Sabatini imports cakes from Italy!

When you visit a restaurant which has been opened for less than a week, you're prepared to make excuses. For the décor, for the service and almost certainly, for the food. They're struggling to get their act together is a reasonable line to use in such circumstances. So when we walked in and sat down in Cafe Sabatini at 56 Glen Osmand Road the response to my first question, how long have you been here, filled me with a sense of dread. Three days was the reply, accompanied be one of the sweetest smiles your likely to encounter anywhere.

Well, I thought, this is going to be a trial. Boy, was I wrong. A little background. An unusual combination of two friends who unnited to create a lifetime dream for both. Alfredo Forte has been in the restaurant business as a chef for 38 years, so he should definitely know how to boil water. His partner in this venture is the ever-smiling Janet for whom this is her first restaurant foray. “It is something I've always wanted to do and now that the children are off my hands, it's my turn” she said.

For someone who had been in the restaurant business for three days, Janet was surprisingly helpful. Obviously a natural, she directed us to the dishes that are destined to make Sabatini a sought-after destination among people searching for good, honest southern Italian food.

Very, very good and breathtakingly honest. We started with an entree of bruschetta which, in this incarnation was two slices of wood oven bread topped with roast capsicum, roast eggplant, artichoke, oregano and extra virgin olive oil. The bread was light and the vegetables where wonderfully fresh and augured well for what was to follow. My entree was spaghetti con salsiccio, which is italian pork sausage mushrooms, green olives done in a light lemon and cream sauce. It was only supposed to be a taste so as to not diminish my appetite for the main course, but it was too damn good to send back to the kitchen without mopping up every last bit of flavour. The lemon, incidentally was an inspired addition.

For the mains we went with what Janet assured us would be the restaurant's signature dishes – spaghetti marinara for my dining companion who had earlier claimed the bruschett was the best he had had anwhere and my main was something I imagined my mama would have made had she been reared in southern Italy – veal scallopini.

Now I'm not a fish person but the visual splendour of the marinara, groaning under an assortment of seafood, deserved applause and my companion rewarded Alfredo's creation in the best way possible be devouring it with relish and in record time. Fresh chilli had been added to the marinara for a bit of kick and it, too succeeded.

My meal was a delight. Light and succulent and surrounded by beans and carrots that were alive with firmness. The potatoes were prepared in a way I had not experienced for a long time and reminded me of the way an old Jewish woman I knew as a child prpared her potatoes. Small whole potatoes, parboiled then quickly deep fried to leave you with a crisp shell and a soft interior. Such a pleasant surprise.

When you go to Sabatini make sure you leave room for dessert because, as far as I can make out, this is the only restaurant in Adelaide that imports its cakes all the way from Italy! I know that sounds impossible which was why I just had to try and was blown away be the delicacy as well as the generous helping of liquor used in the preparation!

Cafe Sabatini is open from Monday to Saturday for lunch, coffee and snacks in the afternoon, as well as dinner.