Spasso Italian Grill

I’ve been dining here several times a week during the past few months, and I can honestly say that I’ve never had a bad meal. In fact, all of the meals I’ve tried have been outstanding. I mostly order seafood meals. The staff are very friendly, accommodating, and knowledgeable about the regular dishes as well as about the daily specials. Service is usually quite quick, except for times when the restaurant is filled, when service is still acceptable. The food is always very fresh and I’m told that the pasta is homemade daily. I always enjoy my visits to Spasso’s and recommend others try it out.
One can also dine more informally right at the bar. Leber, the bar manager is fantastic, as are the bar tenders, Amber, Monica, and Ronnie.

Appetizer: Arancini — risotto deep fried dough (kind of like corn fritters)
Entrée: fettuccine shrimp for me, capellini seafood for the wife
Spumone (ice cream) and tiramisu for dessert
All very good choices.
They make their own pasta in house. Service was awesome too.

I’ve only been once for dinner, but I’ve been several times for lunch. It’s rarely crowded, although it’s getting more so. However, we’ve never waited for a table. Parking isn’t great, but manageable for lunch. Their lot holds maybe 10 cars.
Prices are indeed a bit high, but it’s worth it. Their antipasto is very good with lots of interesting things to try. The calamari is too rubbery for my taste, however. All the pastas I’ve ordered were perfectly done, al dente with sauce that clings to the pasta. Their signature pasta is particularly excellent. I’ve also ordered a variety of meat and eggplant dishes, all have been great. Even their grilled vegetable side is one of the best I can remember.
Service can be a little slow, mostly from the kitchen, but the staff are very professional and helpful (which is noteworthy in Delaware County.)

Went early on Saturday night. They were busy! A lot of big parties. Service was a little slow but our waiter was accommodating. food was good (chicken parmigiana /​Pappardelle Porcini), but not extraordinary. Desserts (tiramisu /​chocolate mouse pie) were good. Apparently they have a prix fix menu on Weds in winter. I would give that a try, but would not go back for a date.

Great service, great menu, great food. It’s a nice atmosphere that is rarely crowded, and definitely one of my favorite restaurants in Media. I hope this place sticks around for a long time.

I eat out A LOT, and never ever write reviews on Unilocal… life gets busy and I always forget. But the last four times I was at Spasso’s I said I need to go home and write a glowing review for them… So here we are! Their food is consistent and delicious, which is HUGE. Coming from the city I am not always in love with the restaurant scene in Media, but Spasso’s consistency always has me coming back. It is nothing over the top, edgy or super fancy, it is just really great italian food! And just as important is their staff and service. As someone who often dines with my toddler they are always more then accommodating. They are always helpful, attentive, fast and so happy and wonderful. I tell everyone about how sweet they are to us and they have won me over for life. In a town that tries to have city level restaurants and often falls short, this is a constant stand by for our family.

My boyfriend and went here Friday for date night. The service was a little slow. We enjoyed the escargot appetizer and the tartufo for dessert.

We went tothe restaurant on a friday night. The place was empty. Three people in our party ordered the Friday special which was a Pasta and Scallop dish. It cost $ 29.95for this dish. One in the party had exactly 3 scallops in her dish and the other counter 4 in theirs. These were not the large sea scallops either, they were the tiny bay scallops. The other special with Basso Fish and pasta which had to be sent back because it was so salty it was inedible. What a disgrace!
We should have stayed with the appetizers! We won’t go back or recommend this place to anyone.

Went for dinner last night (Saturday) and I ordered the shrimp fra diavolo. The shrimp was a bit off in flavor and was also tough to cut through. Not sure if it was cooked frozen or microwaved but it was very bad. Sadly the pasta and sauce wasn’t much better. The service was very attentive to our needs though.

Went to Spasso this past Wednesday night for dining under the stars. We ate inside since the weather was iffy. This is by far the LOUDEST restaurant I’ve ever been in. It was fairly packed but something about the design of this place just doesn’t work. People were not talking loudly, but it sounded worse than an elementary school cafeteria. Upon arrival, we were greeted (and I use the term loosely), by a middle aged woman who mumbled something, grabbed a pair of menus and walked to a table as if we were supposed to know to follow her.
Once seated our waitress came to the table in a reasonable amount of time to take drink orders. I have no issues with servers with thick accents, but her inability to speak clearly along with the background noise made it nearly impossible to communicate with her. She quickly brought us our $ 9 glasses (or should I say «shots») of house wine. She told us what the specials were. One of them was some sort of stuffed flank steak, which sounded good, so I ordered that. When I ordered she said «no, it’s not flank steak, it’s strip steak». My GF and I were both certain she originally said flank steak, but what the hell, I like strip steak too, so no big deal. When the food came, it was indeed flank steak. No doubt the meal was delicious, but man oh man, if you’re going to correct yourself, be right when you make the correction. My GF ordered the crab ravioli. It was excellent.
Any good Italian restaurant should have good bread. The only word that comes to mind here is «lame». Not horrible, but should be better. We did not get olive oil with the bread although we saw there was some on other tables. So we asked for some and the waitress literally turned around and took the oil from the people behind her and put it on our table. A WTF moment. Glad to have oil, felt sorry for the people at the other table.
We ordered a second glass of wine. The waitress mumbled something and returned with two glasses of wine that were more sparse than the first two. At this point I felt compelled to say something. I asked if these were supposed to be full glasses of wine? She said NO, I had the bartender split it for you. Apparently she must have thought we got drunk on our first shot of wine and needed to regulate our drinking without telling us. Just to note. We are not big drinkers.
Summary: with so many other good Italian options in the vicinity, I wouldn’t ever go here again.
Pros: delicious food
Cons: loud dining room, poor and somewhat rude service, stingy drink portions for the price

Standard food, poor service. I went with my family (5 top) and we were one of 3 tables there for dinner (it was Memorial Day). Our server was not only slow, but her was unfriendly. I’ve been a server so I understand a slow kitchen may not be a server’s fault, but he was very rude. He would drop off a drink or bread and not say a word. Multiple times we tried to ask him for something but he ran away from our table so quickly that he didn’t hear (or acknowledge) us. The food is good – nothing so good that I would say the wait and poor service were worth it. The waiter didn’t even say goodby to us. A bit disappointed.

Food and service is excellent. beautiful atmosphere.

Finally went to Spasso after being told to by a friend repeatedly. Went there on a Wednesday night (Dining Under The Stars) in Media. Service was very fast and waiter was extremely knowledgeable, knew all the ins and outs of the specials, almost as if he cooked them. Food was delicious, fast and hot, and just the right amount. Slightly more expensive than your average Italian restaurant but it was worth it. Will only take reservations for parties of 8 or more.

I have been to the location in Philly but this was my first visit here. The décor is modern and spacious, but lacks the old school feel of the original. Our waiter was very knowledgeable about the menu and attentive. The wine list is fare, but I would like to see a few more Italian wine offerings. We started with the fried calamari and it was by far the best in Media. Very fresh with a light breading, so you could actually taste the squid. The marinara sauce accompanying it was good as well. My wife choose the braciole, which is a special they have every Sunday. This was her first time having the dish, and it may be her last. The meat was a little tough, and the stuffing had a somewhat overpowering taste of spices, primarily rosemary, that threw the flavor off. I personally liked it, and ended up eating most of it as she ate my chicken parm. My dish was excellent. The chicken was tender and moist, with a very flavorful breading. I had a side of gnocchi with it and they were delicious. They were cooked just right, and were not too dense. All in all a great dining experience. It seems every time we go for Italian in Media we end up at Fellini’s, but we will definitely be back to Spasso!

Had a solid lunch experience. We were the only ones there, but food was better than expected.
Bread service was lacking. Bread cold and caponata was under seasoned.
Got a shrimp and white bean scampi type thing for an app that was pretty good. They sold it as rock shrimp (which they were not), but it was hot and flavorful.
Got veal with porcini sauce as entrée and it was good. They did indeed use dried porcini mushrooms. Nothing wrong with it. Wife got shrimp linguini with pesto cream sauce that she enjoyed a lot. Linguini was fresh pasta which was a nice surprise.
Got a profiterole for dessert that was good as well. Chocolate sauce tasted homemade.
Overall, good experience. I would return. Only knock is that I am pretty well versed in reading menus, and there was a lot of stuff on the menu that I had to Google or ask about. Difficult to read with little description.

Would say 2.5 stars but had to curve up to 3. Bartender was alone and had to handle full bar at happy hour. Did ok to fair. Bread was fair. It’s restaurant week so I got Caesar (HEAVY dressing –ok at best), ziti in red sauce (ok — nothing special), and shrimp fra Diablo. The shrimp was cold, pasta over cooked. Choco mouse cake was tasty. All for 30 bucks. Decent price if food was up to usual standards. Red wine at happy hour was ok. This is the third straight time I’ve been disappointed here. Used to be the best Italian in the area. Not by a long shot today. Time to move on.

Was planning on having dinner at Felinni’s but there was an hour wait, so we opted to try Spasso’s instead. Inside is very spacious, décor is warm, staff is welcoming and accommodating. Our server was very pleasant. Food was just OK though… nothing too special. I tried the Fettuccine & shrimp (which were pretty small). My daughter tried the crab ravioli w/​pesto sauce. and that was tasty. Bottom line… its a nice choice to grab Italian food in the area, but don’t expect to be blown away.

The wife and I were invited to a birthday dinner here a few days back during the «DUTS» (Dining under the stars) event which is held every wednesday during the summers. I never knew that this little piece of summer goodness existed and judging by the crowd, people love this place. The reason why I am giving it a ⁴⁄₅ is because the ambience and atmosphere during the wednesday event was great, good food, good drinks and great outdoor seating.
All the restaurants on the main street were sprawled out onto the street with little tables, live music and umbrellas.
The food was good, I had the crab ravioli, very rich but delicious. Not the biggest drinks menu and prices vary from $ 15 to $ 25 per dish.
I will be back this week and will try another place on this delicious strip!

Dined here twice recently. First time was a four star experience. Last time a two star experience.
Pros: fresh pasta in appropriate portion sizes, willing to customize menu items, service is friendly and helpful. Crème brûlée was fab and I’ve heard the seafood is tasty.
Cons: overpriced for the unsophisticated menu, cannot seem to handle a crowd, no reservations for small groups, one ladies’ room for the whole place (they should make the two bathrooms unisex)
Bottom line: a safe choice in Media, but it’s easy to rack up a hefty bill for just an average meal.

Visited Spasso for an early (4 pm) dinner on a Sunday night. I haven’t spent much time in Media but my initial reaction was that this restaurant is in a really cute area of town. If the weather had been a little better, I would have liked to take a walk around after dinner. One thing to note– parking is very limited in this area (we parked in a garage a few blocks away that was free on Sundays).
Once arriving in the restaurant, I was impressed by how nice the space was– it felt like an old mansion. This is also a great location for a group dinner. There were two parties of 10+ people in the room we were seated.
Looking at the menu, there is a wide range of options– pastas, chicken, beef, seafood, as well as a number of vegetarian options. Again, another reason this would be a great place for a group. In addition, no entrée was over $ 25 (cause you KNOW you have that guy in your family who orders the most expensive item when someone else is treating…)
The meal started with some bread and this delicious mix of cold marinated vegetables (eggplant, squash, peppers). I could have eaten an entire plate of that! For my entrée, I went with the crab ravioli in a cream pesto sauce and it was very very good. The stuffing in the ravioli was excellent and definitely was real crab (sometimes crab ravioli uses fake crab and it tastes nasty– not the case here).
Overall, everyone at our table enjoyed their dishes, atmosphere was pleasant, and service was good: if I am looking for a place to get a meal in Media in the future, Spasso will definitely be on my mind!