Rustic Olive - Redcliffe

My dearest readers, I have a confession to make, I am a Pokemon Go addict. As a result, my friends and I have been making regular trips to places around Brisbane for the express purpose of capturing Pokemon. One of those journeys took us to Redcliffe Parade where we discovered the Italian Restaurant -The Rustic Olive.

The store front was deceptively small but upon entering we discovered it was very spacious.

 

We were promptly seated and offered menus. What I appreciated most was the no frills presentation of the Chef's specialty. It allowed me the freedom to peruse at my leisure without holding up the wait staff.

Once we got into the menu we noted the various wide variety of dishes available.

We made our order and noted the staff were very prompt and accommodating of our needs to share.

We ordered two mains, The Godfather Pizza and the Fettuccine Florence. We were surpirsed at the speed of the service considering the generous portions.

The Godfather Pizza was served with meatballs, pepperoni, bacon, onion roma tomato and mozzarella cheese in Bolognaise sauce. We noted the toppings covered the entire pizza (and more!) and the toppings were well cooked. The meats were juicy and saucy and well seasoned. However we found the dough to be disappointing as the base was rather dense and difficult to chew through. Overall though we felt the Godfather was generous but unfortunately for me did not hit the spot.

For our second main we had the Fettucine Florence which was served with prawns, chicken, avocado, sundried tomatoes, onions, spinach in a creamy paprika sauce. As you can see from the photo there was a lot of ingredients in the dish and the colours were very vibrant. I found the paprika flavour to be a good contrast to the thick cream and fettucine. The pasta was comforting and a good contrast to the pizza.

Whilst I spotted a wild pikachu and went off hunting, my friend ordered a third dish in secret, the Chicken and Mushroom Risotto. Aside from the named ingredients it was served in  thick creamy white wine sauce. The rice was springy and the cream was dense in flavour. The dashes of paprika on the side added a bit of dimension to the dish. Needless to say my friend's eyes were bigger than his stomach and he had to take it home to finish.

Overall I found Redcliffe's The Rustic Olive to be a good choice for Italian food. Whilst the pizza base was disappointing, I found the friendly service and generous portions to more than make up for it. I would be happy to go back there in the future for my Italian fix.

Price Range: $15 - $25pp

Taste: 7/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 9/10

Environment: 8/10