Sabatino's — Restaurant in Baltimore

A sad experience and poor reflection of Italian cuisine. I’d be cautious of this restaurant of the little Italy neighborhood in Baltimore. Me and my girlfriend are visiting from out of town and decided to eat here on a recommendation.

The staff was friendly enough, greeting us several times through the doors on the way to our table. Our server seemed a little out of place and was more interested with moving us through our meal at her pace than she was with attending to our needs. The food, though, is what really brought me down. We had as a starter the escargot which was good enough (I think some fresh garlic en-lieu of the canned that they used would be a step in the right direction) and it was just a touch overdone. The mussels bianco however, were to be determinate of the rest of the night. We received well overcooked mussels in what has to be batch prepared white ‘wine’ sauce, dead old parsley, canned minced garlic, cheap white wine and no other seasoning cooked down into a broth. The flavor was vastly underwhelming and was accompanied by a dead mussel that found its way to our plate.

At this point in the meal me and my partner took a break to decide on whether or not we should move on, or if we should stay. We decided to tough it out, as our friend is usually a reliable food spirit guide and it couldn’t be any worse, right?

Wrong, I felt tentative at best about ordering an entree so I decided to go with a classic and simple dish, the shrimp scampi. What I got was the same broth from the mussels dish under a pile of wet noodles that were clearly pulled from a pot and dropped on the plate, excess water and all. I also had what appeared to me to be frozen butterflied and overdone shrimp. Not the romanticized and delightful meal I had in mind, but rather a different dish altogether, under-seasoned and overcooked. My partners meal the frutti di mare was no better for the weather, this storm of a dish came with one of the most overdone pieces of lobster that I have ever seen, to me it was inedible and I urged my date to send it back, the rest of the seafood on this boat was also overdone, but nowhere near as much as the lobster. The noodles had THE SAME BROTH as the aforementioned scampi and mussels, and they were piled high and swimming in an ocean of it. Both of these dishes were served with stale garlic toast that tasted more of the cooler they’d been slowly dying in than they did of their actual seasonings.

I’m not the type to send food back unless it’s threatening my health (which this wasn’t) and while I feel as if it would have been beneficial to talk with a manager about my poor experience. I simply didn’t have the energy to do so on this visit.

If I could lend some advice to whomever is running the show back there, look for a new chef. A motivated and creative individual could do wonders for a place like yours, but serving people the same exact white wine sauce on three different dishes should be seen for the crime against the food that it is. It seems that your cooks are more on the side of saboteurs...

Just in case you don't make it to the end, DON'T GO TO THIS RESTAURANT.

I was in Baltimore on Valentine's Day and decided to stop in for an early dinner. I asked if they required a reservation, it being V-Day and all, they said no. The host, an older man, told me to wait, went in for a second and came back out, asked me to follow him.

I followed him to my table and was seated in the area right in front of the bar. I was say next to the table where they set up the napkins and silverware, and busboys were coming back and forth and were grabbing silverware and putting down their dirty dishes (in the container). A lady next to me was also waiting for her to-go order.

I thought this was weird. I felt very uncomfortable. And especially after a few servers peeked out from behind the curtain to look at me. I sat for a few minutes to get an idea of the space. Was it a really small space and this was the only table left? Were they really packed and accommodating me as best as they could? Or was it something more insidious as covert discrimination against guests that looked like me?

I asked if they had space in other areas of the restaurant and to be moved. The host asked me to wait again and went off. The woman next to me waiting on her food remarked to me in surprise,"Im glad you said something! I thought it was weird that they sat you here. There's sooo much space in the restaurant!"

Sigh

I'm moved to the actual restaurant, not just the area where the help hangs out and I confirm they were a lot of empty tables I could've been sat at initially.

Then a man comes over to serve me. A while later I notice, he's only serving me in this section. There's an older woman serving every other table (4 total) in that section, except mine. It was almost like no one wanted to serve me except that guy. And in hindsight, he was a smidge curt in his interactions with me. Hmmm. Noted.

I won't be eating there again. I will be telling everyone I know to not eat there. And if I have time, I will be sharing this on social media.

I didn't feel welcome at all and really I should've left but I didn't want to make a rash judgment about the place. I collected my observations and decided to write...

We came here for Sunday lunch to celebrate my oldest son's birthday. He requested Italian and where else does one go but Little Italy?

I can see how parking could be problematic but we parallel parked our minivan across the street with no issues.

We went in and it was deceptively large. It does not look that big from the outside! We were greeted by a very friendly man and seated at a table plenty large enough for the 7 of us. The waitress, Kitty, greeted us and assured us that this restaurant was VERY kid friendly. She took our order with ultimate patience and we nibbled on the bread and had our drinks.

We ordered the garlic bread appetizers and mozzarella sticks. Naturally about 5 seconds after she brought the moz sticks, one of the kids spilled soda on them. Kitty didn't even bat an eye and brought us another plate of mozzarella, insisting that it happens and kids will be kids. Everything was delicious, but then the food came! It was all super filling and everything was fantastic! My 3 year old even said "this is SO GOOD!" and she just got plain spaghetti! The sauce is made in house and is so yummy!

I had the shrimp parm and it was great! I've never had that before and it was exciting to try! My oldest got the eggplant and veal. It was his first time having veal and I think he's going to be spoiled if he ever tries it somewhere else. The waitress told us they cut their own beef at the restaurant! So of course it's going to be exceptional.

After lunch, my husband and I were stuffed but the kids meals all came with ice cream cups and we got extra ice cream for the big kids. Kitty even brought out a little piece of cake with a candle in it for my son.

It was such a special experience for the kids to have authentic Italian food in such a friendly and welcoming environment. On the way out, the gentleman who sat us said to my toddler "you can come back for YOUR birthday!" And she got super excited at that idea. ...