Olive restaurant, Pirie St, Adelaide | SA Weekend restaurant review

No sparkling water. No fish or octopus. No chicken. Callum Hann’s new restaurant has a few things to work on – but our reviewer says there are plenty of reasons to return.

The Mediterranean-inspired interior of Olive restaurant, in the old space of Gaja by Sashi on Pirie St in the city.

• Olive owner roasts harsh online review

First, the sparkling water is unavailable because of a blocked pipe. No problems – we’ll have flat.

Then, the fish hasn’t come through from a supplier. Okay.

Then, a waiter informs us the octopus we ordered has sold out. Then, the manager comes over to announce, somewhat sheepishly, that a similar fate has befallen the chicken.

Olive restaurant, as the kids like to say, is having a mare.

Olive restaurant on Pirie St in the city is the latest venture from MasterChef alumni Callum Hann and business partner Themis Chryssidis. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

And, of course, that just happens to coincide with the time the reviewer visits.

There are some extenuating circumstances – unexpected walk-ins on an already busy night, the vagaries of supplies over the holiday season, a late sitting – but these excuses wouldn’t really wash for diners stumping up their own money.

Fortunately, there are plenty of positives to report about this new city opening from the increasingly entrepreneurial team of Callum Hann and Themis Chryssidis, whose original cooking school/health studio now operates alongside three eateries.

A selection of starters, including zucchini chips, on offer at Olive restaurant.

Olive sits somewhere between the polish of eleven, a few blocks away in the CBD, and the rustic cucina of Lou’s Place in the Barossa, and there is some obvious creative cross-pollination between them all.

The former Gaja by Sashi in Pirie St has undergone a chameleon-like transformation from the vibrant hues of the subcontinent to more natural materials and muted, maritime shades designed to evoke the Mediterranean.

The driftwood sticks that lower/screen the ceiling are a clever touch, as are the wicker lamp shades.

A complementary bowl of excellent mixed olives (of course) also helps in setting the mood.

Fried feta, honey, fermented chilli and peach at Olive restaurant.

The rest of the food is offered as either individually priced dishes or a set “Feed-Me” selection ($69) and isn’t too puritanical about the Med theme (fine, other than the puzzling decision to have freshwater rainbow trout as the featured fish, rather than a sea-based species).

There is so much feta, mozzarella and other cheeses they can be hard to escape, even in salad/vegies.

That said, fried feta is definitely a keeper, the golden-crusted block a fine alternative to standard haloumi, especially when doused in honey (supplied by Hann’s father) and a dob of fermented chilli.

A few slices of peak-condition peach make the combination sing of summer.

A creamy whipped feta performs well as a dip for chunky batons of zucchini in an excellent fine batter that leaves this underrated veg to show its true character.

Olive’s slow-roasted lamb shoulder with zhoug is one of the better offerings of the dish on the dining scene.

Raw kingfish slices are accompanied by ruby grapefruit segments, mild chilli and finely chopped chive before finishing with a complex combination including yuzu, ginger and kombu, as well as a separate blood orange oil.

A lighter hand with the dressing would help the seafood hold its own.

No such problems with baby octopi that lap up a sriracha glaze bringing more umami than heat.

Still wonderfully tender, they look brilliant in a tangled heap of charred tentacles, splashed with a green salsa and resting on a ginger oil puddle.

The pastitsio is interpreted as a base of bucatini (like thick spaghetti), a blanket of bechamel on top, and between them a layer of “pork, fennel and cinnamon ragu” that turns out to be pulled meat without the juices or sauce to pull everything together. Filling but not thrilling.

On the other hand, the slow-roasted lamb shoulder is at the upper end of the gazillion versions sampled over the past few years, the flesh collapsed into luscious pale pink lobes, the golden skin reduced to a decadent jelly.

Pearl couscous scattered with raisins and the Middle Eastern herb salsa “zhoug” sit in the background and leave the meat to shine.

The olive oil ice cream sandwich is a winner.

And a block of olive oil ice cream between sheets of ridiculously crisp pastry is sure to leave smiles all around, as the flakes fly and filling oozes.

With crushed pistachios, fresh thyme and a drizzle of honey, it is an ingenious take on baklava.

The dishes included here were sampled over two sittings, the initial disastrous visit and a subsequent fly-by on a quieter night where service was smoother and the food overall better.

A few things to work on, then, as Olive establishes itself in a precinct that is only going to get busier.