Trattoria Sambuca

Carmine's-like restaurant. The food isn't as good. The service is just like carmine's which is terrible! Pasta, entrees etc served all at once. By the time we got to the entrees they were cold. The grease solidified. Told everything served together & it's too Bad. Lots of mediocre food dumped and left. Fill your belly for less at Olive Garden or McDonalds. Low class all the way.

I found this restaurant because I was looking for one with a gluten-free menu. Even though it was a little on the expensive side for me and my friends, but we decided to go anyway. And it was the right decision all the way. The prices make sense once you see the size of the portions. Not one of us could finish our portions (and there were two big guys there). The food was FANTASTIC. I couldn't stop eating my friend's food (shrimp linguini w/ vodka sauce). The staff was very accommodating as well, and the service was super fast. Just as an example, we went to the Pain Quotidien a few doors down to wait for friends, and we ordered some tea/coffee. They took about 15 minutes to bring us our drinks. At Sambuca, they took 15 minutes to bring 5 full orders. There were only one negative, but it didn't have anything to do with the food/experience. I called a few days before to see if they were open on New Years. They said they were, but the didn't tell me that they didn't open until 5 (they also don't have open/close times on the website). I told my friends to meet me there at 4. We had to go somewhere else to wait for it to open. I highly recommend this restaurant. If I could afford it, I would be there at least once a week. :)

Everything changes, we remembered Sambuca as a vibrant restaurant that served delicious mounds of food at good prices....no more. Although our cocktails, wine & salads were good the mains were lacking. Fuscili with Sausage and Broccoli Rabe was dry and lacking in fuscilli, sausage and broccoli rabe & my wife's veal was awash in bland sauce and not large enough to make a small sandwich. Thomas Wolfe wrote "You can't go back again". We won't.

a very kid friendly place for "yupper-westsiders", the rather sophisticated setting is by far the most impressive part of this otherwise average restuarant, whose one plus was the portobello mushrooms apps. the noise factor is kept to a minimum, thank goodness, but if youre not with child, you can do much better in that part of town.

Family style Italian with dishes you can count on to be yummy and shareable. Good for kids and larger parties too but may be a bit noisy in the back room.

The food was good and the portions were large. The space can get a bit crowded though. The service wasn't bad but it could've been better.

great for a crowd that includes children-otherwise don't bother

good food, Italian cooking, family style