Oliva's

3 stars because it is very comfortable, clean, beautiful.  It has a really nice bar, and an excellent, friendly staff.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think the food is very good.  Too salty.  Didn't try the pizza or anything with marinara, so maybe there is still potential for redemption.  But if the sauce on the scallopini or the bowtie chicken is any indication, there is little hope. Both sauces tasted like they came out of a Campbell's can.  
The salad was your standard lettuce, salami, mozzarella, olive thing, and it was tossed with very ordinary Kraft-tasting italian dressing.
And canned mushrooms, for real.

This is a little hidden place just north of the train tracks in downtown-ish Mishawaka. It feels more like a bar than restaurant. It is comfortable either way. The service is also fast and pleasant.

I ordered a mushroom and sausage pizza... It tasted good, distinct, and above average for all the pizza places I've had in the area... However, they do use canned mushrooms (I don't approve of such a thing) and the sausage had some hard grizzle stuff in there (It annoyed me but I'm not picky about that).

It was just different pizza in a different kind of place.

We are big supporters of the local, Mishawaka restaurants and businesses so when we heard Oliva's had just opened last week, we had to give it a try.  

They have done a great job renovating the building and they have a bonus of being located on a dead end street so it is nice and quiet right around the restaurant.  The outside is very attractive and despite a big crowd, we didn't have any problems finding a parking place.

However, to our dismay, we were met with the information that Oliva's is a smoking establishment and over 21 only.  We are totally down with no kids allowed but since we aren't smokers, we usually steer clear of all restaurants and bars that allow smoking.  We decided to give it a try anyway.

In their defense, they have done the absolute best job to control the smoke they could. There is a big sucker on the ceiling that draws all of the smoke straight up but it isn't enough to save this place for non-smokers like us.  While we loved this place, we won't be back.

So, let's get down to what we loved.  The place was utterly PACKED yet everyone working there was good natured about the chaos and everyone waiting seemed to be having a good time.  We lucked out and got the last two seats at the bar while we waited for our table and enjoyed the house Chianti.  While we waited, we noticed it was definitely an older crowd - the majority of the people there were probably in their 50s.

We were finally seated at a small, 2 seat table in the bar area - bring your patience with you for a crowd because everyone waiting for a table was crowded around us.  The bar is very nice, beautiful wood and very well stocked but narrow and not much standing room around it.

We ordered two of the speciality dinners - I got the spaghetti with marinara, which 5% of the proceeds from this meal are donated by the owners to breast cancer research while my husband got the red pepper chicken pasta.  Each meal comes with a tasty Italian broth soup, a generous Italian salad with wonderful cheese and salami strips and warm rolls.  The salad is brought out in a big deep bowl with tongs for you to dish onto your own plates to your heart's content.

We both loved our dishes and have plenty of leftovers - our incredibly nice waitress even boxed up the leftover salad, which could be a meal in itself.

So, we would definitely recommend Oliva's for those that don't mind the smoke but for the rest of us, I would stick with carry out.