Zupa Del Pescatore Restaurants

Sal's Italian

4.3

Menu

Table booking

4.3

Menu

Table booking

City: Roanoke, 3940 Valley Gateway Blvd, 24012, Roanoke, United States

"We went for an early supper on a Saturday evening. I arrived first and was greeted by a very unhappy looking woman who didn 't get any less dour as the evening wore on. A server set me up quickly with a table for 7 and I thought I might enjoy a Campari and soda as an aperitif while I waited for the rest of the family. This Italian restaurant doesn 't have Campari... I asked for a vermouth on the rocks instead, Cinzano or Martini and Rossi, you know, the famous Italian vermouths. Sour woman came and told me they don 't have these sorts of things, Here is our wine list. I had a beer instead. So already I sound snobby, but they are an Italian restaurant. Reading the menu, I started cringing with episodes of Gordon Ramsey 's Kitchen Nightmares in my head. The menu leans heavily, heavily, on pizza, pasta, and sauces. Italian food is so much more. Most entrees come with a salad that is Olive Garden-esque and poorly presented, languishing in the bottom of a cereal bowl. Apparently once a restaurant gets off on the wrong foot with me, I 'm not very forgiving. I apologise, but I 'm also not exaggerating my disappointment. One child wanted the kid 's cheese ravioli plate with alfredo sauce instead of marinara. The cheese ravioli is $6.99; there is an alfredo pasta dish on the child 's menu for $7.99; the ravioli with the Alfredo sauce substitution was $11.99. Make of that what you will. I got a small (10 cheese pizza. It was larger than 10 and heavier on the sauce than the cheese, which made the center too soggy to be able to pick up a slice and eat it (the tip flopped down so that I couldn 't put it in my mouth . I tried to eat it with a knife and fork, but the knife would cut through all but the very bottom of the crust. Sawing back and forth I was burning more calories than I ate. Finally, I flipped the tip over the top of the slice toward the crusty rim, picked it up and ate it that way. My niece was unable to cut into her Stromboli and ended up tearing it in half and eating it like a hand pie. The crust tasted nice but requires a steak knife to eat. Clearly other people have different expectations of a restaurant (I 'm looking at you, Ms Dour and Italian ones in particular because Sal 's is popular and there was a line waiting for tables. So take my review with a grain of salt and dine at your own risk. Shout out to Ari!! Ari was a new server when we ate there. We presented her with four adult women, all chatting our heads off, a middle-schooler, and two toddlers. She did awesomely and was tipped accordingly."

#Italian