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| Photo - Food Network |
The Positive Reviews:
- "Sapori D' Italia is the best restaurant in fountain hills! If you have a sweet tooth, the desert is awesome! The food is fresh and tasty!...The staff is great and they are very friendly. Place is clean and nice not too expensive."
- "Can't get any better then this! If you want Good / Fresh Italian food you need visit! I guarantee you will be going back. Gasper & Maria and the entire staff make sure you feel wlecome, happy & full!"
- "This is one of the best Italian restaurants in the Valley! Everything is made from scratch, pasta, cheeses, sodas, cakes, pizza with the finest ingredients. The owners are very friendly and take great pride in their food."
- "Best Italian Food around and the nightly specials are amazing also! Gasper and Maria make it an amazing experience! The Pizza is delicious as well! Try the calamari and don't leave without trying Maria's homemade desserts."
- "Excellent Italian Restaurant! Best NY style brick oven Pizza in AZ with fresh mozzarella. Great new sauce with the calamari. Fresh hip atmosphere. Drove by and stopped in during an episode of Restaurant Impossible from the Food Network. Great work!"
- "I live in Phoenix and always make a point to come to Sapori D'italia when I am in Fountain Hills....The food is consistently amazing! I've been there several times (last night was our first weekend dinner) and the service has always been great!...This place has the best authentic Italian food in Arizona!"
- "We had a great experience. Food was super, New makeover looked great....We will be back."
- "True Italian, not American. I have to pinch myself to remind that I am in AZ and not Italy."
The Negative Reviews:
- "Food just OK. Looked like wonderful bread and flatbreads, but they were not warm, like I expected and thought should be. Mixed appetizer platter nothing special. Eggplant parmigiana just ok, but they got the angel hair pasta fine. My wife had Chicken Picata. Tender, flavorful, but a small portion.....Shared a bottle of house Chianti for 3 of us. $70 per couple overall seems pricey for what it is."
- "I had heard good things about this restaurant, but, have to say, I was rather disappointed....It was a busy night for them, but even so, the service was very slow. It was at least 90 minutes before we finally got our entrees. Not good."
- "The food here is outstanding!! This place just was renovated by Restaurant Impossible, it seems even that didn't fix two BIG problems. 1. SLOW, SLOW, service. 2. VERY snobby new French lady as the hostess."
Conclusion:
I think this restaurant was one of the highest rated I have ever seen before Restaurant Impossible visited. A lot of 5-star reviews, with people raving about how everything is fresh, homemade, and delicious. As the description of the show mentions more about the broken family, I have a feeling this episode is going to focus more on fixing that, rather than the usual problems of bad finances and bad food.
People like the makeover, continue to love the food, and have said they will be repeat customers. There were a few negative comments about price and slow service, but it looks like this restaurant will continue to succeed with the boost in business from the Restaurant Impossible visit. Hopefully the family issues are resolved or can be resolved.
Reviews from Yelp, Tripadvisor, and Urbanspoon
These people weren't running this restaurant a year and a half ago!! Occasionally you would see Maria and at the beginning Gaspar used to be there. Most of the time there was Lorenzo and Cozimo that were nice happy people!! Their food was great. These people took over and it went downhill!! And the new look of the restaurant is awful!! Crappy cosmetic looking!!
ReplyDeleteI know the family so while I was excited to watch the episode I was also a bit apprehensive as I know the show can really focus on what they do wrong. They really are emotional people aas they appeared in the show, but they truly care and love each other. I have always loved the food but am excited to try some of the new menu items. I hope this episode helps out the family with their emotional and financial issues!
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad that they painting over the murals! I haven't seen the new look yet but it's going to be a knife in the painter's heart when he sees that they painted over all but one of his beautiful murals.
ReplyDeleteI hope Governor Brewer was watching.
ReplyDeleteHer policies have hurt the business owners of Arizona. It caused a backlash as Boycott Arizona kept tourists away.
This poor family featured on Restaurant impossible are struggling and suffering just like the many business owners of our State.
I have to say, this is the first time in the history of Restaurant Impossible, (I've seen every episode), that I preferred most of the original design. I'm sorry, but I liked the original bar, and thought the bright green and gray was beyond ugly. Someone tell me I'm not alone here.
ReplyDeleteGasper and Maria opened the Restaurant with Lorenzo and Cosima. The partnership ended with Lorenzo and Cosima taking over the restaurant and Gasper and Maria taking it back. Lorenzo and Cosima dragged it to the ground. Gasper and Maria had to put a lot of resources to get it back to respectability and it has caused the family to fall apart.
ReplyDeleteIf you knew any better the restaurant was a partnership. Lorenzo & Cosima ruined the Restaurant. Get your facts straight before you post.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm sure the owners mismanagement had nothing to do with it.
ReplyDeleteBut, since you want to blame a politician, I'd start a little higher. Like in the White House. His and his party's policies are hurting business owners, including restaurant owners all over the country.
We agree! We totally HATED the new colors and loved the old bar.
ReplyDeleteThank you! All this back and forth about who ran the place into the ground, and I'm thinking, "doesn't anyone want to talk about the ugly new design?"
ReplyDeleteUm, no, I live in NYC, I know more people who went to arizona then avoided the state after the so called boycott. The boycott was such a failure of embarrassing proportions that La Raza called it off. Officially, the boycott ended long ago.
ReplyDeleteThe family seemed to truly love each other; very emotional. Had tears in my eyes. Hope they continue to have an increase in business. I did like the stone bar and I was sorry to see it being taken apart. It brought some warmth to the place.
ReplyDeleteCause the economy was doing so well pre obama
ReplyDeleteI so agree with you I loved the bar and all of the wonderful murals it just looks weird with that ugly green color now
ReplyDeleteYoure not alone. It was change for change's sake. Lost all the uniqueness of the original. Hated the colors and all the little squares...
ReplyDeleteNot sure I always appreciate the makeovers, either, but this is one exceptional family, and I wish them nothing but the best.
ReplyDeleteDuring the Bush presidency, the unemployment rate averaged 5.3 percent. Now let’s consider Mr. Obama’s record: an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent, with 131,000 jobs lost in July. Glad that you picked up on this.
ReplyDeleteShure was
ReplyDeleteI so agree that the anti-business White House is making all businesses suffer!!
ReplyDeleteI agree.. I just watched this episode on.Netflix and it is the WORST renovation of any episode EVER!! Fire that designer! Never use her again! The murals were pretty and part of the family's legacy!
ReplyDeleteThe guy liked it. That's all that matters.
ReplyDeleteI like the show, but can't stand the irritating acid rock guitar music! While you're doing all the renovating, how about including the music for some updating too!
ReplyDelete