Scampi Pasta House & Bar

My wife and I tried this place last night because we had a groupon. For a Saturday night I was shocked to see that the place was empty. It felt strange eating in a big restaurant with only one other couple eating there too.
I had the Scampi alfresco, my wife ordered clam linguini. The food was terrible. Very small amount of seafood, and massive amounts of pasta. You could tell the food wasn’t fresh. ofNeedless to say, my poor wife was up all night throwing up. The clams were obviously spoiled and we should’ve known better given the circumstances.
On a good note, our server, Erica I believe, was a very nice and professional server. She tried her best to please us and I give her service a top grade. So if you’re looking to lose some quick weight, Scampi is your place.

I was very wary to try this place seeing the mixed reviews but decided to give it a try and boy, was I disappointed beyond my wildest dreams.
I’d like to lead off saying that our waitress was very sweet and accommodating throughout our experience she is the only reason this review has any stars, however the good ends with her.
I understand this is a bar and pasta house and I wouldn’t call it «fun for the whole family», but expected a tolerable, appropriate atmosphere. I came with my younger sister for her birthday at 6:30 in the evening and a small crowd of people at the bar were already completely blado, shouting, swearing and being completely inappropriate and vulgar in an other wise quiet restaurant. No one made any effort to notify them of their lack of courtesy. The place smelled musty and smoky (not appetizing at all) and the tables were padded and wrapped in vinyl like camping tables (I expect at least a table cloth if not a hard table at a $ 20+ entrée place).
Once again, very nice waitress, but she was the only one working an entire room at dinner hour on a Saturday evening, so service was slow. Our complementary «fresh» bread and marinara was ice cold and didn’t come out until after we had finished our cold appetizers and ordered dinner.
I ordered the Chicken Stambocca? My sister ordered an Alfredo Scampi. My chicken was dry and hard as a rock, over a cold bed of under seasoned Alfredo linguini. My sister’s Alfredo scampi had a long dark hair embedded into her also cold and bland dish. The waitress brought out a fresh plate for her and offered complimentary dessert, but unfortunately we couldn’t get out of there quickly enough. And lastly, if I’m paying $ 23 for a basic plate of pasta the «generous» portion of five shrimp on top can AT LEAST be fully peeled and tailless.
The poor waitress did every thing she could, but this is really a management issue, the place needs a complete overhaul make over from the food, to the décor, the staff scheduling and beyond. There is not an ounce of attention to detail going on here.

Let’s start because it’s not a great review. Walked in to find what I thought was a closed restaurant — padded tables with no clothes on them and no one around. Waiter and only staff person on duty comes out and seats us.
I ask if the mushroom ravioli has a cream sauce — waiter says yes. I expect mushroom filled ravs with white cream sauce. I get cheese ravs with a creamy tomato sauce and mushrooms sprinkled on top One of the few times I have sent a plate back– totally not what I was in the mood for. He brings me out (after hubby is almost done eating) cheese rav with a white gravy– not Alfredo sauce. I give the waiter some credit he tried to be accommodating. But he was too busy to even come pick up the check. The foccocia bread was really good. Husband said the mushroom scampi had good flavor. It was pasta, five thumb sized shrimp and pesto Again not what I would fix as scampi. This was their third chance. I won’t return. And can’t recommend it

Mehhhh…
Had a great deal from Amazon Local and although I had heard some bad things, I figured we would try it out.
Our server was nice and very attentive but extremely clumsy. He spilled water all over the place at least 5 times but made light of what a tard he was so I let it slide. Also I had to mention that I needed silverware which was brought just in time for him to spill water all over the floor and table.
Prices were very high so I was glad to have a great deal to start out with. Food was ok. It wasn’t necessarily presented in an amazing fashion and there weren’t any flavors that screamed or popped out at me. I got the fruit of the sea and my girlfriend got some fettuccine and chicken dish. Also got the calamari appetizer. We always share so I was able to sample everything that was ordered. I felt is was absolutely something I could have made at home. If they were charging 8 – 10 dollars less for each entrée, I may have felt that was fair.
Wouldn’t return without another great deal and might still question it after that.

We were very pleased with this restaurant. My husband ordered the Seafood Ravioli, my daughter had Spaghetti with Meatballs, and I had Scampi Alfredo with gluten free pasta. I also had the Roasted Salad as an appetizer.
The atmosphere was very pleasant and the price was reasonable. The staff was friendly. I liked my scampi dish but I absolutely loved my roasted salad. My husband raved about his food and my 3 year old ate a lot so I took that as a good sign; my husband tasted her food and said it was excellent. he also reported that the bread was very good.
I have Celiac and I don’t eat out a lot because of the risk of getting ill. I called ahead and asked questions and overall I was satisfied that they knew how to prepare safe food for me. Their pasta, including their gluten free pasta, is made fresh in-​house. Gluten free pasta is never on par with «real» pasta, but this was as good as any other I’ve had, and I’ve been Celiac for 7 years now.
They didn’t offer crayons or a kids menu or anything, and I might have deducted half a star for that. I resorted to letting my daughter watch a video on my phone in an attempt to keep her in her chair, something I’ve never had to do before but she’d had a long day and was having difficulty with nothing to do while we waited for our food.
If I lived in Reno I would definitely eat here again.

Excellent food and service. The waiter was friendly and efficient. The food was served in generous portions and was so tasty. The chicken saltimbocca is my favorite.

Food was absolutely great. Service… terrrrible. I’m sitting here done with my meal and still have yet to receive our appetizer. Spoke to the server, he said he’s sorry and its on its way, but our empty bread plate and marinara has been sitting here since before we got our meal, and we’ve been without water refills for up to 10 minutes multiple times. In the time it took me to write this, our appetizer still hasnt shown up.
Ammendment. My fiancé mentioned to me there were no noodles in her chicken parmesan before the check came. I got up and grabbed a menu from the front to make sure we weren’t crazy, but sure enough it says served with linguini. Pasta dish with no pasta? And the server just said sorry with no meal comp. Food was great but wow service was terrible.

I’ll start off by saying, the main entrees had NO flavor what so ever. The food was disgusting! I will never go back to that place. It was not worth my 65 $. Their was only ONE person working the hole place besides the cook. The waiters guy was amazing, we actually felt sorry for him. Where were the managers? The owners? Another worker? Anyone? Me and my boyfriend where actually getting ready to help him. I certainly will not be returning here anytime soon.

Scampi was quite a disappointment. My boyfriend and I made a reservation, but when we arrived, we were asked to wait at the bar. Less than five minutes later, we were sat at a table in the bar that had been open since we arrived. With a reservation, I had expected to sit in the dining area rather than at a bar table near the entrance.
The food was certainly lacking flavor and presentation. We ordered two gluten-​free dishes: shrimp alfredo and chicken pasta. We wanted our dining experience to end as quickly as possible. Pandora (free version) was playing, so we had to listen to advertisements. To top things off, one of the servers was wearing very obnoxious shoes that made a clicking noise throughout the entire restaurant.

A friend and I had dinner there last night (1−15−14). Before going I read some pretty negative reviews and wondered if we had made a mistake. The only mistake we made was not taking advantage of this wonderful restaurant sooner. The food was excellent. The service was paced for a leisurely dining experience. The prices were fair. Ray, the owner took time to chat with us and answer questions. I highly recommend this to any and every one who wants a pleasant dining experience.
Norm
Sparks, NV

All I can say is WOW! From the moment we walked into Scampi Pasta House and Bar, we could tell we were in for a treat. The décor is dark wood and elegant, perfect for a «date night.»
We were warmly welcomed immediately by Erica, who also served our dinner. Like a lot of reviews, we had purchased a deal on Groupon, which brought us in… BEST purchase EVER! We began with two of their signature cocktails, the basiltini and dark and stormy. Both were original and quite flavorful. While enjoying our cocktails, Erica brought us fresh-​baked foccacia bread with to-​die-​for marinara for a dipping sauce… OMG, soooooo good! Next, our appetizer arrived… calamari rings and whole pieces of squid. Nice and crispy, just like it should be! For our entrees, everything on the menu sounded wonderful, but finally ordered the scampi w/​artichokes, my boyfriend had the scampi diablo. Both were absolutely delicious… huge prawns lots of artichokes in a butter wine sauce for me, and huge prawns inspicy marinara for him. We also got tiramisu to go, but as of yet haven’t had room to try it, but it looks delicious!
Overall, I give Scampi Pasta House & Bar 5 stars because of the warm, friendly service, elegant ambiance, and absolutely delicious cocktails and food. We definitely will be back!

I am honestly shocked to see such mixed reviews about this place. ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING WAS A HOMERUN. Im always looking for new italian and when we found a groupon, we couldnt resist giving Scampi’s a try. My mother, boyfriend and I decided to make it our prelude to an annual charity ball we attend every year for my birthday. It truly was a prefect evening!
Ill start off with the service, which was such a delight. I was sure to get his name (James) so as to include it the review. He was cheery, attentive, got everything perfect and was just down right charming. Give that boy a raise!
Next drinks. No espresso sadly, but the coffee was good. I ordered a glass of the reisling. Nothing too fancy, but I got an excellent pour and I enjoyed it so much, I got a second glass.
Now, on to the important part, the food! We were quickly greeted with an amazing garlicy bread and fresh marinara. The sauce was a top notch homemade, but the bread. Oh my god the bread. I was a pastry chef for a number of years, and I swear to you, I could write a thesis paper on why this bread was the perfect bread. We ordered the caprese for an appetizer, it was fresh and traditional, just the way we like it.
I felt like no time had past at all when James bought out our entrees. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their order. My boyfriend got the sea bass. Im not a fish person myself but he said it was delicious, and being from the coast, Ill take his word for it. My mother had their artichoke scampi. I have no idea what these other reviews are talking about! I had a bite, and IT WAS THE BEST SCAMPI I HAVE EVER TASTED. I almost started to regret not ordering it myself until I tried my dish. I ordered the artichoke ravioli, which came in a creamy vodka sauce. It was to die for! There I was in a gown costing twice my rent, and Im making what can only be described as orgasm noises as I greedily dive into my pasta.
The real kicker of the evening however, was the entertainment. There was a young fellow doing Sinatra type singing and light comedy in the sort of plaza the tables surround. His voice was out of this world, he was funny as hell, and he really set the mood. He was really that special something extra that makes a dining experience over the top. Hold on to him Scampi’s!
This is a wonderful place, and they really made our big night out special. Id recommend it to anyone!

While in Reno we decided to have lunch at Scampi without reading reviews, big mistake. For the people raving about the food all I can say is there must have been a chef change. I ordered Scampi, their signature dish, before I ordered it I asked the waitress if it was good and she answered ‘so, so, good’.
The shrimp were small and there were 5, the noodles were sour and swimming in butter. I don’t know if they put vinegar on my noodles but they were gross and I could not eat them, not to mention how unhealthy the dish looked soaked in butter. My husband had a salad with sword fish. He could not eat the fish as it was too fishy, which means old.
My husband told the waitress that I could not eat my food because it tasted like vinegar had been accidently poured on it and the waitress just smiled and gave us our bill. This experience was so disappointing as we were so hungry and really wanting some yummy seafood.
Oh and someone mentioned yummy garlic bread, I know for sure something changed as the bread that we were served was terrible, how can you ruin bread?!
The waitress did a good job and we did leave her a tip but who cares about a good waitress when you can’t eat the food!

A hidden treasure. Food is simply great.
Went here due to an online Groupon type deal.
Décor is dark and certainly dated but the food is wonderful. There is a Chef in the kitchen, not just a cook!
My dinner salad was huge and certainly the size of a dinner plate and a lovely mix of flavorful and varied greens.
My husband had the vegetable soup… clearly homemade and succulent, How do you make that happen with just vegetables?
We both had mahi mahi and it was cooked perfectly and delicious.
We then ventured to dessert, and ordered their bread pudding.
It was a very large portion, enough for two, had a great sauce and was as delicious as everything else. I happen to not enjoy bread pudding but I did enjoy this. Portion was large enough for the two of us and we took half of it home to enjoy later.
Worth a visit, hopefully the word will get around town so they end up with the business they deserve.

Went there last night and it was fantastic. We were greeted right away and given a choice of where we wanted to sit which was really nice. Most of the time places will just seat you wherever without asking if the seat is comfortable. The service was so friendly and courteous.
We ordered the sausage and pepper bruschetta and it was delicious. It was a little on the warm side, meaning that it may have sat under a heat lamp for a little too long but it was so tasty. The scampi was delicious. We ordered the shrimp and artichole scampi. It was fantastic.
My boyfriend was happy because they had Modello (spelling?) beer in a bottle and I had a Blackstone Chardonnay that was really nice. I can’t wait to go back.

I have only eaten once here and that was one to many times.
I wanted Italian so we decided it give it a whirl. We walked in and was seated and there was only one other table with a couple just finishing up. That scared us no one eating in the restaurant.
I ordered veal. When I received it, it tasted like fish. I asked the NICE waitress if that other table had fish. She said yes, why. I told her I think the cook forgot to rinse the pan because my veal tasted like fish. She took it back to the kitchen. When she returned with the same dish, she said she tasted it and felt it tasted just like fish too. But the cook was mad and said to bad.
She did give me $ 4.00 off the bill. I’m not a fish eater so I couldn’t eat it. I felt it should of been 100% taken off the bill.
My boyfriend was not trilled with his choose either.

«Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.» –Dr. Seuss
On that note, I would like to say a few words. Though I’m *in love* with the idea of Scampi, as well as its location and décor (reminiscent of when it was high-​end, old school Adele’s), the food has a lot of room for improvement.
Wasn’t it Anthony Bourdain who said, most likely far more astutely, that if a place is named after a dish it serves, one must always try that dish? For me, this rule has worked for Nick’s Cripsy Tacos, Piperade, Peg’s Glorified Ham n Eggs, Tikka Masala… Hot Dog on a Stick… wait… what? Are those still around?
But it didn’t work for me here, where I naturally ordered the traditional shrimp scampi pasta. I found the dish to be under-​seasoned and utterly lacking in taste. You know how scampis generally benefit from the acidity of white wine? Well here, I don’t think any was used, which made the sauce, well, sort of non-​existent! Oh, and it came out cold. Cold, tasteless shrimp. not my favorite.
My solution? Load up with parmesan cheese and clean my plate. After all, the linguine was cooked perfectly al dente, and more importantly, it’s a cardinal sin to leave pasta on your plate. And I will not, I repeat NOT be led into temptation, even by subpar scampi.
My fellow diners were additionally underwhelmed. Perhaps the best dish was my brother’s pesto scampi, which benefitted by the additional flavor of basil and perhaps extra garlic.
That said, the service was phenomenal. We ordered glasses of wine while the boys had their whiskey, and the waitress even let us try a cocktail that the bartender had made accidentally. It had gin and what I believe was mint and basil, sort of muddled– an Italian take on a mojito that was spot-​on.
The thing that disappointed me the most, and why Scampi gets 2 stars, was that it is based off of two things I love dearly– seafood and pasta, and those both fell incredibly short.
But I care a whole awful lot. I care about pasta and seafood and small business and Reno. I know that Scampi has the makings to be something great. I hope it gets better!

I did like the atmosphere in this place. I wish I had a reason to give it better than a three, though. I liked the menu options and my food tasted very good, but I would argue that it was overcooked. I don’t usually bother mentioning this if it’s one element. My prawns were a little tough and my pasta wasn’t quite mush, but it wouldn’t twirl without ripping. I will admit the presentation, flavor, and overall execution of the tiramisu made me very happy. I do plan on going back to give the bar half of this establishment a shot. They had some cocktails that looked tasty, but I stuck with wine to go with dinner.

Came here with five other people for dinner. The décor is absolutely beautiful! There is a lot of wood paneling and it feels like a very upscale Italian restaurant.
Service was ok. I think that our server may have been new. He was pretty slow with everything. He gave one seafood dish to our friend, when it should have gone to another then he couldn’t figure out why he was short one dish. It took quite awhile for him to realize what he (or the other staff) did wrong. They eventually brought out a dish for our friend, but it was after the most of us had finished our meal. The missing dish was another seafood dish, but what he brought didn’t have a lot of seafood. Despite their error, they didn’t offer anything in return. Not even a sincere apology.
The other dishes ordered were pretty good. I had the scampi with capers, which was excellent. My husband had the chicken parmesan which he said was ok. There was four other seafood dishes which got ok reviews.
My feelings on this restaurant are mixed. Overall, the food was pretty good. The service was ok, but the environment was beautiful.

If you’re looking for a quick, cheap lunch, this is NOT the place to go. But the food was so worth it. I am so happy that I chose to start with the $ 8 calamari. It was lightly battered, tender (nothing worse than an overly chewy piece of octopus), nicely spiced and served with a delicious simple marinara sauce that I would have happily slurped up if no one was watching. I just wish that they served lunch with a piece of bread — mmmm, nothing like sopping up good marinara sauce with good Italian bread.
For the main dish, I had a hankering for fettucine alfredo ($ 14). For just $ 5 more, I had my choice of shrimp, chicken or salmon to add to the dish. I originally wanted shrimp, but it wasn’t available that day so I went with the salmon The dish arrived steaming hot with thick tendrils of freshly shaved parmesan cheese. I was happily surprised by how much salmon was added for just a few dollars. It was a very, very generous serving.
I survived the oncoming food coma long enough to pay my bill ($ 28 total plus tip). Luckily I had a Social Living coupon ($ 10 for $ 20) which made the meal a bargain for lunch considering the quality and amount of food served.