Verve Restaurant, Bar and Cider House

My posting has really slowed down recently because I've been so busy/drained at work. It's been a while since I've had a holiday and I'm pretty tired. The real reason though, is the damn heat.

Pretty much

The heat, considering I've lived in Queensland for 18 out of 23 years I've been alive, I am ridiculously heat sensitive. I sneeze every time I enter an area with a drastically different temperature. At work, I will always sneeze at 4am and 4pm, cause the air conditioning changes temperature to accommodate the different day/night requirements. I sweat like a sinner in a church with the non permeable gowns we need to wear for isolation too.

My catchphrase

My Boyfriend knows how much of a whiny, annoying bitch I can be when I'm hot and sweaty, since I always visit him before work. I normally end up stripping off to cool down, I hit/bite him when he gets too close and I moan and complain if the fan isn't on me. He knows now, to stay out of my way and bring me a cool drink when I come through the door. God, that boy is so tolerant of my bullshit.

Anyway, we went here for JGirl's 21st birthday! Shishi, Dr H., Mandy and I went. VGirl was still in Japan at this time otherwise she'd have been there for sure. When JGirl was commuting into the city, she got busted by ticket inspectors on her bus for not renewing her GoCard and go fined $220. She was so full of rage, I've never seen her so angry. We offered to pay it off as a birthday present but she refused, so we just threw money at her for a joint present, we made it rain the dollars.

So much blur

Here is their menu.

The specials of the day

Its a very dark, poorly lit sort of underground bar. There is a steep staircase leading downstairs and lots of little tables everywhere. The roof is very low and solid, so every sound is magnified in the small space. The majority of the pictures were taken with a smartphone as a back light which made for some interesting photos. Then we got lazy and hungry so the rest were taken in the dark. I am a very motivated food blogger.

Average level of light in this place

They have a very extensive cider menu but we just went with Elk pear cider and Rekorderlig wild berry. JGirl ordered the Elk pear cider and had a second one later that night, she says she likes it due to its low alcohol content. The Rekoderlig was my choice and I didn't quite finish it.  Here is the rest of their menu.

We got some calamari as one of our shared entrees, which came on a bed of rocket drizzled with balsamic glaze, two lemon wedges and some house aioli. The calamari was very tender with a slightly crunchy exterior with not quite a light dusting of salt as the menu said. Everyone found the calamari to be well cooked but very intensely salty, which spoiled it

Well cooked

We also got the trio of dips with bread, the dips change day by day but we guessed from left to right, roasted capsicum and feta, a white bean dip and then a beetroot and walnut dip. The roasted capsicum dip was by far the tastiest, smokey, sweet and a little bit spicy, it had a nice saltiness from the feta and we ate that one the quickest. No one really touched the beetroot, it had a nice flavour but it wasn't as sweet as the beetroot we're used to eating. The white bean dip wasn't as smooth as we'd like and quite bland too.

So many spoons

The first thing to come out was the cajun spiced prawn fettucini with rocket, cream, tomato and dry white wine sauce. The pasta was tasty, as were the abundant small plump prawns however the sauce was very creamy tomato and quite plain as well. This was the only thing that wasn't heavily over salted. Dr. H ordered this and we found that this was delicious when mixed with the pasta I had ordered.

So much blandness

JGirl ordered this goats cheese, chicken and pumpkin gnocchi with a cream and rosemary sauce. This was the pick of the day, super creamy and so cheesy with that double richness from the cream and the goats cheese. The gnocchi were like soft fluffy pillows. I even ate the pumpkin which I normally abhor, the rind was left on which I was a bit confused at. We scraped that plate clean, and someone may have licked it a bit but I won't say who.

So utterly delicious

Shishi ordered the Italian pizza which had spiced salami, marinated sour mushrooms, olives and roasted capsicum on top. It was so, so salty, we all had one slice and pushed it aside afterwards. The tomato sauce was a little spicy. The base was quite tasty though, thin, crunchy and with a good flavour.

Sad pizza

After this we went to Passion Tree and had some dessert, I ordered the crying nut waffle which consisted of one jumbo waffle, vanilla ice cream, some crunchy stuff, a cashew and brazil nut praline and a tiny pitcher of maple syrup. This was an utterly delicious dessert and I highly recommend it.

So tasty

We had a shared green tea frozen yoghurt with matcha balls and blueberries.

Pretty standard

This is the cake that Dr H made for JGirl! It's the standard chocolate mud cake from Woolies, covered with smarties, the red ones spell out 21, surrounded by chocolate covered biscuits and held up by a red ribbon. We didn't actually get to eat it because we didn't have a knife and we weren't sure how to cut it. We did take lots of pictures though!

Verve Restaurant, Bar and Cider House:
Atmosphere: 5, dimly lit, super noisy underground bar. I wasn't a fan.
Service: 5, quick service. I didn't really like my waiter but I can't put down a reason why. He seemed quite arrogant is my only real thought.
Food: 5, saved from a 4 just because of that gnocchi. The food was overly salty and not just from my point of view, it really detracted from the entire meal. That being said, everything was well cooked, just incredibly salty.