OLIO AT CHEQUERS

Looking for some classic Italian food but don’t fancy heading to the city? After great service without the excessive £££? Get yourself down to Olio and lose yourself in lasagna.

After a few tame weekends, we had a night out on Friday and woke up seriously craving the carbs. We hadn’t had Italian food in a while and had been recommended to try Olio so I rang up and managed to get a table for 8 pm last night.

Olio is set in Wickham Bishops, Essex and there is also another in Chelmsford. It is real hearty Italian with a fabulous wine list to match. The dress code is smart casual and it is sleek yet cosy inside the restaurant. Ideal for a local yet special Saturday night meal and perfect for celebrating a special occasion.

Let’s start with the wine. We ordered Montefalco Sagrantino, Brocatelli Galli. A rich dry red that comes from a single man in Puglia, Italy. You cannot buy this in the shops (but it is online so Ryan and I are going to try and find it when we go to Italy in May as it is AMAZING. 

We had some mixed olives whilst waiting for our mains. I feel like I can’t go out to eat without ordering olives. After hating them for years I am now obsessed with them. It’s true what they say about tasting them 7 times as it took me a good while to like them.

For starters, we shared the soft shell crab with sweet chilli sauce and mussels in a thick and creamy white wine sauce. Another thing I learned to love, I was never a fan of seafood shellfish until around 4 years ago. I honestly think your palette changes as you get older and you start to enjoy different things so much more.

Now for the mains. Wow. This is the best lasagna I have ever had in my life. Ryan also had the same as me and we are honestly blown away with how good it was. When our food arrived, the table next to us (who were regulars to the restaurant) confirmed we had made the best choice. It was so rich, the sauce was creamy without being overly salty. I don’t usually say something is the best I have ever tried but this really was. We also had a side of chips because you need to dip chips in lasagna sauce. It’s a rule!

We really wanted to try dessert but had overindulged and was super full so decided to take it away. Unfortunately, it didn’t look as glamorous in my takeaway box so no photo here guys, sorry! We both had the chocolate brownie and I can confirm that it was the best choice. Smooth chocolate frosting sat on a brownie base accompanied with strawberries and blueberries. Delicious.

This is definitely somewhere we would return we had such a lovely evening, the ambience and service was spot on and for being so local you cannot go wrong.

Thanks

Love Sophie

www.THEitLISTER.com

xoxo