Sassi

Sassi Cantina is now in the heart of town down off the main street. If you’re looking for a cool cocktail or a special wine, the long white Chillago marble bar offers you the perfect spot. You can choose from a great list of Spuntini (Italian for tapas) or indulge in one of our special gourmet pizzas. It’s also a great place for informal get togethers or pre-dinner drinks.

You can take in the tropical ambience with outdoor dining free of traffic fumes, fanned by a cool breeze or choose the indoor dining area cooled by air conditioning in the summer months.

There’s a space in Sassi Cantina to suit any mood – from a quick cocktail, glass of wine, pizza and beer to the full ‘sassi style’ treatment.

A taste of recent Sassi appraisal:

‘Tony Sassi’s flavours are clean and simple, and his touch assured and the result is fabulous dishes you’ll mull over for days’ (Gourmet Traveller 2009 restaurant Guide)

‘Tony Sassi is renowned for his skill with seafood’ (Gourmet Traveller 2010 Restaurant Guide)

‘It’s all about smart, traditional Italian dishes adapted to suit the climate and served with simplicity and great flair’ (Gourmet Traveller 2005 Restaurant Guide)

‘Tony Sassi’s simple yet sophisticated fare will be the highlight of any foodie’s stay in Far North Queensland’ (Queensland Food and Wine Guide 2009)

‘If ever there was a reason to obsess over wonderfully inspired food it is here where Tony and Di Sassi run a restaurant that sparkles with Italian style’ (Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2004)

‘Tony Sassi achieves great things with fish and seafood by not overworking them’ (Necia Wilden, The Age Epicure)

‘It’s cuisine 2000 years in the making, but as modern as the wireless broadband connection in the room. It’s not museum food from Sassi’s Italian heritage (he hails from Abruzzo on the mid Adriatic east coat of the country), rather a sensitive, intelligent reflection of this location, the produce underpinned by rock solid technique. His crisped salt and pepper gamberetti, small prawns, come with native finger lime. The mushroom risotto is scented cleverly with locally smoked mozzarella (and wild saffron milk cap mushrooms in the season). Local seafood appears in a seafood stew of amazing depth and clarity of flavour, an homage to the town of Pescara and the region of Sassi’s birth.’ (Matthew Evans writing about ‘sassi at bale’ Sydney Morning Herald August 22, 2008)

Awarded Best New Restaurant (Sassi at Bale) for 2008 by the Courier Mail Food and Wine Guide, Lizzie Loel wrote ‘after more than 30 years in the business, he has become one of Queensland’s most consumate chefs’… Loel says Sassi’s strength is that he understands purity and balance. ‘He has the ability to enhance rather than swamp high quality produce’.

‘Ah the Sassis are back, and Port Douglas residents are flocking into the new space off Macrossan Street in the heart of town. This time it’s casual cantina-style with a polished concrete floor and white washed interior, a roaring pizza oven and recipe for dough that’s near perfect… there’s more than just fancy dough with a long list of spuntini dishes and meat choices plus Tony Sassi classics like carpaccio of salmon or hiramasa kingfish with citrus soy and chilli. Add a spacious bar and scarily tempting list of cocktails and it’s perfect for winding down after a hard day on the reef. (Queensland Food and Wine Guide 2011)