Sammy's Trattoria — Restaurant in Baltimore

4.5 stars-we chose Sammy's because my wife was craving pasta and it was well reviewed and walkable. boy am i happy we did-and so was she. all Covid precautions being observed here. quickly seated by personable hostess. as we made our way through the front dining area to a table that turned out to be in the upper level looking down on the main floor, we passed two "tables" set for a party of 44!!! turned out to be a rehearsal dinner for a wedding. from experience we knew we better make our selections quickly as to avoid delays. chose to start with tomato bruschetta served on grilled bread which we really enjoyed. tomatoes really sweet and seasoned perfectly. while we enjoyed this the large party started to drift into the bar. wife went for her tried & true favorite, bolognese. sauce was served over pappardelle noodles and made with pork, veal, and wild boar. i chose the cappellini ala lula-angel hair, lemon garlic sauce, shrimp, artichoke, mushrooms, and spinach. as we waited for our entrees, the large party was all here and seated at the tables directly below us. the noise level picked up considerably as we expected it would. but not to an unpleasant level. fun watching the folks enjoy themselves. both of our entrees were very delicious. pasta's were cooked perfectly, the bolognese was rich & deeply flavorful. my sauce was a perfect compliment to the shrimp and the vegetables. around this time we felt a definite change in the level of attention to us and others in the upper level, as expected. things slowed down noticeably. diners waiting for server to inquire about our level of enjoyment, if we needed anything, dessert orders, checks, etc. eventually i was able to order the tiramisu which was much lighter than most and full of flavor. the wait to receive it was lengthy as was the wait for a check and it's return. all understandable but unfortunate for us while the large party was given the needed service. the meal was outstanding and we would return...

I booked a reservation for 14 of our new faculty members and two administrators. We decided to select the family style dining option for the evening, which was a great way to go. I was able to select from a variety of dishes ahead of time. Upon our arrival, everyone was seated and drink orders were taken and promptly served. The waitresses also suggested some house wines which were also brought to the table, opened and served as requested. Sammy's served Antipasti Freddi and Fried Calamari as our appetizers which were accompanied by delicious, hot, home baked bread. This was followed by the salad course which featured Sammy's house salad. The salad was fresh, filled with nice lettuce and veggies and the dressing was quite good. The next course was our pasta course and we were served vegetarian lasagna and duck ravioli. I did not sample the lasagna but the duck ravioli with a brown butter mushroom sage sauce was totally delicious. The duck filling was flavorful and the sauce was a perfect accompaniment to the ravioli. The final entree course consisted of separate platters of veal marsala and chicken piccata which were both very nicely prepared. The crowning glory to the meal were the desserts: tiramisu and cannoli. The tiramisu was one of the best I've had, with very good texture and flavors. The cannoli was particularly good with a really light, not too sweet filling and perfectly cooked, crispy shells. Our waitress Renee and Valeria were fantastic! They were friendly, helpful, extremely attentive, and very efficient. They managed to serve 16 people, multiple courses, drinks and wine, in under two hours without making us feel rushed. On the front end, I was impressed with the helpfulness and response of the owner, Sammy Curreri. When I submitted an email through the website link, I had a response within a very short time which I found surprising, as this is not always the case. I found Sammy to always be very...

I'm new to Baltimore but live only 4 blocks from Sammy's, meaning that I have a hundred other restaurants within waking distance as well. A number of friends previously told me that it was not at all good but I had a date who wanted Italian so didn't heed their advice....Glad I tried it on my own but would never go again.

The restaurant is attractive and one would never know from walking past that it's huge and with extremely high ceilings. Prices are OK and portions reasonable but the food was so bland. There was no offer of fresh pepper, let alone freshly grated Parmesan. Only one other table was occupied in the entire cavernous place yet the waitress didn't bother to notice that we needed more water and nor care to ask if we'd like another glass of wine.

Sadly stayed for dessert, great offerings but dismal results. My date ordered Tiramisu for us to split. Normally that would have been my first choice but I held open little hope it would be the least bit enjoyable. Turns out that it was far below, even my lowered, expectations. We could have easily done better having ordered frozen from Trader Joe's. Rather this looked like it was possibly purchased frozen from a discount grocer.

Surprisingly we had to find our waitress to bring our check even though the one other table had already left. (No wonder we were never offered coffee to go with dessert).

Sign me, Lesson Learned...