the verve italian steakhouse

nice. went there with a friend on thursdaynight- initially thought it was a smart choice since most reviews complain about the noise level, however as soon as it stroke 7pm the place was so full!!! and they have reason to be - the service is laid back and chilled, food is delicious and generous. we shared a trio of dips, pork belly linguine and sand crab + snapper risotto. all delicious and i'd be happy to go back again to try other things on the menu!!!

i had organized surprise birthday dinner in verve lastnightfor a group of 6, all of us are first timers in this cosy italian restaurant. adam was very helpful and attentive to my request. overall waiter and waitresses are friendly, efficient and attentive. we are very happy with all of the food we have ordered, just that i find carbonara gnocci a bit too salty for my liking. we have ordered chicken tortellini, beef ragu papadelle, pescatore linguine, carbonara gnocci, roasted pork belly and a tomato based fettucine which i have forgotten the name of the dish. price wise is pretty allright, portion is decent. they have very unique and artistic paintings on their wall for sale. they also serve wide range of cider. i tried one of the draught dry cider and it’s pretty good. thanks adam and team for the great service and food, would love to be back next to try other food especially pizza.

not what it used to be. too brightly lit. no funky music or ambience. wait staff were prompt but abrupt. food was fine. charged $5 for a glass of soda. terrible art on the walls. i used to love it here and have been going for 15 years but i think lastnightwill be the last time i'll bother.

fridaynightcider and risotto. great risotto and fantastic cider! for starters we ordered the chilli cheese pan. mains were blue cheese and chicken risotto and chicken and camembert risotto, washed down with some cider. absolutely delicious!

the service was great and the menu is well priced. given that this place is a bar it can be quite loud if you are expecting a nice quiet dinner. will definitely return :)


-----03 nov, 2012-----

fantastic!. pancetta risotto was delicious! their ciders are great! left the place feeling very satisfied and wanting more.

will definitely be coming back to this place. be sure to make a booking as this place fills up quickly on a week night.

the pasta and pizza was good but the service was very bad. i understand that a busy fridaynightcan mean service is not as attentive but it’s just not acceptable when it’s rude. i don’t think i will come back again.

i created a zomato account purely to take a massive dump on this restaurant. booked a table for fridaynightbecause it would allow me to get a seat at a busy time - wrong. as soon as we arrived, the host/head waiter/maitre d' (??) - larger guy asked us how many our table was for. i replied that i had for a reservation for 3 under ***** name. he then told us to go to the bar and he would find us when a table was available.
30 minutes later and we still weren't seated - even though i received a reply by email saying my booking was confirmed. after 40 minutes, we decided to eat elsewhere, as we were starving. 
as we were about to leave, i asked the larger guy how long it would be to wait for a table and he gave a snarky reply and told me to look around and see how busy they were.
don't take damn reservations if you aren't going to even have a booking sheet present during your service.
from one hospitality worker to another - the head waiter guy should find another job that doesn't involve communicating with other humans. maybe he would be better suited to toilet cleaning or grave digging.

updated review (september, 2019): rating of 3.5 if it was possible. went here for walk-in dinner with the partner.
we ordered the specials of thenightincluding (i) chicken, lime and pistachio linguine ($25.90) and (ii) sicilian styled pan roasted barramundi ($32.90). both dishes were faultless - good homely flavours, pasta al dente, good portions.
casual ambience - dimly lit, however too cramped (one way shuffle between tables and chairs; several times did chairs pulled out into me as i was walking past, or elbows knocking as people walked past) and too loud (needed to shout at my partner to hear him, and could easily hear other conversations around you). reasonable service (albeit there was some confusion about our table number). reasonable prices for portions of food.
overall, yes for the food but a definite no for the ambience.

may 2017: went here for a late lunch with a friend.
we ordered the trio of dips as a shared starter. lovely flavours of dips, and plenty of toasty crackers - this could have easily been shared amongst 3-4 people in the end. for mains, i had the spicy chorizo gnocci. the gnocci was well-cooked with a nice bite to its texture. there was plenty if scrumptious sauce (not too spicy) and chorizo within the plate.
reasonable prices for very good portions of food. staff were very friendly and efficient.
will go back to try their other scrumptious-sounding italian dishes.

been a while since visiting verve. not sure why and it won’t be so long till the next visit. took some usa friends along, they raved!
busy saturdaynightbut shane and team, as usual, handled the crowd with professional ease.
doug m

i decided to come here on saturday with my boyfriend after reading some zomato reviews.

the food here is seriously tasty! i ordered the brandy tomato tortellini, the flavours in the sauce were so rich and tasty. the tortellini is self was nice also.

the only down side was we had to wait quite a while for our food, but it's busy saturdaynightso i guess that's to be expected.

the ambience in the restaurant was pretty causal, and there was lots of interesting art works for sale on the wall.

all and all really tasty food, and friendly service.

one of my top 3 favourite restaurants... have always had an awesomenighthere. it does get a bit loud down there and there is definitely no lack of good atmosphere.
value: 5/5 ($20 avg main, bottle of house red as cheap as $22 which actually tastes pretty good)
service: 5/5
food: 5/5 (blue cheese risotto kicks ass)
ambience: 5/5 (underground cellar feel, which is loud and a lot of fun with big groups)

the food is always great here, but the service was below average. lastnighti went with my partner for our anniversary dinner, and we were basically forgotten about. it took asking 3 different people for water for the table before we got any. the initial food and drinks came out quite quickly, but no one checked to see if we were okay/wanted to order any more drinks. my partner had to go searching for someone so we could order another round - we'd only had 1 drink each in an hour and a half. they were clearly understaffed and everyone seemed stressed/too busy. food wise, the arancini are delicious! we had the beef ragu and the pork belly, which were both amazing! if it wasn't for the food, we wouldn't go back.

was excited to try verve after reading all the great reviews but was left feeling quite disappointed after trying it lastnight(a tuesday night). my boyfriend ordered the scallop linguine while i ordered the pancetta & mushroom risotto. firstly, the scallops in the linguine were not fresh. they were tiny little scallops around the size of 5c coins, and although there was a lot of them, it did not make up for the fact that they tasted like they were cooked from frozen. the rest of the meal was oily and the only flavour i could taste was from the bacon. the mushroom risotto was better, but a bit too salty for my liking. also got a bit sick of it halfway through. 
service was efficient and food came out quickly.

with an international visitor in town, on a cold winternightand feeling the need for some good italian, i did a quick search on zomato and verve came up with a great rating. a quick phone call and they were happy to find us a table in a couple of hours - all good!

firstly i have to say i absolutely loved the melbournesque feel of the place (anyone who reads my reviews, knows that melbourne is my spiritual home) so in an old building, down the stairs to the cellar to find a warm and welcoming restaurant, about half full on a tuesday night.  seated with a smile, water to the table quick smart and shortly followed by the waitress to take our drink orders - a couple of nice bottles of shiraz.

then it was down the serious issue of menu choice.  we shared between five of us the trio of dips, chilli cheese pan and herb bread - this was way too much and we struggled to fit it all in.  the dips were delicious served with warm pita bread, the herb bread was spectacular with a great herby crusty topping and such a generous serve.  then there was the chilli cheese pan - this was seriously spicy - almost on the side of being too spicy, but we enjoyed it washed down with water/wine and i would most likely order it again.

for mains we variously went with the chicken fettucini, pork belly linguini, calamari, pork belly main and i had the goats cheese and chicken gnocchi.  all of us absolutely loved our mains - my gnocchi was superb, plenty of chicken, mushroom and pumpkin and the most creamy and comforting goats cheese sauce.  the gnocchi itself - perfect - not too stodgy, but rather light and very filling.  i also tasted hubby's linguini and it was amazing, he was blown away with how good it was - he's not the greatest lover of pasta dishes - so that's a huge compliment.

our other guests also enjoyed their meals and whilst we we were all filling up fast, i don't think anything was left over.  and to top it all we managed to share the two deserts on the menu - a decadent brownie and a truly fabulous sticky date pudding.  we all managed a spoon or two each and i think there was one bite of brownie left on the plate that none of us could tackle, we were so full.

so a great find - i loved it and it has now been added to my list of great places to go when you need some good comfort food.

yum! tasty italian food? yes please! this place never dissapoints. fresh, delicious food and a lovely ambience to enjoy a meal with friends. the only thing is my friends and i once made the mistake of eating here before anightout. don't do this as after eating here you will be in a food comma and dancing will be the last thing you want to do. also the toilets are a bit creepy. there up some rickety stairs out the back of the reasturant which freaked us out a bit but that's just me being picky! overall great food, wonderful atmosphere and can't wait to go back!

great venue and friendly staff. the food was amazing, nothing to fault. we were told the blue cheese was risotto was amazing and it lived up to the hype. the chicken and goats cheese gnocchi was perfectly made. garlic bread was a great starter. the only negative was the drink prices. a little dear for house wine. otherwise a marvellousnightout for dinner. we will definitely be back