Scalzotto Italian Restaurant Westminster — Restaurant in Westminster

We'd eaten here just before Thanksgiving and really enjoyed it. I would have given 5 stars on that occasion. But on this occasion, this past Monday night, a night the restaurant was 2/3 empty I was stunned. We ordered, got our drinks then sat, and sat, and sat. We observed at least 2 tables come in after us and receive their food before us. 45 minutes later, I stopped our waiter. "Where is our food." Short answer after he returned from the kitchen. "We lost your order." It'll still be about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes... no food. We asked to pay for our drinks so we could leave because we were yet to drive to Summit County. He kind of pleaded with us. "It's almost ready." Me: "We have to get going. we have a 90 minute drive." Him: "Do you want to take it to go?" Me: "No, we have a 90 minute drive." Him: "It's laterally ready to come out. Us: "Well, okay." We stayed, now well into our second hour. The food was again, very good. But then the bill came... Nothing. I asked him if they were going to "do anything" for us." Him: "Well, I can give you a free dessert." Me: "We don't want a dessert, how about taking something off of our bill?" Him: "Oh, we aren't allowed to do that." Me: "Seriously?" Him: "Oh no, the owner won't do that."

Me: "Look, I own a restaurant out-of-town, and I will tell you when we screw up like this it becomes our mission to DELIGHT the customer we just hosed over up to and including comping the entire check. The last thing we want is a customer so upset they take it to Google Reviews, or spread what happened to a bunch of potential customers. Now, I am not asking you to do that, but I think 50% is certainly in order."

Me: "Why don't you go ask the owner? Under the circumstances, loosing our order and then apparently not even bumping us to the front of the cooks line..." Him: "Well, she isn't here, I'd have to call her." Me: "Well, call her."

He returned about 10 minutes later... "She said I could take $25 off off your check. I'm really surprised she even did that." (like I'm supposed to feel special?) This was well over a hundred dollar meal.

So, this review is aimed directly at the owner. "Really, how do you stay in business with an attitude like that? A comped check would have delighted us. 50% off would have been a sincere apology. But a lousy $25 dollars that I had to practically pull out of your server? I'm surprised you have any servers with an attitude like you have. Again, I really liked your restaurant, I really enjoyed your food. But, with all of the other options out there, I can't imagine why I would ever return.

And then in your response, you claim you were there. Our server said you weren't. Which one of you is lying? Wow was he belligerent if in fact you were there. Why the phone call story? I stand by my times. It was not 35 minutes. We watched 2 tables come and go while we were still waiting for our food. If you were there, why didn't you just come out and talk to us. I tend to believe your server for some reason. No further response...

We've been to the Westminster location once before (Broomfield location is great!) and thought I would give it a try for Valentine's day. We were disappointed and we will not be coming back.

I can tell they are trying to scale the Westminster location to bring in more clientele here but I must say that they were vastly underprepared for a holiday that marries Italian food and the reason for the season.

The servers we had was fine. They are trying their best to keep up with the pace of the night. My wife and I having been a server and bartender for years in my past always give the benefit of the doubt for those in the service industry.

Appetizer was the stuffed italian sausage in marinara. My wife loves this from the Broomfield location and I'm not a fan of Italian sausage but you know how it is, happy wife happy life :) I was very impressed with the flavor of both the sausage and marinara. Very delicious.

We ordered our wine and beer at the time of placing our appetizer but did not receive it until asking about it shortly before our entrees arrived. The server explained that our drink ticket was still fourth in line when she went up to ask for it after we inquired. Definitely need to make sure the bar is staffed for a night like tonight. Even having a lesser skilled bartender handle the simple items like wine and beer would have really streamlined your orders.

The entrees were so-so. My wife had the chicken marsala, alfredo, and mashed potatoes. The marsala was VERY rich in flavor to the point that she just couldn't eat anymore. The alfredo was good but nothing to write home about. Potatoes are hard to mess up. I had the chicken parm, spaghetti, and mashed potatoes. I must say that I was quite disappointed in the quality of the chicken parm. I make it at home for the kids every so often and my recipe is super basic in prep and flavor which is not going to find itself on a menu anywhere outside of my own home. The chicken parm from here almost tasted the same as mine that is cooked in a Lodge frying pan with olive oil. It wasn't bad, just could have save the trip and cooked it at home.

The table we were sat at was right under a vent that was blasting AC (west most section of the building, inside row). The table was very wobbily, to the point that I had to make sure my wife was not trying to eat from her plate so that when I was cutting into my chicken it wouldn't pop up a couple inches in front of her. Take some time to do a early morning walk around the floor to test out the tables to avoid these normally little things that really stuck out for the experience.

It was still nice to have a night out with my wife but I think there is a lot of work that needs to be done if you want to mirror that of your other location (to a degree) while trying to match the quality of the higher scale restaurants in the area. It's a tough area to have a restaurant in, I know that, but work hard to be a jewel in a normally not-so-great...

Went there with my family and it was very mediocre. Started off strong with meatballs and bread and some lovely live music. And then our entrees came, except for my mom. A mixture of results and temperatures for the rest of us. Then the waiter shows up and tells my mom after she waits for 10 minutes, oh they ran out of mushrooms and they didn’t tell me! He ordered her something else, then later it showed up. He did kind of help with the bill, but I felt it wasn’t that good and the service didn’t go well. The dishes need more thought about how things are presented and showing up at the same time.

My nephew ordered a lobster ravioli where some crab legs were strewn on top. It was just a mess. Why not serve removed from the shell? The ‘fresh’ ravioli was not tender or easy to eat. My salmon was cooked unevenly and had sat and cooled before it was brought to the table, my pasta aglia/olio was old and chewy and the sauce had broken so it was greasy. My brother had fettuccine alfredo with shrimp which was better, my sister in law had a chicken parm which she had a hard time getting to helping her son mess around with the crab legs. It was also quite expensive for what was a less than Olive Garden caliber of service and consistent food quality. The waiter was very focused on upselling but the basic standards aren’t met here unfortunately..

I feel bad because I wanted to go to a family run Italian restaurant and not a franchise, but it was just not a good experience. When I saw it had taken up the old Perkins building I was excited to try it, and the northern suburbs deserves quality Italian food, but this is not achieved.

The arrogant owner responded dismissively to my review telling me to go eat at Olive Garden. My critique was meant sincerely and to disclose a particularly bad experience, and not to praise OG as being better creatively (it’s not), but because everything shows up on time and with consistent service, it was better in this case and that’s sad because OG makes boring food. Fairly certain that if this pasta was served as poorly on the east coast as it was here, he’d be whacked and his place would close.

Bottom line go further into the city or Boulder for Italian food like Angelo’s on 6th or Carmine’s. There’s no good places In Westminster for it. This guy says he makes fresh pasta, but that’s meaningless if execution is poor, the kitchen is disorganized and run out of ingredients, the waiters have bad timing or come off smarmy and salesy and the menu isn’t thought through what can be delivered fresh? On top of that you have an owner who believes he’s cornered the Italian food market in North Denver and doesn’t think anything has gone...