Wandering down the staircase from street level to Verve transforms the bustling modem city scape into what feels like a hidden underground club. The low light levels, exposed pipes and brickwork gives an element of industrial grunge yet still feeling comfortable and cosy.
Immediately I was approached and seated by the friendly, humorous and slightly overexcited staff. Seating is an arrangement of tables with orange plastic chairs which further add to the vibe. Closer to the bar are some high tables with stools.
The menu is a range of the usual pan-Italian inspired breads, pizzas, pastas, risottos and salads with a few creative twists. Standouts include the goats cheese and chicken gnocchi, brandy tortellini and chilli vodka and artichoke risotto. On this visit I ordered the pork belly linguini with a herb bread to start.
And then there was the drinks menu. The cider house part of Verve’s name is no lie with an impressive list of over 50 ciders, sorted from very sweet to very dry. I asked the staff for some advice in choosing and ended up with a bottle of Barlow Cloudy from NSW, matched with the pork belly pasta.
Although slightly busy, the food came out quickly. The herb bread was a great start with a generous amount of melted cheese on top. I had not had pork belly in a pasta dish before and was interested to see the lack of the crispy skin allowing the taster to fully enjoy the texture and flavours of the pork. Combined with roasted garlic, mushrooms, spinach, mint and just the right about of chilli, this was a very flavoursome dish, and at a reasonable price.
Ambience, food and drinks tick all the right boxes for Verve Restaurant and Cider House and is a must try for an inner city hide out or when in need of some quick but quality Italian.