Scaddabush Italian Kitchen & Bar London — Restaurant in Ontario

My sister and I were excited to see Scaddabush coming to London as we were so impressed with the Front Street location in Toronto. We made lunch reservations for opening week. We arrived shortly after opening and were quickly seated at pub height table. These aren’t my favourite, and since there were very few people in the restaurant, we asked to be moved to a booth. This was a quickly accommodated (more on that later). The staff were friendly and personable. We were informed that Joyce was making the mozzarella today, and Daniel was going to be our server. Orders were collected quickly and recommendations were given, though we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to order ahead of time, which was fresh mozzarella followed by the carbonara we’d had in Toronto. We settled on the balsamic mozzarella this time, having had the bomba before. It was nice and fresh as expected. I personally would have liked to see more balsamic as it was only drizzled on the plate and didn’t really pack much punch. When our orders of carbonara came, my egg was slightly overcooked but still had some runny yolk to mix into the sauce. My sister’s was solid, which was a disappointment, but we didn’t raise it as an issue. It was also visually noticeable that my pasta was saucier/creamier than my sister’s portion. While eating, a woman came to our table to ask us how things were. She didn’t introduce herself, but I’m going to assume she was the manager or a shift leader, given her attire. Drinks were refilled without having to ask, and service overall was timely. We were checked on multiple times by Daniel and his shadow (I’m assuming a trainer, or some sort of quality assurance personnel who followed him to our table each time). When it came time to pay, it was problematic. As a rewards member, I wanted to pay through the app to get my 10% lunch discount however the total kept appearing as $0. Our server took the issue away and returned asking me to try again, and again it was showing $0. It seems that when we arrived, they associated my membership with the initial table we were first seated at, and we unable to now associate it with the table we actually were sitting at. The mystery woman from the earlier visit also came to the table to try to fix the issue, again taking the machine away and returning with no progress. She said she wanted to ensure that everything was correct and I received my discount. At some point, she passed it back to our sever while she attended another table, and Daniel continued to try to wrangle their systems. I finally offered to just pay through regular means, but there was an issue with the POS, which required Daniel to leave the return to the table once more. Eventually, after maybe 15 minutes of back and forth, I paid with my card. I was disappointed that after all that, they didn’t adjust the cheque to reflect the 10% discount I was eligible for, but I wasn’t going to press the issue and wait longer. I’m sure this won’t be the last time a guest moves tables, so hopefully they figure out how to work through that in their system. Overall, we will return again and I would recommend...

Scaddabush is Italian slang for "a little of this and a little of that"

I have to say that I was disappointed in my visit to Scaddabush. First, let's talk about the good points. We were able to get a table on the patio and it was an amazing evening. The temperature was just right, there was a breeze blowing and this made the dining atmosphere very nice. Next, the restaurant wasn't super busy. We only waited 10 minutes or so to be seated.

That's where the service part of the evening sort of fell apart. It took quite a while for Laila to come to the table and offer to get drinks and water. The interesting part was that the restaurant really didn't seem all that busy and there seemed to be quite a bit of staff walking about. I didn't really understand why service was so poor and so slow on the patio. We never really did get any water from the server and I had to go grab two bottles of water from the bin and deliver it to the table myself. 40 minutes into our stay our server finally brought us a bottle of water which made the 3rd at the table.

When it finally came time to order, we placed our order for appetizers and entrees easily enough. Again, it took quite a took quite a while for appetizers to come out as well as the main dishes. After that, when my dish was delivered it was discovered that it was not what we ordered. I was trying to order the Rigatoni Bolognese and despite saying that multiple times every time it was repeated back to us as sausage rigatoni. Not understanding that I was being unclear I just took that to be their description of the dish that I was trying to order. Unfortunately, it was a different dish and I had to send it back to get the dish that I ordered.

Appetizers: The polenta fries were a unique appetizer and I enjoyed having something different from the menu. They were tasty and the marinara sauce paired well with it. The spinach and artichoke dip came with a house made gluten-free flatbread. The flatbread was very good but I didn't think the spinach and artichoke dip was very flavorful at all.

Entrees: I found the food itself to be just okay which is why this one got two stars. We ordered three of the dishes with gluten-free pasta. The spaghetti with gluten-free pasta was bland and seemed to have no taste at all. To me the rigatoni bolognese with gluten-free pasta had much more flavor probably due to the meat in the sauce. I did enjoy it. The chicken and pesto pollo penne dish was tasty as well. My brother had the Toscanna Kale salad and seemed to enjoy it.

I do have to mention that the table behind us also had to send back one of their drinks because it came with whipped cream and that was not how the guest0p had ordered it. So it just doesn't seem like it was a good night for the service staff on the patio.

Overall, for us during this visit, the service really diminished the value of this outing. Considering the cost of the entrees the whole experience could have been a much better if the service had...

Ok wow I'm at a loss for words. I believe this is the first 5 stars I've ever given ! I like to put the good and bad in a review but in this case they left no bad to add. I just came back from having dinner with my family at scaddabush. My mind is reeling from the experience! It's hard to put everything into words . Because it wasn't just the food, it was the atmosphere and the service as well as the food, and to top it all off, my dog was welcomed on the patio. When we walked in we were greeted very warmly and quickly shown to our seats.,while walking to our table it was hard not to rubberneck looking at all the marvelous creations coming out of the kitchen and even on customers tables. We were seated on the clean spacious patio and given a menu that made a foodie like me tremble to read omg how to choose from such a amazing selection the waiter Jackson was quick and efficient supplied us with cold fresh water in glass bottles even went so far as to fill our dogs water bowl, he gave us the perfect amount of time to make our choice and was very helpful and informative about the options available we ordered bruchetta, the Italian burger, the spaghetti and meatballs family size and the carbonara. The bruchetta came out first, and it was spectacular, totally fresh, made with whole thinly sliced cherry tomatoes, parmesan, and balsamic vinegar I belive the bread it came on was fresh made and so light and crispy .right after we finished, our main meals came out the burger was freshly made with basically the same thing as the bruchetta on it and and the bun was so freshly made, light and crispy on the outside and toasted on inner edge and so soft on the inside omg the amazing the spaghetti and meatballs were on another level and the carbonara was so good I'm sure it will be dreamed about tonight, it was a good portion, you could taste the bacon and fresh garlic and parmesan with a poached egg on top just put it on a whole other level as well. This isn't your average side kick, let me tell you, the garlic bread was the same bun the burger came on but liberally buttered with fresh garlic as well it was a treat in itself. I have to honestly say .... thank you to the whole team. I wish I could have named you guys individually. You made us feel so welcomed and warm. Now as I wind up my review as I said I like to give the good and the bad and the only bad I can think to include is how the heck am I going to be able to eat Italian anywhere else now you've raised the bar sooo high. once again, I thank you, scaddabush and Jackson, and the team for making my evening...