Scaddabush Italian Kitchen & Bar Scarborough — Restaurant in Toronto

For the past 3 years, this location has been our family’s top pick for get-togethers. It consistently delivered great food, attentive service, a clean & attractive setting, and plenty of parking. We've said more than once, "We've never had a bad experience at Scaddabush—why go anywhere else?" Unfortunately, that confidence was shattered during our recent visit.

It started with the environment. Despite 83°F weather outside and the restaurant quickly filling with the dinner crowd, the air conditioning wasn't on—or at least wasn't functioning in our section. We were seated in a corner where the air was hot and humid, and we were sweating throughout the first half of our meal. It wasn’t until we were nearly done that cool air finally began circulating.

Then came the issue with the food. All 4 of us ordered the chicken parm dinner. 2 wanted it exactly as listed with alfredo pasta. My daughter and I, however, cannot eat alfredo for medical reasons, so we always request a substitution of spaghetti with tomato sauce. On a previous visit, a helpful server had recommended marinara, which I loved, so I asked if it was still available given that I was only seeing Sunday sauce on the menu. I inquired about the ingredients and determined, “I’m going to stick with the marinara sauce INSTEAD if it’s available.” My daughter said she was curious to try the Sunday sauce.

But when the meals arrived, both of ours were wrong. They were drowning in a COMBINATION of both marinara AND alfredo, layered over top of each other. It took over 5 minutes to flag the waiter, who brushed it off with, “Oh, sorry, all I heard was you wanted to switch the sauce.” But by anyone’s definition, the word “switch” implies a substitution, not an addition.

He said it would take just a few minutes to remake the meals, but 20+ minutes later, we were still waiting. Meanwhile, our other 2 family members felt guilty eating while we sat there with nothing, so they slowed down their meal in hopes we could still eat together, but as the time ticked by they ended up slowing so much their food went cold.

When our remade meals finally arrived, there was no compensation offered for any of us. We ended up eating in shifts, which was extremely awkward and uncomfortable, and effectively ruined dinner. So my daughter and I ended up eating only half and asked for takeout boxes.

Then came the bill—where we were charged for SIX meals instead of four. We had to wait yet again for the waiter to come back so we could dispute the charge. Only then did he involve a manager. The manager removed the 2 extra meals, but there was still no offer to address the full extent of the disruption. I had to press the issue and point out how our experience had been ruined. Only then did he apologize and comp the 2 meals that were problematic—but nothing was done for the other 2 meals that went cold while waiting, or to acknowledge the fact that we ended up eating in shifts, or to acknowledge how hot and uncomfortable the restaurant was, or the ridiculous billing error, or the unacceptable service.

On top of everything, the portion size for the chicken parm dinner seems to have shrunk significantly compared to what it used to be.

Although this was the first bad experience we've had here, it was so disappointing we’re rethinking whether Scaddabush is our go-to restaurant considering this was a failure in food preparation, service, communication, AND...

Visited this location about a week or so ago. We had called in and were told that many tables were available and we can walk right in. We arrived within 5 minutes. We were given the option of one table only and were told that every other table was reserved, which I understand. I then requested the bar, where we were also given one option, after we were told on the phone that many tables were available. This was the least of the issue. We were ready to order and 10 minutes had gone by with no one even greeting us at the table yet. Manager kept walking by making eye contact, but didn’t bother. I had to ask the host for the server twice, both times I was told that the server is busy and will be over in just a minute. Still, staff kept walking by and no one had come over yet to even acknowledge us. At exactly 25 minutes, the same manager that had walked by multiple times made eye contact again and I called her over. She asked if we had a chance to look at the menu…..I told her it had been 25 minutes and no one had come over to even greet us yet and that we have been ready for a long time. She took our order and said that she would send out our beet salad right away so that we don’t have to wait much longer. I corrected her and said that we are not ordering a beet salad, we’re ordering the kale salad. She once again repeated beet salad. I corrected her again. Not surprisingly, the salad finally comes out and it’s a beet salad. At this point, we finally meet our server who did try her best to improve our experience. I told her that we already corrected the manager twice and she still sent out the wrong item. Now our mains arrived and no salad because it’s being remade. We had to slow down eating our mains because the remake salad took so long. Finally it came out and there was no dressing on. The server went and got us dressing. We saw the server taking to the manager and she looked over at us while they were talking. At no point did the manager come by to apologize for her mistake or check in on our experience. The restaurant wasn’t busy either. As mentioned before, the server atleast tried to turn our visit around, but the manager who is the one that ruined our evening couldn’t be bothered. We used to frequent this location over a year ago and stopped because back then we had a similar experience with a supervisor who took our order because she said the server was too busy and then never sent the order in. 45 minutes had passed when I had to walk to the host stand and get her to find a manager to speak to and then they realized the order was never sent. After that, the food took another 30 minutes, arrived cold, no cutlery on the tables, no salt or pepper, no cheese for the pasta, no scissors to cut the pizza and I again had to find a manager to bring these items over so we can actually eat. So disappointing because we normally enjoy the food here and this location is close to us, but it’s not worth having to...

I’ve been to Scaddabush numerous times and it has always been one of my favourite places to go to especially if I’m in Scarborough and craving Italian cuisine or comfort food. This is probably my sixth time coming to this specific location and I have no issues. My boyfriend and I came here on Valentine’s Day. We initially had plans to go somewhere else, however because of last minute changes, we decided Scaddabush was the place to go. We walked in and were told that it would take about half an hour for a table and they would text us when our table was ready. After we received our SMS, we were brought to our seat and our server was Caitlin. She was super attentive and friendly. We were looking at the Tuscany menu, which she also advised was a good pick. We ended up getting the 18oz Tuscany Steak for Two and the Chicken and Lemon Ricotta Pappardelle. Firstly, pappadelle is one of my favourite pastas and of all the times I’ve been to Scaddabush, I’ve never tried their steak so we decided to get something different. For our appetizers, we got our usual, Bruschetta Fresca and Caprese Panzanella (pictures attached below). We also love our balsamic truffle cheese ball, however because the salad came with one, we decided to hold off.

The appetizers and drinks came out first and was delicious. After that, our mains came out after. Presentation wise, it was average. Taste wise, the steak was very chewy (we asked for medium rare), and it was a bit dry and did not taste like a good piece of meat. As for the gnocchi that came with the steak, it was quite bland and tasteless. The broccolini that came with it was probably the best thing out of that. As for the Chicken and Lemon Ricotta Pappardelle, it was a better option however, it wasn’t great. The chicken was dry and also quite bland. We were quite disappointed as the previous time my boyfriend and I came here, we came during the day when they just opened and the food was amazing! We got the same appetizers, however we got the Mushroom Truffle Mafalde and the Roasted Mushroom and Truffle Gnocchi, which was absolutely terrific (pictures below).

Overall, we were quite disappointed with the food experience this visit, however it could have just been that it was a busy time since it was Valentine’s Day and rush hour, also it could have been the chefs that day as well so it was an off day. Our server, Caitlin, that day was great though. We had asked her to ask the kitchen staff to cut the steak, which they did. She was accommodating and quick. We will come back eventually as we usually enjoy the food here, however we may just stick with lunch hour and see if there is...