Olivera’s Pizzeria and Restaurant
119 N. Dexter StreetYou know how you never know where you’re going to end up for work? You don’t? It’s just me? Weird. Anyway, a co-worker and I ended up in Ionia for a couple hours. I had packed a lunch that I had planned on eating, but she was hungry. We started driving around looking for a place to eat when she noticed a restaurant just off the downtown business district that was packed.
Olivera’s Restaurant is on Dexter Street (M-66) in Ionia where it intersects with Main Street. The building and parking lot are shared with a Marathon gas station.
The restaurant was pretty full for 6:00 on a Wednesday night. When we walked in, Co-Worker asked if we could do carry-out and the hostess pointed us to a window just inside the main door that opens in to the kitchen.
We were greeted by one of the cooks. He handed C.W. a carry-out menu and a list of the specials. It took her a while to decided, but she eventually ordered the Philly French Dipped Oven Baked Sub. We were paying separately, so I let the cook take care of her order and get her cashed out before I put in mine.
I wasn’t even going to order anything, but I went inside anyway just to check the place out and if I saw something on the menu I couldn’t resist, then I’d get dinner.
Of course, I didn’t find something I couldn’t resist. An 18″ two topping pizza for $12. How could I pass that up…even though I wasn’t really hungry and was trying to save money.
I paid the $13 for the pizza then took a seat in the small waiting area by the door while CW went back to the car to do some work. It took about ten minutes for both our meals to come up and I grabbed them both and headed out the door.
I obviously couldn’t eat on the drive back to Grand Rapids, but CW dug in to her sandwich right away. The Oven Baked Subs are 10″ sandwiches toasted up nicely. Her order came with thinly sliced slow roasted beef, garlic butter, mozzarella, grilled onions and mushrooms plus a cup of au jus to dip the sandwich in. The sandwich smelled delicious as I was bringing it to the car, but when she unwrapped it, it looked delicious. Someone, she managed to eat the whole thing without spilling any of the au jus in the car and I was jealous the whole time of her meaty, cheesy pile of goodness.
When we got back to Grand Rapids, I went and hid with my very large box of pizza. The dough is hand tossed which gives it that light, airy feel. Once cooked, it comes out to a fairly thick crust that is topped with a slightly tangy red sauce, pepperoni, and a lot of crispy bacon. As I figured, I only ate three or four slices, but I took the rest of it home for later.
Olivera’s looked like a pretty good restaurant what little we saw of the place inside and we were both happy with our food. CW’s sandwich looked, smelled, and according to her, tasted really good. My pizza was delicious, but not the thin crust I usually go for. In this case, I went for quantity and boy, did I get it. It left my tummy full and my palate happy.
18″ Pepperoni and Bacon Pizza
18″ Hand Tossed Pepperoni and Bacon Pizza
SW Michigan Dining 