Overall:
Cruising around the districts surrounding Perth city, we espied Savinis Café in Walcott Street Mt Lawley and a perfectly situated parking spot outside the door to boot! This just had our name all over it for Sunday lunch. Whether it was the location or the lateness of our meal or even just that it was the middle of a long weekend, Savini’s was surprisingly unpopulated. I say surprisingly because we had a very nice meal in comfortable surroundings with the very affable attention of both owners of this café.
As we walked into the cool and dark (in a good way) café, we were greeted by one of the owners and given our choice of tables in the lightly airconditioned interior. There is a semi-alfresco area as well but the cooler and darker area beckoned to us tantalisingly. The tables for two are a little on the tight side but typical of a café environment. These tables were covered in rust coloured linen cloths and as we sat down, our hostess provided us with menus and immediately noticed and rectified that our table had not been set correctly. (We hadn’t even had time to notice our surrounds let alone that a serviette was missing!) The room is painted a similar colour to the tablecloths, making the room feel cosy and you could imagine that it would be just right on a winter’s night with the woodfired oven going full bore. The addition of various (and many) works of art as well as the little knick-knacks and mementos of family life, provide a welcoming feel to the patrons.
The menu is very large both in size and in content, with the standard range of pastas and pizzas that you would expect to find in an Italian café, along with the various entrees and mains. We had already decided earlier in the day that we wanted to have a picky kind of lunch, so our eyes immediately sought out the share platters and similar. This menu did not have many of those dishes available to choose from but those on offer did hold an appeal. We decided against the antipasto plate in favour of some Italian bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, in addition to Kalamata olives and feta. Unlike some restaurants, the feta and olives were piled high in their respective bowls. All items on the plate were fresh and tasty and of a good quality. The bread, I must note, was quite light compared to most places that claim to serve Italian bread. I much preferred this variety to the norm. Our main course was the seafood platter, which at $31.50, is designed for a single diner and yet I cannot imagine who would be able to get through such a sizable platter on their own. This plate was loaded with a bowl of chilli mussels (with each mussel shell being about five inches long and holding a large succulent mussel that only hinted at chilli, and was not overpowered by it), very succulent and fresh fish, delectable calamari pieces, prawns and scallops, all sitting on a bed of salad and roasted vegetables. This was a seafood platter worth every cent. If I had to find fault with it, it would be that the scallops were not of great quality, although they were still nicely cooked and presented. I personally am not so keen on the addition of grilled fish to these platters but this fish (whatever type it was) broke away into very soft, moist flakes and could not have been better. Some people may have missed chips or a dipping sauce but in all honesty, we didn’t notice their absence. This plate is so very large that we struggled to finish it. Dessert was not an option. Our meal was rounded off by very nice coffees.
The service here is not silver service but it is of a very high standard in terms of attention and affability. Nothing was too much trouble including sourcing a glass of white wine from the family’s own collection and we were visited not only by our hostess (who acted as our waitress) but also by our host who was also keeping an eye on all of his guests. The three sons working behind the scenes were kept busy the entire time we were there, despite the limited numbers within the restaurant. Personally, I noticed the build up of heat coming from the wood-fired oven but that was as much to do with the location of our table as the outside heat of the day.
We have added this café to our collection for further visits as for the amount of food we were given, as well as the attention, $58.50 seems more than reasonable. The softly playing Italian music just added to the ambiance. Need some places like this over my side of Perth!! Definitely going back there one day.