Relaxed dining Italian style

12:54pm Saturday 6th October 2007

It's Friday night and the start of the weekend. So we popped into the Olive Press, in Nelson Square - the Pizzeria Bar & Grill, Heathcotes' Italian relaxed dining experience.

And relaxed it was. After the pleasant welcome we received, the drinks order taken and menus in hand we settled back for the evening.

We were seated in the glassed frontage of the restaurant and we could watch the comings and goings outside.The interior has a rustic yet modern feel, with natural finishes such as oak flooring and raffia lighting.

Dishes are freshly prepared in the open kitchen and include a range of Italian favourites with appetisers, starters, salads, chargrilled sandwiches, hand made artisan pasta, risottos and stone-baked pizza. House specialities include fresh fish and seasoned meat and fish skewered with vegetables.

Having been before, one of our favourites is the slashed garlic bread, so we chose that with deep fried chilli squid served with garlic mayonnaise to share. Both dishes were very tasty.

On to main courses, and there are so many to choose from. I wondered whether to go for a pizza, but not feeling that hungry (they are massive!) I decided on the chargrilled chicken "Caesar" salad, which came with little anchovies on garlic toast. It was just enough for me, and an interesting twist on the usual Caesar salad.

My husband surprisingly chose the seafood fennel and saffron risotto, which was packed with squid and king prawns. He said it was delicious.

Desserts usually are a must for us, but this time we resisted the urge, mainly because the restaurant was filling up and getting quite noisy.

We decided we would retreat before it got too busy. We could have chosen from grilled fruit skewers with warm chocolate sauce, tiramisu, chocolate brownie with ice cream, raspberry pavlova and strawberry cheesecake, among others.

Children are welcome at The Olive Press, and there is "Little Olives" menu offering a range of dishes from £3.99. Children can make their own pizza too with 25p being donated to Childline for every child's meal sold.

Quite a lot of families were arriving with their little olives', and this was where most of the noise was coming from.

Basically if you want a quiet meal at the Olive Press then visit after 9pm when the children are all in bed!

However, we had a nice meal, as the food is great.

Total bill, which included a large and small glass of house white, came to £43.65.

Olive Press Bolton, 28 Nelson Square, Bolton, BL1 1JT. Telephone: 01204 521007, www.heathcotes.co.uk.

Opening hours: Mon to Thurs lunch and dinner: 11.45am to 10pm, Fri to Sat lunch and dinner: 11.45am to 11pm, Sunday lunch and dinner: noon to 9pm.

Food 9/10 Service 8/10 Atmosphere 7/10 Value for money 8/10

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