Name Of Establishment	Olinda's
Address:	400 West Pacheco Blvd. Los Banos Calif.
Phone Number:	209-827-8050
Website:	Unknown
Prices:	Moderate ++
Date Of Review:	April 29, 2006
Check out the Official Merced County Health Inspection of this Restaurant - If that link isn't working try this link (note: these links are slow to load)
Our Overall Numeric Rating
Summation Opinion: A real surprise ! Observing hardly any cars in the parking lot over the years had us worried before we went in, but after having the Chicken Cordon Bleu we can not understand why the place is not packed every night!

On April 29th we went to Olinda's, a Peruvian and American food restaurant on highway 152 in Los Banos. We weren't expecting much, maybe something on the level of Denny's. Wow! We were totally wrong! Olinda's very significantly exceeded our expectations and at the end of our delicious meal, we were wondering why their parking lot wasn't just packed. It really should be for the great quality of food they serve!

The atmosphere of Olinda's is relaxing. It's dated with cottage cheese ceilings and chandeliers that look like they are from the 70's. There are Peruvian tapestries on the walls and plants, like small banana trees are placed here and there along the walls. The lighting is kept at a tiny bit low which make each table or booth feel just a little more intimate. What I assume is a type of Peruvian or perhaps Mexican music plays softly in the background and each table has a fresh flower in a vase. Each table has little folded advertisements for beer which in my opinion detracts from the ambiance a bit.

We were met in the little waiting area by a nice lady who got us a couple of menus and sat us promptly in a comfortable booth. The menus had a lot to select from. There was everything from hamburgers to fancy food and we had quite a time of it trying to decide what we were going to try. The waitress had to come back a couple of times as we vacillated between this and that selection but in the end and with a little help our orders were sent off to the cook.

After our order was taken, we were brought a basket of freshly baked, homemade bread and a chilled bowl of butter (what a nice touch). The bread was great. It was quite flavorful and was cooked just right. It's not often you get real, homemade bread at a restaurant and though it was a small thing we enjoyed it a lot.

You might notice that we mention sodas in many of our Los Banos Restaurant Reviews. This is because we have often been served too-sweet or too flat syrupy sodas by restaurants that either did not take the time to set their carbonators properly or just did not bother to care about their fountain drinks. This was not the case at Olindas. Our sodas were mixed perfectly with just the right 'bite' to them and lots of carbonation.

Soon after the bread and sodas came my salad was brought out. My husband didn't get a salad because he didn't order from the "dinner" section of the menu, but we shared. It was a good salad with a nice variety of lettuces and the dressing was tasty.

Our dinners came after another short wait. I was pleasantly surprised, since I was told it might take a little longer to get our meals because of a substitution I made. I had ordered the chicken cordon bleu, which is supposed to come with rice, but asked if I could substitute Fettuccini Alfredo. Our server said that would be fine, but the sauce wasn't made up yet so it might take a little longer. (We were at Olinda's early in the evening.) We were very pleased that the substitution request wasn't fussed over and we were not charged anything extra. Our wait ended up being similar to any nice restaurant, long enough to enjoy the bread and salad, but not much longer.

My husband ordered one of the unique hamburgers, which was listed as a "chef's specialty". It came with a very large order of golden fries. The burger was topped with cheese, roasted red bell peppers, onions and other fixings. It was cooked just right. He liked the peppers at first, although later stated he could do without them in the future. Still, he was happy with the burger and my own sampled bite of it was really great. The meat had an excellent flavor.

My chicken cordon bleu was tremendous. It came smothered in a cream sauce with mushrooms. The exterior was crisp; the chicken was moist but thoroughly cooked and there was just the right amount of cheese and ham inside. I couldn't have asked for it to be done any better. My Fettuccini Alfredo was also terrific. The noodles were had the perfect consistency and the sauce was wonderful. There were some hunks of fresh garlic here and there as well (which I personally don't like), but the chunks were easily moved aside. Sautéed vegetables were also present and done just right with a hint of butter. My meal was absolutely outstanding.

Not only was the food outstanding, but our service was as well. Our glasses were never left empty and always quickly refilled. Our server was very friendly and non-intrusive and as mentioned before there was no quibbling or extra charge associated with the substitution we made. The only small gripe we had was that a child who was not a patron was hanging around the prep area and was being a bit noisy for a short time.

The restrooms were very clean and tidy, but they were certainly dated and things looked a little "rough". Overall, the place is pleasant.

We had a wonderful experience at Olinda's, which made us wonder why the place wasn't just packed. Our server (whom we believe is a co-owner) let us know that a lot of people come expecting "Mexican" food and are surprised to find that that is NOT what this restaurant is about (although they do offer a fajitas plate). Perhaps people just think it is another Mexican restaurant in a town with MANY Mexican places to choose from? Whatever the reason, we still are astonished that Olinda's does not have more patrons.

We think you will be very pleased with the wide selection of foods, many of which have a distinctively European (and American) flavor to them. There is also a good if 'typical' selection of deserts. We were full, but took home a huge slice of chocolate cake, which was really good with our leftovers!

We left Olinda's very satisfied and more than surprised by the quality of their offerings. We encourage you to give them a try. We know we'll be back.

Specific Opinions By Reviewer One
Overall Rating:	A surprising discovery
Food:
Service:
Decor:	A bit too 70s looking
Price/Value:	almost a 4	+
Bathroom Cleanliness:
Romance Factor:	It was a slow day. Crowds might change this
Family Friendliness:

Specific Opinions By Reviewer Two
Overall Rating:
Food:
Service:
Decor:
Price/Value:
Bathroom Cleanliness:	very clean but dated looking
Romance Factor:	but it was a quiet evening
Family Friendliness:

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In this section, the staff of Our Los Banos .com shares our personal opinions on the restaurants that we patronize in the City of Los Banos. We would like to stress that we are not professional reviewers, that we have had little or no training in the food arts, and that we are simply expressing our own personal views and opinions on particular visits that we made to the establishments under consideration.

Subjectivity. We make no pretense of the fact that we are not objective. As with art, food is a subjective experience subject to personal opinion and even whim. Some people love a particular artist's work while others can not stand what is put on canvas. Picasso comes to mind. Similarly people's appreciation for a particular chef's abilities are uniquely their own. While our tastes are very eclectic and we enjoy a tremendous variety of different types of food, we do not expect our readers will agree with all of our opinions and views. We DO encourage our readers to try each of the places that we have reviewed and then you can discuss (politely and in a positive fashion) your experiences and opinion of our review in the Los Banos Forum section.

Merced County Health Food Facility Inspections Site

Finally, we strongly encourage our readers to make use of a truly wonderful online resource we discovered last year. Merced County has put together a very cool Food Facility Inspection website which discloses the results of the County Health Department's last few inspections of each restaurant. The results are sometimes quite fascinating and are always interesting. Beware however you may not want to eat at certain places once you read some of the more dramatic entries. We at Our Los Banos .com very much appreciate and support the county of Merced putting these Department of Health food facility inspections online for the public to see.

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