Sal's Place — Restaurant in Provincetown

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, and I like the ol' "connection with people I don't know" a little too much, or find it too important these days that nudge my 4 stars to a five if I even take the time to leave a review. I had the absolute best time I have had in over three years of New England culinary experiences here, short of Ken Oringer's restaurants in Boston. Sal's embraces the most rudimentary of guest experiences, with a big red bow on it; you feel immediately like you're having dinner at a friends place, and the family of employees there leaves you wanting for nothing and constantly refreshed with cocktails and snacks whilst you await your table. We arrived to an ambient side porch of guests, all comfortably awaiting their own tables, to a warm welcome from their team immediately inviting us for a cocktail and a check-in. We ordered a few quick cocktails from their menu, wrapped up in some blankets while we waited for our reservation announcement (we got there 20 mins early, I recommend it), and got to know some new friends (other folks waiting on their tables) for the 15-30 mins between the time we arrived and the time we were sat. The owner came out multiple times to check on everyone herself, constantly instructing the team to refresh cocktails and letting them know 'their table was getting cleared'. It was seamless; she runs an impeccable operation. We were there for the first date since my fiancé and I found out we were pregnant, so 15 weeks in, for our first date since and the first outing we had since she's alleviated the fun nuance of nausea that comes with the first trimester. We were walked to our table by the owner herself, and constantly monitored by her to assure we were having the best time (they knew why we were there). It was, again, seamless; nothing impresses me more than a full-tilt F&B operation that runs like a boat motor, and never misses a beat. The environment was ambient, warm, and familiar; we warmed right in to it. It felt like dinner at a friends place, and when we asked for suggestions from the server we simply looked around the room to see what other patrons were experiencing their own "umami" moments enough to know what we should select. We were immediately greeted by a few plates gratis from the owner, who came up and gave us the warmest of welcomes; I had a cocktail, while my fiancé had a "mocktail' compliments of the staff. We cruised through the appetizers, and immediately ordered our anxiously awaited main courses (we were starving). They were out within 10-15 mins, and there were no less than three touches from ownership/server/runner to assure our plates were perfect, we had no issues, and our meal was perfection. It was.

As someone that has taken eating out on as a job, I was blown away by the consistency; this little Provincetown house had easily 80 covers going on at once, with seamless interaction and delivery for their patrons. It was immeasurably impressive.

If you think that Cape Cod is lacking on fine dining, you are sadly mistaken; is alive and well with Sal's. I assure you, you will leave with new friends and a belly full of the warmest Italian food you have had in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Chefs Kiss, guys. I'll be back soon with my beautiful fiancé for...

Went to Sal with a few friends. We have dined there in the past and had friends in town we wanted to bring there. We will never go back.

I had one of the worst dining experiences of my life. We were spoken to extremely rudely by the owner/hostess. We started off by ordering drinks and appetizers with our waiter. We were going to have those and then order entrees after. We were approached very intensely by the owner who pointed her hand at one of us and said “what are you having for your entree?” She was met with silence and odd looks as we tried to figure out who she was and why she was demanding that we order entrees. I said “we’re going to have drinks and appetizers for now.”. Our group hadn’t decided on entrees. This woman had quite a reaction to that. She started angrily collecting our menus and shouting that we had a half hour to eat our appetizers and drinks and then we had to leave. She stormed off and we all stared with our mouths agape. Very condescending and rage-full. One of the strangest scenes I’ve ever witnessed. We were pretty shocked since we were up until that point having a lovely evening with friends.

Anyway- I will tell you that we wanted to walk out but decided to stay and try the food. I regret it. It was fine but nothing special. The cocktails are straight up bad. For what you pay here I expect a half way decent drink and meal but you can get that at many other places in Ptown. Not here. Everyone at the table was disappointed and disgusted with the service obviously.

At the end of dinner I asked to speak with the owner who had spoken to our table quite rudely. I wanted to politely express that the way she had approached our table was pretty hurtful and left the group feeling unsettled. I was about to apologize for any misunderstanding and she cut me off and started yelling. I ended up just laughing and walking away. Wild. Kind of hilarious honestly for here to have the reactions she did. Seems like every night is a stressful one at Sals. We will skip in the future and enjoy ourselves somewhere else in town with great food, ambience,...

Great food, horrible experience between the owner basically yelling at us and having the ceiling leak on us. If you look through the reviews you’ll see every once in a while someone has a bizarre interaction with her.

We waited 30 minutes for our last course to be cleared. While we waited the ceiling began to leak on our table and us. Our waiter finally came shortly after, we pointed out the leak, and he just laughed it off saying the restaurant is always “falling apart”. We asked for the check but he didn’t come with it.

We flagged the owner down to say we’re being dripped on and need the check, that we’ve been waiting over a half hour for the check. She very aggressively and loudly asks why we didn’t just move ourselves to the table next to us, that they don’t bring the check until it’s asked for by the guests, and that they get busy because they “have 110 seats”. At this point others are turning to see what’s happening because she’s raising her voice. I would never dream of simply moving tables myself, especially at a restaurant that charges $40+ a plate. We eventually got our check and an extra cocktail, I think her way of apologizing, but we never actually received an apology for how she spoke to us or for waiting probably 40 minutes for the check. Not that we had time to drink the cocktail, we were late for plans at that point.

We ran into her again on the way out and I told her I had never been spoken to that way at a restaurant and she responded, I’m not even joking, that it’s the “Taurus mom” in here. That’s when I realized there was zero point in trying to engage with her.

They get two stars because the food is good, but not good enough to warrant being dripped on...