Cafe Va Bene

Cafe Va Bene is a busy Italian restaurant on Lower North East Road in Campbelltown, known for big portions of pasta and pizza, seafood pizza and home-made gelato. Dogs are welcome in the outdoor dining area on the footpath in front of the restaurant, and it runs long hours, 8:30am to 9:30pm most days, so it covers breakfast through to a late dinner.

The dog setup

The footpath tables out the front are where dogs are permitted; the indoor dining room is not. Keep your dog on a lead and under control for the whole visit. Staff are generally accommodating with pets, but do not assume a water bowl will appear, so bring your own. Footpath seating means passing foot traffic and other dogs, so keep the lead short near the entrance and let staff and diners get past easily.

Worth knowing

This is a generous, family-friendly Italian, not fine dining: the menu runs from eggs benedict at breakfast to spaghetti marinara, saltimbocca and seafood pizza, with cakes and gelato that get mentioned in their own right. Portions are famously big. Sundays open slightly later at 9am. Weekends and dinner service are the busy windows, so an early table is the calmer option with a dog.

Getting there and parking

The restaurant is at Shop 8, 636 Lower North East Road, Campbelltown, north-east of the city. There is on-site parking plus street parking along the main road and the nearby side streets.

Max: I watch the footpath, they watch the gelato cabinet, and everyone leaves Campbelltown happy.

Close by with the dogs

Campbelltown Memorial Oval is close by for a walk before or after the meal, and the River Torrens Linear Park trail is a short drive away for something longer on the lead. Nearby PawScapes stops include Four Paws Park fenced dog park in Hectorville for off-lead time, plus Hidden Leaf Cafe and Sugar Mint Cafe in the same suburb for morning coffee.