friday night j-rod and i dined at sam and gabe's. it wasn't my first time there, but since my first experience (NYE) was less than stellar i thought we should give it another try, considering it is in the top ten on the top 100 list and we had a groupon.
we arrived shortly after 5:00 (we weren't trying to catch an early bird special, but had an early movie to get to) and the place was empty. we asked for a table for two and they asked if we had a reservation. we did not, so they walked us through the beautiful dining room and down toward the basement. before the owner even got on the first step, i was having flash backs of NYE so i asked if we could sit somewhere else. to give you a little history, on NYE we had to eat in the basement on a plastic table with folding chairs, so i was in no hurry to do that again. when you're paying $20+ for an entree, no plastic should be involved. so we settled on a table in the bar.
to start things off, we ordered their famous italian nachos (shown in the top left) while i thought they were good, i wasn't blown away. while the cheese was pipping hot because they throw it under the broiler to melt, the italian sausage was still cold because that doesn't give it enough time to warm up.
onto our entree's. i love homemade pasta, it takes a dish to a whole another level. so i decided on the tortelloni modenese (homemade cheese and spinach-filled totelloni, tossed with peas, prosciutto and mushrooms, finished with a light marsala wine cream sauce. shown below.) when i went to take my first bite of the pasta, i found myself sawing through the pasta, not a good start. overall, i thought the dish had good flavor but it didn't make up for the poorly cooked pasta. j-rod went with the cannelloni al forno (tubular pasta filled with veal, chicken, pork and spinach. with a combo of red and white sauce.) he was so kind to share a bite and i thought it was just okay, as did he. the portion was also super small for the price. my favorite part of the whole thing was the red sauce.
after two so-so trips to sam and gabe's, i don't think i'll be back anytime soon.
What a bummer. I completely agree with you that if you are spending $20+ for an entree, you should not be eating off of plastic tables. Makes you wonder why they don't invest some money into the basement and make it a 2nd dining room, if they utilize it that often.
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