to be quiet so you typically won't find a wait here. The restaurant itself is really nicely appointed, offering an elevated upscale feel. Easy access for folks that may have mobility challenges.We were pleasantly greeted and noticed that our server was also working as maître D which seemed to be a little distracting for them. The hours at this restaurant is abbreviated for the different meals, breakfast/brunch/lunch is served until 2 PM. The restaurant reopens at 4 o'clock for dinner.The menu is somewhat limited, however, all the basics are there and looked very inviting. It became clear that there may be some service challenges at this restaurant as wait times for refills, food (which came out a little on the cool side), and just general interested at our table was not as focused as it could've been. The fruit bowl was very generous and fresh, presentation of hot dishes was your standard breakfast fare. I might try this location again just to see if I was here on an off day.

I decided to walk to this place to have some breakfast. I was the only person in the resturant for the first 5 minutes so I was able to order immediately. The server was attentive and nice. I ordered eggs, potatoes, bacon, a side of fruit and a pineapple mimosa. Basic breakfast which cost me $36 before the tip. It's to be expected downtown Omaha, I guess. The food or drink wasn't remarkable with exception to the breakfast potatoes which were delicious! I feel like the mimosa could have been spruced up with a pineapple garnish. The resturant itself was GORGEOUSLY designed. Great for a photo session. I could have sat in the comfortable chairs for hours sipping mimosas and chatting with friends. Love the style, did not like the price or presentation.

Located inside the historic Magnolia hotel. The interior dining area is nice, modern, folksy with the upholstered pleather chairs at the table. Small and rather limited menu. We ordered the yogurt parfait, avocado toast on sour dough bread and steel cut oats and a plain black coffee. The steel cut coats is good, the oats are smaller cut, which I like. The blackberry compote is good on top of it. The yogurt, granola and blueberry parfait is good. Think it would be even better with a berry compote for added flavor to it. The avocado toast looks decent, but there is barely any avocado smashed onto the sour dough at all. It's quite skimpy. The coffee is average, so was our service, better with another staffer that had noticed our food order was not actually put in by our first waitress.

The restaurant itself was beautiful and one of our drinks was great but unfortunately they completely mixed up my order (brought the wrong salad out) and the steak on my salad was cold. It was also extremely over priced ($168 for two) for the quality of food. We will not be visiting again but it's a shame because the building itself was so beautiful.

It's really nice in a new town to find a place and be taken care of by the Chef/server. Missy took such great care of us and the food was outstanding everything fresh everything made to order. Come here again anytime highly recommended.

Update the time of it being open. Walked from old market which isn't far unless it's 98 degrees and it's closed. Says it's open for brunch at 2:30pm and it's 12:41 pm now.