Blue Grotto Italian Bistro & Bar

The hallways became a maze of unending tunnels on a journey for culinary satisfaction, and it seemed as if one would never find the inevitable end to the monotonous walls and color schemes of the Scanticon building situated right outside Valley Forge Park, in King of Prussia. Only minutes from the mall, and within a Hotel & Convention Center Complex, one would not expect much from a restaurant, but those that make the unpleasant voyage through the curving, twisting tendrils of the building, find a beacon of light within its stuffy corridors: Blue Grotto.
It was almost impossible to find this place. Had I entered through the main entrance for the Scanticon building, I would have happened upon it almost immediately, but coming from the other side of the building turned this trek into a nightmare; one that should not be repeated by anyone… ever. Although the way to the Italian restaurant is defined by well placed and lit signage, the distance traveled through hallways that seemed to close in on you, just to breathe out at the last second, was endless. Fortunately, the quality of the food made the encounters with business-​suit-​clad conventioneers in the hallways, a distant and nebulous memory.
Alighting at the pillared entrance, I passed through from the dull and drab beige and burgundy hallways into a lush a vibrant setting of blues, and water tones, obviously designed to emulate some sort of lagoon, or dare I say it… Grotto? Looking to my left, I saw a formal dining area, complete with soft background music, and to my right was a quiet, seemingly indiscriminate full bar, with very interesting cool, blue lighting. I almost wanted to scream, «Oh my God, I’m inside Tron!», but managed to hold in my revelry, as the wonderful hostess spoke and then showed me to my seat; the left side dining area.
After being led to a wonderfully set table, I waited a few moments and examined the menu. Something was not right here… I wanted the Tron Bar! I rose from my seat and walked back to the hostess, politely asking her if we could be seated in the bar area, to which she gave no protest, and actually proceeded to chat me up for a good five minutes or so. Moving to the bar, I felt in my element. Not only was I now able to watch the Flyers game (which they lost: sad:), but also felt as if I should have arrived on one of those super-​cool light motorcycles.
The bartender was wonderful, taking the time to chat with us beyond only taking the drink and food order. I had The Glenlivet 12 yr. on the rocks with a splash of water, and it was made perfectly. Just smooth enough to give a kick, yet go down gently. Let me get one thing out of the way… the food here is phenomenal. It’s a blend of traditional Italian flavors with a new-​age flair. To start with, I had the Mozzarella Roll, a tightly wrapped, superbly smooth roll with basil, fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and capicolla, which was firm but melted in the mouth.
I then waited… and was brought Pasta de Fagiole, which was to die for; the red tomato-​based broth, just sweet enough to invoke memories of home, despite the fact my family isn’t Italian! The beans were just firm enough, and the pasta just slightly al dente… perfecto! Then my adventure took a much more sinister turn. The evil corporate overlords of the Scanticon Tribe arrived in droves. Now I understand that I chose to sit at a bar when a perfectly quiet dining room was available, but their terrible slicked-​hair powers, and one-​handed deal abilities began to infiltrate my wonderful dinner.
First came the floozies. A group of blond bimbos, so oblivious to everything, they might as well have stumbled into a meat grinder and saved us all the aggravation. They lined up all their seats at the bar and began ordering drinks and chatting like mockingbirds, so loud that I could not even have a proper conversation with the person sitting across the table from me. Then my dinner arrived: a wonderful dish of calamari, done a little different than traditional, with hand-​rolled seafood sausage, wrapped in the squid, cooked softly to perfection. The squid was soft without being mushy, and the seafood filling was to die for. This was all served over a wonderful bed of linguine, doused in a light tomato sauce, with just enough kick to get your nostrils burning.
Then it happened. While enjoying my wonderful meal, (I really cannot stress enough how good the food was here), the sleazemasters arrived. Following the floozies from the ballroom their company had just hosted dinner in, they slunk into the bar and started doing their corporate dick-​swinging. It was disgusting. Beyond that, they even decided it was a great idea to come over to my table, sweating with alcohol, and comment to me about the women and my food. This is why I give Blue Grotto a 3. Its not the staff’s fault, nor the chef’s, as food and service-​wise it was perfect. Some things you just can’t control.

First, I will start by saying that the restaurant is in a hotel. Definitely not a destination if you are not already staying in that hotel. Second, i will say that neither my husband nor I got the pasta dishes — they may have been a little harder to mess up, and from what I can tell from other reviews they must be passable. It was pretty dead on the Saturday that we visited, which didn’t do much for the atmosphere. We started with an appetizer and my husband got crab cakes and I got a seafood in tomato broth dish. All were overly salty and didn’t taste remotely fresh. If they had been reasonably priced, i probably wouldn’t have gotten so worked up about it (I just would have not returned), but the dishes were $ 27 and $ 29! Yikes. When you put a price tag like that on your dishes, they better deliver.

Hotel restaurant — we had a
certificate AND were staying at the hotel so gave it a try. Decent warm bread with a caper/​oil mash. DH had the prosciutto wrapped shrimp and I had the jumbo crab cake. Both very very good, a serious 8 — 9. Little pricey, we were really glad we had a certificate and used it to treat ourselves to a bottle of wine.
Staff attentive, a little pretentious but they really are quite a fancy restaurant and they like to keep it that way. :)

Upscale Italian restaurants are definitely more the exception than the rule. Most Italian/​Mediterranean joints are more casual/​family style so Blue Grotto already sets itself apart right at the get-​go. That being said, this place is really quite good.
The décor has a rustic/​Mediterranean feel to it that is quite nice. It feels modestly upscale but not the least bit stuffy.
Our dinner went like this. The breads were fresh and served with butter and also a plate of oil with an olive mash. The bread types were plain white and olive bread. I’ve had olive bread before and it is not for everyone (my wife hates it) but I thought theirs was quite good.
For an appetizer we ordered the porcini crusted scallops. The scallops were cooked perfectly and it was a delicious appetizer. For my entrée I ordered the sun-​dried tomato and goat cheese ravioli with vodka blush sauce and my wife got the grilled vegetable ravioli in a sun-​dried tomato cream sauce. My dish was pretty amazing and I devoured it. Unfortunately my wife was not so thrilled with her dish. She put it in the category of dishes that tastes fine, not horrible, but wasn’t particularly enjoyable. I tasted it and agreed with her opinion. We ordered garlic spinach and portobello mushrooms as sides and they were both very tasty and fresh. We were too full for dessert.
The service the entire time we were there was just about impeccable. Including our main server we had 3 different waiters check on us/​serve us at various times through our dinner. All were very pleasant and accommodating.
Restaurants in hotels can be so hit or miss. This is one of those rare places that clearly has a very competent chef in the kitchen and is doing most everything right. It’s a little pricey, but it’s worth it.

I met a few girls here for Wine and Cheese Wednesday happy hour. There was Raspberry cheese, Blue Cheese and aged Ricotta cheese with crackers. The Ricotta cheese was the best for me.
We munched a bit then decided to get their early dinner special. Blue Grotto has a 3-​course meal for $ 22 from 5 — 6:00. Its a pre-​fixe menu but the choices were good. I had the Bruchetta of the day which was an Artichoke bruchetta. It was good but I felt it should have been served warm.
I chose the Chicken Parmesan for the second course. It was delish. I had a taste of the Eggplant which wasn’t bad, given I’d never had eggplant before.
I kept it simple and went with chocolate ice cream for my third course. I’m not a big fan on Tiramisu so I didn’t want to order it and let it go to waste. It was surprisingly different from any I’ve seen but according to the ladies, it was good.

I bought $ 25 restaurant gift card from
when they were selling for $ 2 and I figured this would be a good local place to check out with it.
Blue Grotto is inside the convention center and next to the Radisson hotel. The décor is a mix between Italian and French (as was their music). The atmosphere was very nice and the place was bigger than I thought.
The menu was separated into 2 pages. One page for first course and the second page for entrees. They offer daily bruschetta (tonight’s was crawfish… eww), too. We started with the normal mozzarella and tomato bruschetta, which I didn’t like. It had red and green peppers in it which I thought was odd.
I ordered the asparagus and goat cheese ravioli in a vodka rose sauce. At first, I thought it was okay but the more I ate it, the better it tasted. Does anyone else have that happen? Jeff ordered their farfalle bolognese. As Jeff puts it, «your dish was four stars and mine was two stars» which is why I’m rating it 3.
The restaurant is definitely pricey. Both entrees were $ 16 a piece. I would recommend going here if you’re tired of all the normal KOP restaurants.
Also, have to give a shout out to the waiter named Wafeek. He was pretty damn funny.