Saputo's — Restaurant in Springfield

I’ve been to Saputo’s a couple of times and it was ok. Not great, not horrible. Tonight I decided to walk to the gym and get some food on my way back home. I had the salmon and steamed broccoli. The fish wasn’t that bad (despite some bad reviews) but my one star goes to the owner. When I was about to pay I noticed I had forgot my wallet. I asked the lady at the bar if I could use Apple Pay. Rolling her eyes she said “NO! I don’t even know how to do that!”. I said: “I’m sorry, I forgot my wallet but since I have my phone, are there any other options? And I don’t live far from here, so I can go get my wallet and come back in less than 30 minutes.” The waitress, the lady at the bar and the owner looked at each other and the waitress said aloud: “you have to leave something so we know you’ll be back.” I left my cell phone device. At that point I wasn’t sure what was more embarrassing: the fact that I forgot my wallet or the way they treat customers. I walked home as fast as I could, grabbed my wallet and made it back in less than 20 minutes. When I payed they gave me the change missing $3 dollars. I asked to talk with the owner. Would that be a tip for great service?? Humm… With a very bitter face, she showed up. I introduced myself and she was unable to say her name. So I asked her statistically how many “customers “ go to her restaurant and pretend they forgot their wallet just so they can eat for free. Her answer was even worse than the horrible steamed broccoli they serve. She started bragging that she’s been in business for 50 something years and she calls the police on customers sometimes (!!!). Half century in business and she never updated her payment options. I have a business and honestly, every single time a customer says they forgot their wallet, I SERVE THEM with the same dedication. I never had a person not coming back to pay. As a matter of fact, a couple of customers pointed that that’s why they like small businesses: because we care about people. I told Saputo’s owner that a customer doesn’t cost what’s in the ticket. Building trust has a different value. She coldly said: “it doesn’t cost me anything because the waitress pay if the customer doesn’t pay”. At that point my embarrassment was replaced by pity and I could only feel sorry for her and her employees. At the end, I decided to give her the whole change ($16,00). I believe we can always learn something from every situation. For $50 I had valuable lessons: My takeaway from this episode: If I ever make a customer leave their cell phone device because they can’t pay for a $30 bill (doesn’t matter the reason) I’d rather close the doors of my shop. If what it takes to be in business for 50 years is to treat people this way, I’d rather not have a...

So, I rarely post about bad food. However, we had some of the worst Italian Food at a restaurant we've ever had.

Saputos was the name of the restaurant. It wasn't fine dining, but it wasn't fast food either. People were dressed up, drinking wine, and I had a cool old school Italian vibe . People told us it was really good, but...

First we got our salads. Our salads were literally swimming and salad dressing. I looked at my friend Tammy and said "I think they gave me lettuce soup!" I couldn't finish the salad because the dressing was overwhelming.

When the "bruschetta" came out, it looked like ground beef with a little tomatoe mixed in caked on some bread. (The bruschetta wasn't in a bowl allowing us to dip/ spoon it onto our own bread in it the way that we are used to. It definitely looked like it had been pre-made and then waiting for somebody to order.) It turns out that the stuff I thought was ground beef was a bunch of ground up mushrooms and olives. I'm from Chicago, so that's definitely not what bruschetta looks like around here. I thought it was just me, but then my friend who's from rural Illinois agreed. I didn't order the bruschetta, but the woman who did order it couldn't eat it and our other friend and I couldn't either.

I didn’t say anything during dinner, but as I began to eat my alfredo noodles, I realized that they were chewy and sticking together. It was like the pasta had been sitting for a while. I wasn't going to say anything, because I really don't like to complain, but after a few minutes, my new friend Jada (who was eating lasagna) says, "Interesting..." I asked her what she meant, and she said "Its definitely not great, but the flavor is oddly familiar." After a few more minutes, she says s "This is giving Spaghetti O's! It literally tastes like Spaghetti O's" 🤣😅😂 She wasn't wrong.

Oh, when the waitress came over to clear the table, I tried to hand her my plate to be helpful. When I went to lift my plate, I almost flung my noodles across the room because the plate was so light. It turns out, they served the pasta on PLASTIC plates!

Despite the food, we had a blast, a lot of laughs, and it was definitely something for the memory books!

Without us asking, because like I said we did not complain, the waitress did remove the bruschetta from our bill because she saw that we didn't eat it. The waitress is extremely friendly!

I'm sorry if my review upsets anybody, because I feel that in Springfield there's probably not a whole lot of authentic Italian options. Just know that if you are from an area that has decent Italian food, you are probably not going to have a...

I’m not sure why this place has such high reviews because our experience was not good. When we went, there was only 1 couple there, the restaurant was dead, but we were hungry and it had great reviews so we stayed.

The host/waiter didn’t really greet us and escorted us to the table and gave the menu. We browsed and my husband and I settled on 2 different Alfredo dinner pasta dishes which include a salad and a choice of meatball or sausage.

When the waiter came to take our order, we told her the 2 Alfredo pasta dishes. Then she asked “for the salad that you get with your meal, what dressing would you like?” So we both just stayed with the classic Cesar dressing. (Keep in mind she did not mention what types of salad dressings the restaurant offers, so we said Cesar because it’s a safe answer)

The salad came out on a tiny side plate where you put your bread and butter, but we were hungry so we ate the few leaves on there. Then the main pasta dish came out. Now I’m a huge pasta fan and make it home and go to many restaurants but this was terrible. It had the thickest “cream sauce” with zero seasoning or flavor. Basic pasta out of a bag dumped in flavorless cream sauce. That’s it. Nothing literally else in it or to it. Then the sausage came and we didn’t eat it, it tasted like a meatball in sausage casing.

The worst part of this was when she brought the bill. She charged us for the 2 salads $3.50 each. I explained to her that it says on the menu it’s included with the dish we chose and then she she said “yea but not the Cesar”

I honestly was so tired so I decided not to argue but SHE ASKED US INITIALLY WHAT SALAD DRESSING DO YOU WANT!!!! Not the TYPE of salad!!!! You could’ve mentioned the salads your restaurant offers!!! We paid $7 for basically scraps of lettuce and 2 tbsp of Cesar dressing. $60 for a terrible meal.

We still left with smiles on our face because we are polite but this was seriously terrible. I never left a review before for a restaurant but this was granted. I’m happy to easily pay $100 or more on a meal that actually deserves it. This is not restaurant quality food Or restaurant quality staff And I guess some don’t know how to be transparent.

So disappointed. Make sure to ask them “what kind of salad and what’s a charge and which aren’t” when you order. Because that’s a sneaky dishonest move. First and last time...