Monthly Date Night: Black Olive

With our hectic work & social schedule, Todd & I have started doing a monthly date night on the 20th of every month. We actually started this in September so this was our 4th monthly date night. The reason we picked the 20th of every month? It's also our monthly wedding anniversary, although this isn't something we actually celebrate, it's easier for us to remember when our date night is. We alternate planning our date night, which so far has just been going out to dinner, and this was Todd's month to plan, but with Christmas just around the corner, we both just decided to use our groupon for Black Olive in the Short North to save a little money.

Our previous date nights have been to Milestone 229 (September), Ocean Club (October), and Ram Restaurant & Brewery in Indianapolis on our way home from St. Louis (November).

We told the waiter at Black Olive that we were using our groupon and he tried to explain that there was a pasta special going on that evening (50% off all pasta dishes!) but those meals wouldn't count towards our groupon; unfortunately, he didn't really explain it well enough or remind us of this when we BOTH ordered pasta so when we got our bill, we were in for a little surprise. Apparently, only the $9 appetizer counted towards our groupon so we had to order another $21 in food to get to the $30 limit. We ended up ordering a pork loin to go, which was Todd's dinner last night, and didn't really end up saving any money since we also had to pay for the 50% off pasta dishes too. It was all really confusing and we weren't very pleased with the service at Black Olive and despite enjoying it the previous times we'd been, we probably won't be back. Oh, and the server failed to mention they were out of a few items when we sat down and wouldn't you figure that one of those dishes was what I wanted so I had to scramble and pick something else on the spot.

Appetizer: Hummus & Tapenade Plate

My meal: Vegetarian Potato Portobella Gnocchi

Todd's meal: Artichoke Pasta with Garlic Butter Sauce

Todd & I in front of the Christmas tree....with all of our presents wrapped underneath!