Looking for something new to try, we found this small eatery in our local Entertainment guide. It came with a great first trial offer of 25% off the total food bill. Not being stingy but never one to pass on a risk free offer, we hopped in the car for our twenty minute journey to Paradise Point. It was an overcast day with intermittent showers, yet there was a certain freshness in the air. It seemed like the perfect day to sit back and indulge in what we hoped would be great food!
We enjoyed the simplicity of the cafe and the apparent warmth of the decor and relaxed atmosphere. Smooth jazz in the background enhanced the ambience even more. It was a small restaurant with seating for approximately 20 inside and another 20 outside. We chose to sit inside because of the weather. We noticed there was only one waitress on the floor and only one chef in the kitchen (the kitchen was really, really small!)
Seeing that our waitress was working by herself, we didn't mind the wait in getting the menus out to us. She was very friendly and seemed quite attentive. Asking whether we'd like water and seeing that we were bringing our own wine, whether we needed red or white wine glasses. Nice touch as most restaurants only have one set of wine glasses for both white and red.
The menu was limited but pleasantly interesting. It was nice to see that they had meals on offer different to the usual "cafe" fare. We settled on the Caesar Salad with Smoked Salmon and the Blue Olive signature pasta with Seafood. It took approximately 40 minutes for our order to arrive, even though we were the only ones left in the restaurant.
The dishes were well presented. I particularly liked the way the Salad came out as it was different to the norm. The semi fried egg was a nice touch as well as the toasted ciabata slices. The pasta seemed quite ordinary with quite a generous amount of spinach through it.
Overall we found the food quite frustrating, as the meals weren't as good as they looked. On the whole, the meals were quite bland. The Salad either needed more lettuce or less dressing as it was quite soggy. The sogginess didn't lend well to the overall taste and texture of the Caesar salad, it made it quite sickening.
The pasta dish wasn't much better. It was very, very spicy and it had a light Napoli sauce through it, even though there was no mention of Napoli sauce or spicy chilli in the menu description. The pasta itself was not al dente, rather quite hard. The seafood was fine, a combination of prawns, scallops and calamari. No complaints there. Certainly not worthy of "signature" status.
Look, I don't really mind if I'd mistakenly ordered a dish after reading the menu but if it comes out different to what's been described to me, then something must be really wrong.
Furthermore, we felt that it was too overpriced for what we were served. We were charged $50 for these two mains; and we hadn't even ordered any entrees or desserts. We just felt that the quality wasn't there. Maybe it was the area, Paradise Point. Maybe they can charge more than other suburbs, because they're overlooking Sovereign Island and Ephiram Island. But no matter where a restaurant may be located, you should never sacrifice the quality of food being served to your paying customers.
After all that's been said, the big question...would we be back? Would we give them another shot?
A resounding YES! Why? Well, me being me, I just had to forget to claim my discount when I paid the bill, much to my partner's frustration : (
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