Rebecca W.
Yelp
Unfortunately my family had a poor experience at Sugo and they basically have said they never want to go back. It feels like most of the blame is on me because I was eager to have Italian food and I have dined at other restaurant owned by the same hospitality group and was hyping them up.
The Good: I actually enjoyed our appetizers. We ordered several for the table- Calamari Fritti, Bruschetta, Greek Flatbread, and the Classico Salad. I personally thought they were all delicious and I would order and eat them all again. I will note that the Greek flatbread was incredibly thin, so much so that my dad wondered if it had been made using a tortilla. I still thought it tasted great though. Also, our server was very nice.
The Bad: Basically, everything else, especially the entrees. We had a 6 pm seating time on a Saturday and the place was deafeningly loud- not because of music or anything (I actually don't think there was any) but something about the acoustics in the restaurant make it impossible to hear anybody who isn't directly across from you. I was on the opposite side of the table of 6 from my brother and we had to shout to hear each other. My dad just gave up on trying to hear anything and was just annoyed the whole time. Our appetizers were brought out one at a time, with the time in between rounds getting longer and longer. It was an hour and a half before we received our Classico salad, which we had been intending to split as a table, and the server apologized profusely and explained that the salad had been given to the wrong table, so they brought us a second one for free. Also, despite our server assuring us that the apps were a good size, they would have been best shared for 4 or less people- with our party of 6 the apps were reduced to a tasting menu by necessity. There simply was not enough to go around for everyone. Our entrees came even later and the only people who liked their food were my husband and my mother. My husband said his cannelloni was fine, just not his favorite thing ever, and my mom had no complaints with her Frutti di Mare (however, from my observation, the dish was mostly mussels, and I don't think she got all of the types of seafood that are listed in the menu description). Also, the entree that both my sister in law and I had selected (the veal ravioli) was apparently 86'd so our server brought us a menu and asked us to pick new ones. I was actually incredibly disappointed because I had looked at the menu several days ahead of time and had been looking forward to it. My SIL picked the eggplant Parmesan and I picked the Aunt Lena's Chicken. My brother and his wife split their entrees (cannelloni and eggplant parm) and both of them did not like their entrees at all. They found the eggplant parm to be inedible (to be polite) and basically did not touch the dish at all. They did eat most of their cannelloni but said it was mostly cheese and very little meat. My Aunt Lena's Chicken was not great. The chicken part was a basically a whole fried breast, and I basically only ate that. It was served with some pasta in a pink sauce (on the menu as "pink cream sherry sauce") that was cold and tasted canned. I ate maybe 3 pasta pieces before leaving the rest. Additionally, the whole thing was plated on a bed of raw baby spinach, so the spinach underneath was wilted and a tuft of spinach that was peeking out was still raw and fluffy (as you would find in a salad). I mean come on, pick one- if the spinach is intended to be wilted go ahead and actually saute it and cook it but to just throw hot food on top of spinach to make it wilt and call it a day is lazy, or just serve it as a spinach side salad. We ordered a few drinks as well, my dad got a Sicilian Spice and didn't like it, my husband got the Island Export mocktail and liked it so much he had 2, and I got the For Your Health mocktail which was very small compared to my husband's drink and got warm quickly. If I could drink I would have gotten the sangria but alas. To give an idea of how long we were there, the table next to us had gone through 3 different seatings by the time we paid and left.
Mr and Mrs Castellucci were present and making rounds while we were there but we were only visited once by Federico who gave us a speech about perfecting appetizers which in retrospect almost felt like a warning. We were celebrating double anniversaries so the whole meal was a big let down and my brother was very irate about the entire thing. Our server definitely felt bad. The restaurant gave us spumoni and mango sorbet as both a congratulation and apology.
Unfortunately I think the only people who would come back are myself and my husband (just for appetizers) and maybe my mom if I asked but everyone else at the table considered it a gigantic disappointment and waste of money and they would never come back.
