Amanda B.
Yelp
As a child, I grew up eating at Salvatore Scallopini. My grandparents were Italian, and this was the only place that met their standards. This was the only Italian food that Nonna would pay money to eat. ("Why would I pay for Italian food when I can make it better myself?!!") About a week and a half ago, my sisters and I drove over two hours to dine at Salvatore Scallopini, hoping to relive some of our childhood memories. Salvatore Scallopini was the gold standard for Italian food after all. We were sorely disappointed. Why? Let me tell you!
We arrived at 8:02 (we paid for metered parking, so I have the exact time) and asked for a table for 4. It was not particularly busy, so we were seated almost immediately. The waitress took our drink order a few minutes later, and then the wait began.
The menu was completely different, missing some of our favorite childhood staples (stuffed shells, for one!). The bread basket no longer came with olive oil and sauce--we had to pay extra for that (it used to be free). Around 8:40 (40 minutes later) the waitress came back to take our food order. When we got our soups and salads it was past 9:00. We had purchased movie tickets for later that night--we wanted to make a date out of such a long drive--so around 9:15 we asked the waitress to package our food to go. We were a little bummed that it had taken so long, but we didn't have a problem with taking our food to go and we didn't say anything indicating that we had a problem.
Within the next 10 minutes, the manager came storming out. She began interrogating us about why we asked for our food to go. We told her we had other obligations and that we hadn't known that it would take so long to dine at "Sal's". She pulled out the order receipt and said very rudely, "Well your order was put in at 8:40." We explained to her that we had been there since 8 o'clock. She rolled her eyes at us and said, "I don't think so."
I have never been to a restaurant where the manager came out and was rude to me for asking for my food to go. That was a first, and let me tell you I hope it's a last. We left money on the table for the drinks, the bread, and the soup, but we left immediately after that interaction. There was no reason for her to come out and be so rude to us. There was really no reason for her to come out and speak to us at all, as we did not have a problem. This experience was such a disappointment and I will not be back. You'd better believe that my whole Italian-American family has heard about this experience and we will no longer be patrons.
One star because the minestrone was still good.