The first thing you notice at The Olive Branch is that you can see the cooking. The dining room opens onto the kitchen, so lunch comes with a floor show — meat turning on the vertical spit, falafel dropping into oil, pita coming off the heat while somebody calls out an order behind you.
That transparency is more or less the point. Since opening in February 2005, the family-run Mediterranean restaurant at 3236 Cahaba Heights Road has built its reputation on cooking each plate after it’s ordered rather than holding it under a lamp.
The restaurant sits in the middle of Cahaba Heights, a short hop behind the Summit, in a stretch that has turned over considerably in two decades while The Olive Branch has stayed put. Regulars come for the gyros, the falafel, the kabobs and a hummus that turns up in a good share of the online reviews. Baklava closes most tables out. Diners who want the weather instead of the show can take the patio…