Spaghetti Tree

-An iconic Italian saloon brothel restaurant with
its iconic spaghetti tree tasselled lights

Fri 13/Apr/2018
Clear night 20°C

Spaghetti Tree has opened for over 25 years close to Princess Theatre and catered for the audience before the show time in Melbourne. At first glance, the interesting name “Spaghetti Tree” caught my eyes. However, I had no idea about the story behind it until finding the video on YouTube by the BBC’s Panorama in 1957. This hoax report on April Fools’ Day showed how a family living in southern Switzerland harvested spaghetti “from trees”. Unfamiliar with spaghetti during that period of time, many British people then contacted the BBC for growing their own trees. (Good job on Fools’ day, mate!) So, is there any spaghetti tree in Spaghetti Tree? It is said that there was an ornamental spaghetti tree but got ditched because naughty children allegedly continued plucking the spaghetti.

Such a classic 80’s décor

The 80’s décor with yellowish warm lighting made the restaurant nice and cosy. Apart from the iconic tasselled lights, the lamps on the first floor were another favourite of mine. Honestly, just love this ambience so so much. There were also a lot of memorabilia, posters and old photos on the walls. Yet, too many customers in the restaurant stopped me from getting closer to look at those beautiful pictures and taking more photos.

Can you find the iconic tasselled lights?

Overall, Spaghetti Tree offered authentic Italian food with a great portion. Our first starter was Caesar salad with prawns (AU$28). The number of the prawns was adequate for three but the texture was not that chewy as fresh prawns. The second one was chicken satay (AU$29). The chicken satay marinated so well became a good match with the rice beneath. Combined with the light side salad, chicken satay was my today’s top dish.

🡳 Chicken Satay

Another highlight of the night was the drink but all of us forgot its name, haha. It made an exact balance between bitterness and sourness. Therefore, I put the photos here. Anyone knowing its name please please makes a comment below (#OwnerOfSpaghettiTree).

I ordered fettuccine carbonara (AU$23) as my main dish and other two were lasagne (AU$24) and veal saltimbocca (AU$35). Each one was with a satisfied portion with super creamy sauce (my favourite) and al dente pasta. BUT !!!!! This rich and creamy flavour can also make the dishes greasy easily. The most outstanding disadvantage of all these three main dishes was no side salad. Me and my friends all agreed that we should have left salad in the starter for matching the main dishes.

🡳 Fettuccine Carbonara

Lasagne (Left) & Veal Saltimbocca (Right)

The experience of visiting Spaghetti Tree was very precious for me because it was my first dining experience in Australia. Although my English was not that good during that time and not able to understand all my friends’ talk, the good atmosphere and those laughs did make a foreigner like me cosy. As a result, the memories in this restaurant far outweighed its food for me. However, I still hope to order another iconic (super sweet, they said) dessert, banana split, next time when visiting my lovely friends.