eatingWA - Perth Restaurant Reviews and Community

I appreciated the fact that when the waiter asked about our meals he offered to cook my friend another rissotto with less salt, and when she declined he offered her a free dessert or entree. The waiter commented it is not all about the money, they want their customers to enjoy the experience. I wish more Perth restaurants felt that way.

I wouldn't hesitate to go back again.

in a nutshell the food was overpriced, the quality not great, the service was slow (although admittedly it was Saturday night and the restaurant was as full as a refugee boat) and whilst the night wasn't a disaster by any means as i like good food at a reasonable price i won't be going back

Overall the dining experience was good and we would recomend this restaurant for people looking for good wholesome Italian food.

My visit to this place has restored my faith in Italian restaurants. I found the food authentic, the service friendly and I enjoyed my evening. I recommend giving it a go when in the mood for good Italian food.

Basically yes we will go again for sure. Being pleasantly stunned with the greeting and handshake by an Italian which the same manner was repeated on our departure left me warm about the place. Waitpersons were pleasant and quick and smiled. Food is your run of the mill sound quality Italian cuisine.

Do not recommend at all. Meals are overpriced, small and very basic. Definitely better places to eat in Perth.

I can't believe this place comes so highly recommended. I would not recommend it to anyone. Great location but I feel that they are resting on their laurels a bit. Service was terrible and the food average. Plus the area near the bathrooms is disgusting. Do yourself a favour and go elsewhere. There are many better options on Beaufort St

It is nice to find a restaurant were not only is the food fantastic but it is clear that the owner and staff actually care about what they are serving and ensure that you have a pleasant dining experience. Well done!

Highly recommended- a nice change

One of my favourite casual restaurants in Perth- I will be going back here again and again. Love it.

We will be going back.

Value for money and great tasting food. I will keep going back.

Savini was in its prime in the late 90's but lacks the spark and great food that it used to have.

My partner and I visited for the first time. We were taken aback by the personal greeting of Dino on arriving at the restaurant…we thought perhaps we were mistaken as family! The food was really great. Lovely fresh and flavoursome cooking. The wait staff extremely friendly and were very humorous. I'd definitely go back again...

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.

Savinis was a long term favourite of mine and as so often happens one not so good experience can make you change direction and head off to a different "favourite" for a while. Well thanks to the good old entertainment book we headed on back to Savinis only to find the owners had changed! We started with a share of bruschetta between us. Now we all know how many different bruschettas there are in the world, this one was one of the better ones!! Our main meals were beautiful. I had the chicken filled with fetta, spinach, and cashews served on a risotto base. My husband settled {after much contemplation} on a pasta dish which was a chicken base with eggplant and snow peas. We were both too full to consider any sweets but as I'm not overly fond of sweets, this is the norm. for us. Our evening at Savinis was very relaxed. It was the end on my working week and often the day the two of us go out and catch up with the week's events. For this reason Savinis was excellent as it was particularly quiet - but the Savinis I have always known has always been a very lively night, lots of laughter and carrying on from other tables etc, alas no more. This was a very quiet evening, maybe only 4 tables being occupied. The wait staff was trying to be bubbly but spent most of her time looking out of the front door trying to will more people in through the door. NO MY WORKING WEEK DOES NOT FINISH ON MONDAY!!!! Oh how I wish! We will return to Savinis but not as one of the great "I must go now restaurants". It has lost something and I can't quite say what, but certainly not the food that was delicious.

I have long held an ideal in my mind (and on my palate) of what a seafood + pasta dish should taste like and i have been nothing but disappointed by every marinara - until i went to Savini Cafe! Their pizza is great, the seafood platter is great, the Italian desserts, the mains, pizza bianci, everything is delicious! And the service is wonderful, the staff warm and generous with their time. But, i'll always remember Savini as the place that showed me how delicious a simple Spaghetti Marinara could (and should) be.