Cucina North Adelaide is one of the few places down O’Connell Street that I’ve yet to visit, until tonight. It’s located on the southern end of O’Connell Street, and like other places down the same street, serves up Italian cuisine. The menu is set out in very traditional fashion with entrees, salads, pastas, risottos, main dishes and pizzas.

The decor has a modern and yet traditional feel. With ground floor and upstairs areas, the place is considerably large. They’ve got a nice long bar area with sweets in one section that are there to entice. Located on a nice corner position, there is a good amount of natural light flowing through each frontage.

For dinner, I ordered the Spaghetti Crab. The dish came out 15 minutes after ordering and was very well presented.

One test of how good a place is, is how well they prepare and cook their crab dishes. With high end restaurants, you’d be unlucky find a single crab shell, but with other places, expect to spend the entire meal picking them out. As for this dish, I found one piece of crab shell, which happens. The crab meat used wasn’t blue swimmer crab as I failed to detect any sweetness in the meat, but on the plus side, the amount provided was generous.

The spaghetti was perfectly cooked, and the combination of cherry tomatoes, garlic, chilli, herbs and olive oil worked in total harmony. I haven’t had a pasta dish this good in a long time and I could have this dish over and over again. The serving size was satisfactory and the dish was executed to perfection.

My friend ordered the Pork Ribs. Not your typical American style ribs, but the meat from the slow cooked pork ribs simply fell off the bone. The meat was tender and succulent, and full of flavour. The home made barbecue sauce had a subtle sweetness and complemented the ribs well.

The staff were friendly and welcoming, and the service was very good. Drinks arrived promptly and were constantly refilled, and plates were cleared as we finished. The atmosphere was relaxed and the pricing is slightly higher than average. The pasta dish set me back $25 and the pork ribs were $31.

We found very little to fault with this place, and combined with two perfectly executed dishes, there wasn’t that much to think about. I highly recommend this place.

WHERE: 21 O’Connell St, North Adelaide