Sazio — Restaurant in Rehoboth Beach

The reason I'm giving 2 stars instead of 1, is because the service was good. Everything else was overpriced, oversalted, and/or just plain bad. Went with a party of 5 on a Sunday night and was immediately seated. It was relatively crowded and very loud. Ordered the meatballs and garlic bread for the table. Garlic bread was lame, very little garlic or flavor. Additionally, they only gave us 4 slices, for a five person table, which would have been good to know. The meatballs turned out to be one giant meatball which was simultaneously salty, underseasoned and dry. For an Italian restraunt to mess up garlic bread and meatballs was worrisome at best. Our food arrived, I had ordered the chicken milinese with a side of truffle creamed corn. The corn was very sweet, with no discernable truffle flavor. The milinese was overbreaded, salty and overall just lame. My father ordered the scallops which were borderline inedible. They smelled odd and were completely oversalted, so much so that it began burning our tongues. Almost ironically, the fries or "potato curlers" as they call them, were completely undersalted and bland. To top it off, our drinks were warm and served to us in little bottles. The water was served in a large glass bottle, warm and with no ice. It was obvious they were trying to skimp on costs by skipping on a TAP system but come on. You can't charge $20-$40 a plate, call yourself a fine dining establishment and serve your patrons mini bottles of soda. Hell, it's just lazy considering that, had they simply poured it before taking it to our table, we wouldn't have known the difference. Honestly, it exemplifies this place. Lazy, overpriced, and bad tasting. Wouldn't recommend to anyone who values their money and half...

I was here prior to the pandemic and it was excellent and well worth the price, but yesterday was not. The 19$ meatball was of amble size, but had more size than flavor, it was rather bland. Second appetizer was a chopped antipasto salad. I assumed it would be chopped salad an Italian meats and cheese. What are I was a chopped salad of decent proportion with very diced meats and cheese, I just was not expecting the meat and cheeses to be diced. Entrees were chicken Parm and eggplant Parm on bed of linguini. The eggplant was the most bitter eggplant I have ever tasted, as if it was just sliced and cooked, without prior proper preparation, and the linguine was practically absent on my plate, 4 to 5 fork fulls, where as the chicken Parm had an ample amount of pasta. I asked if we could have some bread and was offered to purchase garlic bread or an Italian loaf. I chose the Italian loaf. Is $5 loaf of bread was stale, so stale I had it sent back. The server asked if I would like another, but when I said no thank you, I have a feeling the next loaf is going to be just like this, he smiled as if he agreed. Overall the meal with subpar. They are part of the Big Fish group now, and I am unaware of they belonged to this group prior to the pandemic, but either way the overall food experience was subpar and something I would not go back to. It was very disappointing especially because I was so looking forward to going here after our last experience prior to the pandemic it was excellent. But there's much need for improvement...

Food: inadequate, poorly described, over-priced and simply "off". A branzino filet (not a whole crispy fish) for $29; plain squid drowning in oil & obviously sauteed described as "scorched calamari"; 2 small tentacles of octopus on a mountain of potatoes (no substitutions for greens allowed) for $18.

Service: server on staff for 3 weeks, did not know menu (but very nice young lady). Food arrived more than an hour after ordering. Extra tableware never cleared. Dishes served at different times. Hot plates handed to us rather than placed before us on the table. Water not refilled unless requested multiple times. etc. etc.

Atmosphere: waited in long line to get to hostess stand to find it empty, waited - waited - waited - then crowded into a tiny table squeezed between elbow-to-elbow chairs in blazing sun (even though we had a reservation & several more open & shady outside tables as well as inside tables appeared available; when we asked to be seated elsewhere, we were told they "were for reservations". Inside space is much less crowded, might have been a nice evening.

Recommend to a friend: not at this time. Advertized as fine dining with prices to match but this group doesn't know how to provide that experience. Big Fish Restaurant is a fast food, fast turnover, large volume operator and this place has that sort of feel. It appears that the Big Fish group has attempted to open too many new places in one year. The Sazio concept has major kinks they need...