Rave Ov, Mona Vale Road, St. Ives

Rave Ov, Mona Vale Road, St. Ives
Saturday 26 November, 2005

Rave is located in a small group of shops - opposite Hassell Park - on Mona Vale Road. It is situated amongst The Road to Goa (Indian), Nando's, Bellini's (Italian) and an assortment of other shops e.g newsagent, hairdresser. The Rave site has changed hands several times - about 18 months ago it was known as SnIves.

It is a pleasant surprise - the food, service and atmosphere are good. For a local restaurant it's packed - there's no shortage of keen diners in this suburb. They've recently extended out onto the shared patio and enclosed their space with clear branded plastic.

It's very noisy and the tables are way too small. For example, for three guests seated at a table for four, we could barely fit our plates and white wine glasses on the table let alone the side dishes, red wine glasses and wine. Whilst the meal servings are huge and it is value for money - something needs to be done about the tables.

The food is good - I enjoyed the zucchini flowers (light & crisp), eye fillet (cooked to specifications) and chocolate pudding (rich & decadent) while my parents enjoyed their variety of oysters (Natural, Florentine, Kilpatrick & Bloody Mary), roast duck, veal and Baileys Brulee.

The atmosphere is loud and the decor is orange and interesting with these quirky egg shaped lamps on each table that change colour every 30 seconds.

If you are on the North Shore - check it out.

Rave Ov - Shop 1/351 Mona Vale Road, St Ives - (02) 94888942