Assaggio Cafe

Been here many times and love the food and dessert selection. However feeling disappointed tonight. I don’t like to be rushed like we’re eating at fasta pasta. Eat up and clear out.

A friend and I arranged to meet for lunch so I could inspect her new baby and generally catch up on things in general.
A check of Google Maps showed the Newton area as being roughly halfway between both of our houses and Assagio was selected as the venue. She made the booking (via email! Yay!) and we pulled into the car park at the same time, just as the Jehovah’s Witnesses church next door was emptying out with scant regard for the give way rules.
Anyway, children were mobilised and we entered the café, through to the restaurant section, where we adults were seated, the toddler high-​chaired and the pram parked. The area was spacious and — as is the working and new mum privilege — very quiet, being a Tuesday afternoon. As usual, the catch up goss got in the way of looking at the menus, however we were quickly brought water for the table and some crayons and paper for the toddler which she loved. We each decided on a pizza and then went crazy and ordered a glass of wine each as well. Look out!
Bread was brought out prior to the pizzas and a generous serve of panatine (French fries) for the toddler who quickly taught herself how to dip into tomato sauce when we weren’t nicking fries off her plate. The pizzas arrived brimming with posh quality ingredients and we tucked in enthusiastically.
Although we may have left some pizza on our plate at the end of the meal, we’re the mums and we can do what we want, so we ordered dessert as well. My passionfruit panacotta was deliciously creamy with the passionfruit giving it a nice zing while my friend went for the rich tiramisu. Nothing left on those plates!
The service was charming, friendly and faultless. Even when my alleged no-​spill cup busted a valve and leaked water through my nappy bag all over the floor, I was assured that it was no problem, given serviettes and a plastic bag brought out for me to transfer the toddler’s various goods and chattels into.
It was great to catch up my friend, we had a good laugh, the toddler was well-​behaved and the food, staff and general ambience of Assagio created a very enjoyable occasion, one we may try and replicate in the future.

I love this place. Family friendly and the food is great. Sometimes during the day you can see the spectacular deserts being made. The wait staff are trying hard but the one we had at our last visit didn’t seem to know much. eg if one meal was a salad or had a salad as a side… she also didn’t know if there is a nappy chance facility. .there is. anyway I love the food and am so glad it’s doing well. Plenty of people in there on a freezing Monday night. It’s not cheap but the food is consistently very good to great. Give it a try.

Take a map of the Adelaide metro area, note Main North Road as the Northern exit, note Montacute Road as the Eastern exit. The arc between these represents the vast vacuum where very few reasonable eating establishments exist. Decent spots in the East and West outnumber those found in the NE appreciably and Assaggio Café is bang in the middle of this zone in the NE.
The café looks to offer a price proposition more suited for the NE suburbs launched off of the upmarket, lower volume Assaggio Ristorante on King William Road, Hyde Park. I’ve been to Assagio Ristorante twice and posted my review on here; in short the service, food and wine list are top class — one of the half dozen places in Adelaide I’d recommend to anyone without a second thought.
Onto the café though. The service has always been great, of the few times I’ve been here they can run it a bit thin during busy periods though, but this has never resulted in huge waits for service or food turn-​around from the kitchen. Wines are listed at reasonable mark-​ups and there’s Rockford, Shaw & Smith, Two Hands and a host of other SA mainstays on their list. Every picks top quality and very considered for a café, I suspect this is the restaurant link paying off.
The food has always been of a consistently good standard. Salt and Pepper squid is well seasoned, antipasto plates generous and fresh, beef or chicken salads are light with homemade dressing and really well sized. The coffees typical Italian roast; ie. black, dark, thin, bitter.
The dessert and gelati bar is impressively huge as soon as you walk in. I haven’t had anything from either on my visits but anyone who has ordered on my table has been impressed with the freshness and size variety. There’s anything from teaspoon desserts to troughs of gelati on offer.
Parking spaces out front are limited and the carpark can look like a game of tetris if multiple people pull in to find a park only to find it’s full. Park across the road in the shopping centre and walk across to save yourself the trouble at lunch and dinner times.

much liked family restaurant, with variable quality in food. their main parent restaurant is much better

After reading the two reviews below, I wasn’t actually very keen of going to Assaggio. I had never tried the one in the city before (which is supposed to be better apparently) and prepared myself for some mediocre Italian food. Well, I was very positively surprised.
We shared a pizza-​based entrée between 4, very simple, topped with olive oil, tomatoes and fresh basil. It was delicious and enough for everyone to have two small slices. I then had the Fettucini al Gamberi (Prawns), which were absolutely fantastic. A lot of flavour, lovely sauce, prawns cooked to perfection and — most importantly — there were actually heaps of prawns in my dish! Thinking back, I’m still impressed with how good the pasta tasted.
Service was quick and very friendly and the interior décor is nice too. It’s probably slightly more expensive than other Italian restaurants you would find in the Eastern suburbs but definitely worth it.

It is not hard to see why this joint has been going great guns since opening in September 2009. It is an offshoot, or should I say sister restaurant of Assaggio Ristorante in Hyde Park; the groups’ Executive Chef and co-​owner is the respected and loved Camillo Crugnale; and it’s in Campbelltown. When a little birdie informed me of Assaggio’s intended second location 18 months prior, I couldn’t help but smile and nod, «It’ll do well». For those of you not familiar with this neck of the woods — it has a fabulous history and population of Italian residents and local food producers. Many of those who flock here are generations of these passionate folk, others are those who know hearty Italian food when they get a whiff of it.
A staggering dessert display lies in wait on route to the dining room — save it for later. There is too much to be had in the line of tagliatelle with sautéed black tiger prawns, breaded scallops baked in their shells with limoncello zabliogne, pork escalopes with gorgonzola and walnut marscapone cream sauce, and slow-​braised lamb with rosemary and garlic, served with savoy cabbage and chianti butter bean sauce.
These guys are right across customer service. The fact several of its owners are previous employees of Assaggio Ristorante offered part of the action in recognition of their professionalism and dedication, may be part reason. When practical, they swap sides of the fence — kitchen staff go front of house and visa versa — a great practice on many counts.
Don’t come here for the view — a sweeping one of the supermarket car park across the road — that said it is likely accommodating your car. Assaggio’s lot is not as generous as its food. Grab some house made gelato for a home treat. The rum and raison is good. The coffee one I found bitter on this occasion but still certainly good enough to make me eat my words about not having a sweet tooth.

The service here is really very good. It’s what stops this place from sliding into the two star category, as the food itself is only okay.
As I’m prone to do, I ordered my standard margherita, and it was alright. A bit floppy, base wise, quite oily, but it was edible and I was starving at the time. I’ve had better pizzas for less than half the price, though. And did I mention that it was really quite oily?
I could possibly have just been there on a bad day. It happens, and everything else that I experienced in the place tells me that it should be a good place to eat, so I am tempted to give it another go and possibly change this review. I’m not in a hurry though.