Olive Garden Kebab & Pizza

Great place friendly staff would come back again

TL;DR: It more or less, is what it is.

Conjoined with a curry outlet just next door, going here is almost like a trip down to the worst parts of a British town after a big night on the booze. More or less, a mere hole in the wall that has the seating right next to the road, aesthetics are about as crappy as they could get. Not sure if it is a maxim to consider that with the quality or taste with these kebab places, however it is possibly a maxim to say when the time is right it does the trick. That time happened to be now.

It was in one of the rare weeks that I was able to meet up with the usual friend of mine, with the two work places not being too far apart making arrangements that are slightly on the fly more feasible. That being said, not too much so on my end but with her's often the work day and schedule is pretty hectic so time is most certainly of the essence regarding these dates. So, it went as per usual.

What that was was going around the nearby area, with a few choices available which do the trick of being quick - not per se on my part, but with her it had to be a fairly brief encounter. It was all on the fly, and she felt like a bit of a kebab. That is a good fallback option, and that was that coming here.

Some kebab places are pretty tiny, but this manages to get even smaller. Most of the shop space is taken up by the kitchen and the counter, with a little bit of standing room under cover to indicate where to order. The items are either freshly displayed in the cabinet, or sweating within the hotbox.

Service is not going to be anything that is here or there. For a quick bite to eat, it still does the job though in saying that it takes a little bit longer between ordering the food and getting it. Think about any sort of takeout, and that is the sort of service that is represented here. Go up, pay, and then wait for it to be called out. While it sounds simple enough, the manner is a little rougher and haphazard than usual - not that it is a demerit or anything - though the order of items getting to the clients is done in the order that it can be ready upon being requested.

For lack of any better category, the kind of food that is served here is vaguely Middle Eastern. Essentially, whatever is often served from a kebab shop will definitely be found here. That includes plenty of wraps (one type that has fries in it - saw that a bit too late in retrospect), plates, and salads with the usual meats or felafels. Naturally, that will include all kinds of hot snacks as well - namely including some fries on the side, and you can bet that there is the good old HSP to boot.

Going on from there, other reliable snacks present themselves including burgers, and pizzas that can be gotten either by the slice or whole. Plus there are gozmeles, and the big hot box which has almost every sort of fried snack that could be thought of when having a big night out on the town drinking. There is a couple of desserts there as well, them being the general Middle Eastern/Mediterranean options, and they do have the usual range of sodas, juices and whatnot to drink as well as some coffee.

So overall the menu is not anything that is outstanding, nor will it be indicative of proper Middle Eastern cuisine anywhere in the world, and is more about the standard Australian outlet with late night kebabs. For how it might go with the Indian place right next door, that I do not know having not been there.

Getting on to the actual food that I ordered, well it was a kebab as the main part of lunch. What else to get but a kebab, and that was the combination - get the whole barnyard on there, why not - with the usual salad mixture of tomato, onion, and lettuce with the addition of jalapenos and cheese. From memory, the choices of sauce I had were hot chili and yoghurt.

And to be honest, I have had far worse kebabs from less seedy looking places. With the meat in this one, I don't believe there was one grisly bit or bone sticking out which is a great start. They put a fair bit of meat in the wrap, and the meat was quite tender and juicy. Using both lamb and beef creates a unique taste combination, plus the salad mixture was surprisingly fresh and healthy. Adding in the jalapenos created some heat within the mixture, plus the cheese melted pretty well into it all. Also, the wrap was big and soft, effectively encasing the contents.

Admittedly it was mostly to get something else to critique the place on, but there is always the idea behind sharing with these orders I do. I was pretty tempted to get the HSP yet again (they are pretty damn good, to be brutally honest, and a little on the addictive side) but in the end going a bit more economical, it was the large fries. And, that was definitely with seasoned with chicken salt. These were pretty good, especially with the fact they were being eaten probably within the minute they were out of the fryer - thick, good batter, and the right balance with soft center and crispy outside. Plus, chicken salt always makes fries taste better: fact!

In no way am I pretending that this place is anything more, or anything less, than what it is. For what it is, Olive Garden is actually not too bad. It manages to hit a few key aspects for when the time is right - the speed and convenience are the main draw-cards, but there is also the decent value for money and that it is well placed between all the businesses. Also, in a town that is sadly lacking those needed late night eats, with this being open all hours of the day and night, at least it can be somewhat reliant on getting a bite to eat that is economical, and can be relatively healthy if need be. The location is ideal enough, and between choosing to come here and eat is might have one of the quickest turn-overs anywhere in town - and that includes any McDonalds.

So to put it this way: no-one here is pretending that the Olive Garden here is going to be anything great and worthy of deliberately going out of the way to try, but at the same time credit is going to be given when it is due. And with saying that, it is all with considering what the apparent aim is and how well they manage to reach it. Well, they more or less get what they aim for here, and it will do at a moment's notice, but that is about it. Hence it is getting a very diplomatic score of 3.5, because when it is all said and done, at the very least it does not suck.