The Rustic Olive

Giving 4 stars here. The service was over efficient. The waitress reappeared numerous times. The food was very good, not the greatest, but certainly well priced. Delivered quickly. Choice of serving sizes... small was ample. Large was marginally bigger. Dessert was delightful. BYO kept costs down. Very home style Italian meeal. Delicious!!! The lighting was great. Enough to provide good ambience for warm conversations. The sound was good. Bustling with people. But at our table we could all hear each other easily. We had a lovely night. We felt the pressure to exit, as everything was closing up and at 8.30 we were the last to leave.

Arrived at approximately 7:40 without a booking, however they informed us “yes, we have a table”. We had read on google that they were open until 9, so my mother in law and I thought we had plenty of time to catch up and enjoy a night out with the baby, Something that doesn’t happen very often. Upon arriving, we noticed that inside was very hot with no air flow, which made us feel sweaty and uncomfortable. Why the fans weren’t on, I’ll never know. Judging by the service I received it was probably to make everyone feel uncomfortable, so that they would hurry up and leave. The restaurant is BYO, so I had to run up to the local pub and grab a bottle of wine, which took around ten minutes, if that, while my mother in law fed the baby. Thinking that most places would allow 10-15 minutes for you to order your food. During this time my mother in law was informed that the pizza oven was getting turned off so she said we would have pasta, that’s fine. Still within the first ten minutes, the waitress seemed to be rushing my mother in law at this point and she ordered our entree of bruschetta. The entree arrived as soon as I returned from getting our bottle of wine. As soon as I sat down the waitress then asked for our order and I had not yet viewed the menu (still under the impression they closed at 9). She seemed stressed that we hadn’t picked what we were ordering, so we asked her what time they closed and she said “whenever, whatever time everyone has finished up”. She then came back all of ten seconds later and asked what we were ordering. So we quickly decided what we were ordering and let her know, as we felt extremely pressured. The food was the only thing that was good. The bruschetta was extremely well flavoured and well oiled, making it a delicious dish. We ordered the pumpkin ravioli, Napoli gnocchi and Ricotta Ravioli Verona as our mains, so that we had a few options to share and try. Overall all the food was very good. The Pumpkin ravioli was an extremely sweet dish, it was served in a sage butter, with goats cheese and an unnecessary addition of amaretti crumb (almond biscuit). Halfway through eating our last dish, my mother in law left quickly to go attend to the baby’s needs and while she was gone the staff began rushing around packing up. I am not sure what the experience of the other diners were, however I found it quite strange everyone was leaving at once. I kept getting asked “can we clear this?”, several times while my mother in law was out even though I had informed them that we were still eating. One of the waitresses said “are you having dessert, creme brûlée?”, I said “yes probably, just waiting for my mother in law to return”, then she basically said “order right now or we can’t do it”, I said for her not to worry about it. They eventually became so frustrated that they hadn’t cleared our table that they bought a takeaway container out because they couldn’t wait apparently a minute longer. My mother in law walked in the door and gulped the last of her meal down while we were getting rushed out. We were rushed out the door. Overall we were in and out within 45 minutes and by the time we were leaving, the majority of the staff were sitting there with their bags ready to walk out the door at 8:26. We did inform the Front of House manager that we loved the food however were extremely disappointed in the service. She did seem to take it on board. I wouldn’t normally say something like this as I often leave reviews whether my experience was good or bad, however I would suggest that most people would have a much better experience down the road at Osteria- What’s in the Pot as the service there is outstanding and it is a true Italian dining experience. I will not be returning to Marcello’s due to the extremely horrible service that we received. I have never received such bad service or made feel so unwelcome in my life. The waitresses weren’t nasty or anything, however certainly made the entire experience unpleasant. Good food just doesn’t cut it anymore, and there is absolutely no excuse for bad service.