A smart restaurant in the increasingly thriving North East offering good Italian food and interesting choices of pizza and pasta. The antipasto misto makes an excellent starter, rousing the tastebuds without killing the appetite. The rack of lamb cooked in rosemary, garlic and white wine sauce may seem fairly commonplace but I do find that as often as not the Italian version has a piquancy not always carried by others. The dessert is no contest, once I see chocolate rum truffle with crème Anglaise everything else can go home.

Quality house wine at £9.95 and a wine list of mainly Italian origin look after that department very well, particularly as I love the wines grown on the volcanic soils of Italy and they have a Lacryma Christi Caputo on the list. The price of a meal very much depends on whether you are opting for pizza or pasta, in which case it might well be quite a bit less than the figure given, or for more ambitious fare.

A Review from The Evening Chronicle in Newcastle:

If tasty Italian cuisine is your style, coupled with a lively atmosphere, you will love Spago. A friend and I decided to sample what was on offer on a busy Friday night. We hadn't booked but a table was quickly found for us by the window where we could people watch to our heart's content. And a busy Friday night in Osborne Road certainly throws up plenty of people-watching opportunities as people stagger past, in various stages of cheerfulness!

If you want a quiet, candlelit, romantic dinner, Spago isn't really for you. But if you love the buzz of a busy Italian, where waiters compete with the constant lively chatter to shout orders and laughter fills the air, then this restaurant will be just what you are looking for.

While the waiters are rushed off their feet, they still find time to fit in some personal attention and we found that hardly had the wine touched our lips, when a friendly Italian appeared miraculously by our side to refill our glasses.

The choice at Spago ranges from your usual Italian fare - potato skins, pastas and pizzas with any topping imaginable to a selection of meat dishes in various tasty sauces. We opted for the exotic sounding bucce di patate (potato skins with garlic or barbecue sauce, £3.25) and insalata caprese (tomato, mozzarella and basil with virgin olive oil, £3.60) for starters.

The dishes were generous and filling but, fuelled by a constant stream of red wine, we decided we could still manage a hearty main course, choosing pollo Spago (chicken breast cooked in garlic, rosemary and white wine, £10.25) and a pizza calzone (£5.95), a folded pizza with mozzarella, ham, mushrooms and tomato.

The dishes arrived swiftly and were consumed in record speed. At £10.25 for a main chicken dish, prices are a little bit more than your average town Italian, and you will have to decide for yourself whether it's worth it or not. We certainly enjoyed our food but, with happy-hour prices in town to compete with, Spago has to work hard to keep up the high standards and fight off the competition.

Located next to the Osborne Hotel, in a building that formerly housed the Apollo, Spago certainly has location on its side, with Osborne Road becoming more and more popular not just with the students but with locals, too, who flock there for the pubs and restaurants.

And Spago certainly looks good on the outside, and in, with Art Deco style rich red walls, Italian furnishings and eye-catching paintings. It's glamorous and sophisticated, and yet friendly and cosy, maintaining the atmosphere of a family-fun, friendly eatery where the regulars are welcomed like old friends. The bill for the two of us, including copious amounts of red wine, came to a reasonable £26.10.

Evening Chronicle - Feb 13 2002