Sammy's Place — Restaurant in Cathedral City

Incredibly disappointed in our experience at Sammy’s. The reviews had us hopeful, but the entire experience fell short. We were welcomed with a pleasant waitress who welcomed us, informed us they have a full bar, wine, and drinks. Considering the menu had multiple mixed drink options but none of them being tequila, I asked her to ask the bar tender if he had any non-sweet mixed tequila drinks he could make. She came back saying no he doesn’t and continued to judgmentally tell me that most people don’t order tequila drinks with Italian. I wasn’t aware people ordered watermelon martinis with Italian either, which is a main drink on their menu, so it felt like a weird comment to make. We then ordered a bottle of red wine and the tester had sediment in it and was warm and awful, so we asked for a new bottle. As friendly as she was, I saw the encounter with the bartender and they both gave each other faces and he hesitantly (and seemingly annoyingly) gave her another bottle to serve us. We got through a whole bottle of wine and a martini each before our food was served. The angel hair noodles were disgustingly over cooked, the chicken was dry, the fettuccine noodles were undercooked, the sauces were all runny and wouldn’t stick to the noodles so it was like soup at the bottom of the dishes. We left more than half of each of our dishes there and left hungry. It missed the mark by more than a mile for us. We will not be going back to even see if it was just a bad night. Snarky staff that gave us courtesy smiles to our faces and dirty looks behind our backs and bad main dishes. I would give it a one star but the facility itself was very clean, the artichoke tapenade for the bread was good, the soup was good, and the drinks were good minus the one bad bottle of wine. The potential was there, but definitely fell short...

Ok, how did we miss this place? Honestly. I am one picky person when it comes to Italian food. What amazes me about this restaurant is the owner. The owner goes up to each table and asks how everything is. The owner engages with his customers as if " they are family ". Whats even more inpressive was watching him sit down and enjoy his dinner, eating the same food in his own establishment he serves his customers. ( that tells me the food he serves his customers is excellent ). The food was absolutely outstanding to say the least. We were literally blown away at the service, the quality of the food and the ambience. My Lasagna was out of this world. The Caesar salad was absolutely fantastic. You would never know by looking at the restaurant from the outside, the type of treasure you see when you enter the restaurant. Unfortunately now, this will be the Italian restaurant that all others we encounter in our life will be judged.

Do yourselves a favor. Please oh please don't pass this treasure up. I cant stress that enough. This is NOW our go-to place in the future when we want Italian food. No restaurant in the valley can...

You've read the reviews and it seems highly recommended, but you get there and standing outside you wonder, "What have I got myself into?"

Don't worry, when you walk through the door, you think, "Oh, I get it now!" They have done a great job with a small space. It is obvious they are more concerned with quality than quantity. The tables are spaced well so you feel you have plenty of room.

The service was extremely professional and efficient.

We had ravioli, chicken marsala and iolio. The ravioli was al dente and did remind me of my great aunts. The marsala had great flavor. I would not order the iolio again, not much flavor and pasta cooked too much.

Those of you that know me, know I judge Italian places by their meatballs. I ordered one of theirs in marinara, both of which, I have to say, AMAZING.

I did overhear there was a new guy in the kitchen which is probably the difference between 4 and 5 stars.

The punk had pasta with butter, which she loved, but is was the bread she really enjoyed.

I would love to try this place again, they have all the right components to be...