Assaggio's Restaurant

My husband and I spent a delightful evening at Assaggio's. We decided to give it a try after reading the various opinions from several review sources. We can underscore the positive raves from reviewers were correct. They were accurate. Our waitstaff were astute in menu knowledge/ suggestions, attentive and charming. The specials offered were creative in their coupling , thus extremely appealing. The menu choices were excellent as well. Our selections, a mix of specials and set menu items, were made perfectly. Additionally, our food server was quick to point out, noting my hesitation, that I could easily substitute certain items for others, which I did. The presentations of each course were lovely, simply lovely. The ingredients used in each, were of the highest quality and cooked to extract the max amount of flavor and texture. What a relief to find such a gem of a restaurant. more

My wife and I dine at Assaggio every Saturday night. We love the place, but I never reviewed any restaurant until my grandson encouraged me to do so. We talk about Assaggio for days after our dinner! If the crab sauce is on the menu, I highly recommend it. The flavor is just like the flavor of my late mother’s Christmas Eve sauce, but better because they have crab meat already picked out and piled on top. My wife is always on a diet so she asks for chicken francaise over spinach made with very little oil. They are great there about giving you what you want. The servers are all wonderful kids. They really cater to us. Even the busboys don’t miss a beat. We are thrilled to be able to go to such a quality high end restaurant with reasonable prices. We highly recommend Assaggio. Pros: great food, best service Cons: can get busy on the weekends more

From the moment you walk into this little local Branford restaurant you are greeting by a beautifully smiling staff. The hostess and manager greeted us at the door, we gave our reservation and we were brought to our seats right away. My boyfriend and I looked over the wine list, which was quite extensive, and settled on a bottle of Rex Hill pinot noir. Our server Ben, opened the bottle as he told us that nights additions to the menu. There were so many that sounded so amazing it was perfect. I settled on the chilean sea bass off the menu, over a picked lobster risotto, while my boyfriend chose the ahi tuna over their oriental style risotto. Both were absolutely out of the world! my sea bass which was blackened, was perfect, i don't like spicy but it was just right and the lobster risotto had large chunks of lobster meat throughout. need i say more? The tuna he ordered was medium rare, it was such a large piece i almost couldn't believe it. the risotto which had soy sauce and other spices went so perfectly with the fish he never stopped eating it! after wrapping what we had left it was time for the dessert. Ben once again surprised us with more memorized specials. we ordered the house made white chocolate creme brule, and the dessert special which had white chocolate gelato and sliced strawberries. both were out of this world! It was such a beautiful experience from the time we walked in the door to the time we walked out we will definitely be back very soon! and definitely recommend this restaurant if you have never tried it! Pros: Food, Atmosphere, Service Cons: a little noisy more

very date-worthy. I took my wife to assaggio's for our wedding anniversary. She loved it. nice intimate setting where we talked and ate leisurely. Sinatra's not a bad touch. no complaints about anything. had a great wine selection, and our waiter even helped us pair our food and wine. he was very knowledgeable about both. the apps were some of the best i've had in awhile. Pros: ambiance, food, more

Assaggio lies within walking distance from one of Connecticut's most beautiful shoreline town centers, the ambiance within the restaurant itself is fantastic, the space is cozy and inviting yet with a modern edge. The restaurant has quite extensive wine lists from various regions, we ordered the Cloudy Bay Sauviagn Blanc which we trul enjoyed, the service itself from the hostess to the busing staff is impecable, the servers give quite an explicit and detailed description of the evenings additions that leave all first time goers completely perplexed on how they seem to remember such detail.. I highly recommend the Chilean Sea Bass, the fish was moist and prepared perfectly, i also highly recommend the house made white chocolate creme brule for dessert truly fantastic, over all Assaggio is a wonderful restaurant that encompasses all the fantastic amenities of fine dining by paying true attention to detail. more

My name is Rocky and I am a fellow restaurant owner I myself like to go to different restaurants to compare food and drink prices, see how the customer service, and the enviroment of the place. I like to try different places out to get ideas for my restaurant and also for personal enjoyment. As soon as I walked in the door i was greeted by the manager and the hostess it made me feel right at home. The waitress was very friendly and I could tell she was trained well and had experience. I was never waiting for a drink, food, or for my dishes to be taken away. The food came out at reasonable time not to mention they had a full house that night. Assaggios has an outstanding wine list, the food was amazing, and everything was priced accordingly to the value and quality of the food. As a consumer I don't mind spending money on good quality food. Assaggios is a great restaurant with outstanding service, delicious food, and a variety of alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages. If you're looking for a new place to wine an dine than Assagios is the place. I hope this review is helpful to any new customers who have heard about Assaggios but haven't gotten around to trying it. Thanks Pros: Well run restaurant Cons: No matter what business you're in their can be improvements more

We were there on a Friday night with a 6:45 reservation. The food and the service were good, but not close to what they had been 3 years ago. It was busy and loud. After an hour and a half into our meal we started feeling pressure from the staff to hurry up. This annoyed us, so we slowed down. By 8:30, the owner had been by 3 times; the 2nd to shove our leftovers into a doggie bag, and to see if we could help him out because it was very busy that night. Then he wanted to move us to another table! I let him know that we were out on our anniversary and with a 1 year old at home, we were trying to enjoy ourselves. He said he would buy us a drink. He came back to see what we thought of his offer we said we would be leaving soon. We finished and were heading for the door around 8:45 -2 hours! My wife asked the hostess if she new if the owner had any children. He came over to us and my wife asked him the same question, but he shut her up by telling her not to yell in his restaurant -which she wasn?t. She tried telling him what the matter was, but he would keep saying loudly, that he would not talk to her; then he would tell me to keep my wife quite and leave his restaurant. I told him not to talk to us that way, and tried to tell him that his behavior was unacceptable. He continued yelling. When he started looking like he was going to explode, I called the police for our own safety. He then forcefully smashed our doggie bag from my hand. Next he grabbed me under my shoulders, and pushed me out the door! He was quick to lock the door, to keep me out ? even though my wife was still inside! Then he told her that she was lucky because she was a woman, and told the 2 hostesses to get her to leave. There were 3 couples waiting to be seated when Phil smashed our leftovers out of my hand, they were then quickly ushered to seats. By the time he was physically pushing me out of the door, the only witnesses were his employees ? so I was told by the police that No-One saw anything. Pros: Good food Cons: Owner should be institutionalized more

\r \r Haven't been to Assaggio for a few years.\r Was reminded why!\r Very crowded. Wednesday 6:00PM.\r Very noisy! Impossible to converse.\r Short staffed on wait servers. Only 2 waitresses. \r Very eclectic Italian menu, in a dense community of Traditional Italian food.\r Requested a brighter table near the window, and was told it was reserved. \r It was vacant for over 40 minutes.\r Food was quite mediocre for the price.\r We will NOT return!\r Pros: Good free parking. Cons: Everything else. more