Oliveto Ristorante & Bar

Oliveto Ristorante & Bar is a jack of all trades when it comes to the Italian dining scene in Sydney, offering regional dishes from the north and south of the bel paese, daily specials including grilled Western Australian scampi, freshly made pasta and daily baked bread, a shop where Oliveto’s own products and premium imported ingredients can be purchased, and moreover an impeccable sense of hospitality. The picture-perfect qualities of Oliveto are only underlined by its unbeatable location – right on the water at the Brays Bay Reserve, just moments from Rhodes station.

Oliveto’s menu is typically Italian, structured in the classic manner with primi and secondi piatti, homemade pasta dishes, contorni, pizza and desserts. A great way to dive into what Oliveto has to offer Sydney diners is to go for the restaurant’s five-course degustation menu with optional wine pairing – allowing you to surrender to the whim of the skilled chefs at work in the kitchen. The a la carte menu is reliably packed with classics of the genre, but ever-seasonal and with a nose for what’s fresh on a given day, it’s good to turn to Oliveto’s weekly specials. Perhaps Queensland figs wrapped in prosciutto, gorgonzola, pistachios and saba to start, spicy king prawns or Sydney rock oysters with pink grapefruit granita, grass-fed Cape Grim ribeye from Tasmania with sauteed spinach, mushrooms, horseradish and a porcini mushroom jus are just a few examples. Find Oliveto down Concord Road in Rhodes – but be sure to book in advance.