Shells and Sauce — Restaurant in Denver

Very surprised by the consistently high ratings here. It is sad to me that Denver is lacking in good, fresh Italian food. I have known about S&S for years but never ventured over. I always imagined Shells and Sauce as a place for families to bring their kids for over priced macaroni and fake cheese. Since we didn't order M&C I cant speak to that but we decided on a pizza to share and a namesake "shell".

We arrived as the kitchen was opening, I say that only because after our experience, I think it is possible that they may send out a few rounds of flavorless "test-food" until the staff and the ovens get warmed up. (thinly veiled attempt to give them the benefit of the doubt) Our server was one of 6 servers, all standing around and perhaps also getting warmed up. One server was doing everything for 3 tables and the others chatted amongst themselves.

The "amazing" bread (according to a few reviewers) arrived first, I had heard about this and was excited to try it. A grapefruit sized warm hunk of way too salty pizza dough, baked into a shape somewhat resembling a big Italian muffin. It looked like it might be good but was accompanied by an ice-cold unappetizing and void of flavor, brown "sauce". Three bites in I put it down as we had ordered pizza and the mediocre gut bomb was not worth sacrificing my appetite.

Meanwhile, our once-hot food languished under the heat lamps for several minutes, of no concern to our mostly-absent server, yet in the immediate eye line of a dormant server. But, it took her another several minutes to warm up, shift into work mode and serve it on behalf of her co-worker. I was super hungry and watching it just sit there was irritating; I wanted to walk over and get it myself.

That said, not sure if our nice looking pizza tasted like cardboard with cheese because it sat for too long, because it did have a very slight hint of flavor which may have all but evaporated during its down time. But the HH shell we ordered was inedible. Cafeteria style, overly mushy pasta with mushy flavorless cheese and way too-sweet, otherwise flavorless tomato sauce. Yuk. Full disclosure, I grew up with incredible Italian cooks and a chef in my family and am possibly too knowledgeable about real Italian food, but I can say without hesitation, this is far, far from it. IMO Shells and Sauce is it slightly elevated, obscenely over priced, bar food and nothing more. DiFrancos on Lincoln is significantly closer to delicious, yet if you love the atmosphere and extra big portions at S&S, better stay there. DiF is way more casual, yet much fresher with some local and organic ingreds, their food speaks for itself.

The only upside at S&S is that we became suspicious due to our servers immediate indifference after we didn't order drinks, and decided to order small and increase if the food was as great as the reviews claim. So we escaped on the cheap. Our server never said anything after our food arrived, only asking if we wanted more water, and never once inquiring about our meal. She must know better than to ask....

My fiance and I wanted to celebrate New Year's on the 30th in the hopes that not everyone in the world would be out that night. We made a reservation for 7:15 and showed up at about 7:10. There was absolutely NO host stand, nor were we greeted or even given eye-contact. There were huge crowds of people in the entryway and at the front and we could not figure out if they were also waiting for reservations or what. We asked the bartender if there might be a way we could get someone to at least acknowledge us, because at this point, we tried to stop servers, managers, etc and NO ONE would even look at us. They just kept walking and avoiding eye contact. We asked the bartender if there was a host and he said "yes, somewhere".

Two ladies eating at the bar said they were regulars and then they pointed to a man they said was the manager and he was "awesome" and would surely help us, but after calling out for him a few times, trying to make eye contact, etc, nothing. We waited another ten minutes and we even think we found out who the host was, but he was just as rude as the rest of the staff and ignored us when we tried to speak to him. A few times he even ran into my while doing a table-count and didn't even say excuse me.

After waiting about 20 minutes at the front of the line hoping and praying that someone would at least look at us, we finally gave up. We were planning on spending a lot of money and are always friendly diners, but we will never go back to this restaurant again. I worked in the industry for many years and when you see someone who obviously needs assistance, you greet them and ask if they need anything - we were not asking for much! If the owners are reading this, please get a host or at least a sign at the front to help guide those of us who took the time to make reservations. If you did in fact have a host the night of Jan. 30th, I hope you fire them as well as the rest of the front of the house staff, minus the bartender since he was the only person to treat us like humans. I have never been treated so poorly on a night that was supposed to be special. Thank you for a huge waste of a night and for letting us know right at the beginning that you have...

I could make a whole list of things that went wrong on our experience here, it was a Tuesday night and we made a reservation. The hostess wasn't very welcoming, so I kind of brushed it off but things just got worse. It took the waitor at least 15 minutes to get us water and complimentary bread, and he complained about the hostess forgetting menus which we didn't care to know. Our food came relatively quick but my boyfriend's order was wrong (they did correct it and then boxed up the correct order). I got the carbonara and it literally tasted like nothing and I was really confused because it didn't even look like or taste like any carbonara I have had before. There was no panchetta, it needed salt/any seasoning, and the peas in it were like overcooked and chalky. I am not even a foody and I'll eat chicken fingers and be happy but this was the worst "carbonara" I have ever had. Mind you this entire time our waters and drinks were not refilled once and we were placed awkwardly close to the table next to us. Oh, also my seat almost flipped over when I sat in it and my boyfriend's chair felt like it was going to tip over at any moment. We are such chill people and do not complain but this was such a disappointment and I don't know if we'll ever be back which is sad because I live right down the block. Finally, it took forever for the waitor to pick up the check and our drinks were empty and never refilled. Honestly was embarrassing and would've had a better time going to Taco Bell :( We also paid $60, like come on...