Italian Grotto

This place is a hot mess. The Manager lurkes in the womens bathroom. Not near but inside. He was asked to leave and then cursed out the women. He is a pervert. Do not go to this train wreck of a restaurant. more

We have been to Italian Grotto many times and it is always great! Great service, great food and great atmosphere! that's why when our kids graduated from High School last week it was a no brainer to take them and all our family and friends there for dinner! Love this place! more

We were exicted to have a great meal. We made reservations weeks in advance and even dieted so we could... more

We were exicted to have a great meal. We made reservations weeks in advance and even dieted so we could order guilt free. We arrived several minute... more

The manager was very unprofessional. He was very rude to me. He is an older man, tan, skinny with a couple hoop earrings and thinks he is gods gift to earth. He came over to our table and said we had to worst tablein the house, i agreed wth him and he got so pissed off. I guess i was not to agree with him????? It was a horrible place to sit, wait staff rushing around me every second, people walking by bumping into us in the middle of everything. The manager is a complete idiot who would not stop harassing me. It was a pretty unbelievable expierence. The guy is a big drunk and needs some help. I will never go back to this dump again in my life!!!! more

The owner was our server. The low class food was very over-rated as well as the prices. Owner was absolutely rude to our party of 4. He made snide comments regarding our questions and I believe they over-charged us. They add gratuity to the check so they don't need to provide good service. I would rather eat at mcdonalds than this place. Save your money and skip this hole in the wall. It was my worst experience at a restaurant because of the callous and rude waiter/owner. The other people in my party agree that the restaurant was terrible. I will tell everyone I know to avoid this place when they come to Scottsdale.\r Mat from las Vegas. more

This restaurant reminds me of an old supper club. The food is great and they will cater to special diatary needs. more

this attempts to be NY and italian, and has lost touch with both. there is nothing cool about this place. I have nothing against gays, but the two owners hit on every single man in the place. Very strange. Pros: you don't have to go there. Cons: it needs medical attention. more

THIS PLACE IS LIKE A SCENE FROM NEW YORK. THE FOOD WAS EXCELLENT, THE ATMOSPHERE WAS WILD AND VERY ENGAGING, THE PEOPLE WHO WORK THERE ALL SEEM TO BE HAVING A GREAT TIME. THE MUSIC ALTHOUGH A LITTLE LOUD WAS TOTALLY FRANK SINATRA, AND DEAN MARTIN, ALL WE DID IS LAUGH WITH THE OWNER WHO SEEM'S TO JUST GET A KICK OUT OF MAKING FUN OF HIS CUSTOMERS. IT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE Pros: VERY ENTERTAINING more

My family (all 16 of us) and I came to this restaurant for a graduation celebration. The waiter started us off with some wonderful appetizers. Everyone had a terrific entree'. And, when it was time for dessert, the waiter took my 6 yr. old nephew into the kitchen to get his own ice cream. He is still talking about that. The rest of us split a few different choses. My favorite was the terramisu. The place was very busy, and even though we took up alot of space, we never felt rushed or like we needed to go. The service was excellent! I would highly recommend this restaurant. I'm sure I'll be going back many more times. Pros: service, food, price more

My husband and I were recently in Scottsdale and stumbled upon this Old Town gem. From the minute we came in, we knew we would be back again. We are both sports fans and there are 5 TVs. We were able to watch the hockey playoffs as well as a few different baseball games without going to a ""sports bar"".The service was fantastic. The waiters make you feel like you are the only one in the room. Not knowing much about wine, but wanting to enjoy a bottle, our waiter was very knowledgable and chose for us. The food was absolutely delicious. We started with an appetizer of fried artichokes which were great, then my husband had a seafood pasta dish and I had the Halibut piccata that I am still trying to duplicate at home! We split a dessert which was just perfect. The atmosphere is so upbeat and exciting that you can't help but have fun. We were told that the business has been around for over 30 years with the same owner. I can certainly see why this place has staying power. I, for one, hope it's around another 30 more! Pros: food, service, atmosphere more

We were in downtown Scottsdale and stopped in for dinner about 5-6. We ordered the zucchini appetizer, our entrees, and some wine. An impossibly long time later, the fried zucchini arrived. The first bite was okay, then my companion shrieked, “Is that a…” It was a breaded and fried cricket. I waved to the server. I think there is something in our food. “it looks like a cricket, I will get the manager.” The manager comes over and starts yelling at us. We are wasting his time. We are breaking his chairs?!?! (umm, I’m only 230lbs.) His rage was building. I asked, can we pay our bill and go? His agitation increased, he was practically spraying us with his spittle. My friend whisper in my ear “this guy has serious problems.” We could smell the alcohol on his breath. He yelled that had planted it to try to get free food (our entrees that still hadn’t come out of the kitchen.) I had enough. We left. Pros: The alcoholic manager's antics are sad, but funny Cons: Inept manager, fried cricket more

Apparently Scottsdale has a reputation for great service; I certainly haven't see it, and this place tops the heap. I simply wanted to have an evening cocktail and catch a ballgame, and waited several minutes for an open bar spot to be cleared, when no one else was there. When I finally sat down, i was treated like an inconvience. Rude is an understatement. I tried making small talk, only to be treated even more disrespectfully. And my $7 Jack Daniles, didn't taste like Jack Daniels. The bartender was so rude I had to leave in the 8th inning of a one-run ball game.\r \r Disapointing. Pros: Baseball on 5 TV's Cons: worst service in Scottsdale more

My wife and I stumbled onto this little gem three years ago and it is one of our favorites. At first pass, you may see it only as a bar, but the food is tremendous. The soups are made from scratch, and the sauces are to die for. We have tried several diffrent items and everything was wonderful. The wine reduction sauce on the chicken carolina is enough to make you want to lick the plate clean. For us this is a must stop everytime we are in town. We will be back in a few weeks and we are both looking forward to this dining experience. As I read the other reviews I was stunned because the staff has always been friendly and helpful. I have never been over charged, and there were times with the wine consuption at our table it would have been easy to do. Great food, fun atmosphere, and good company have made this a must stop place for us. more

Im going to make a long story short about this dump. The owner is supposedly from NYC, and lived in Chelsea? Yeah right.. Chelsea is the gay area of NYC, and the A-hole owner chased my b/f and I out of there, saying ""its f-ingsick what you guys do to each other, you f-ng faggots."" We had not even ordered anything, but I guess we upset the fat ugly waiter by moving some plates around. He came back and tried giving us proper table setting instructions.. Then the owner.. (who is just the biggest a-hole, and MOST LIKELY on something) told us to leave the table settings alone? I was like.. are you kidding me? The worst part is.. I left my wallet in this dump, and went back later, and was not allowed back in to even check out the table... I called the Scottsdale Police, and they did not do anything... I lived in NYC for four years, and was never treated in such a f-d up manner... . DONT EVER EAT AT THIS S--THOLE!! Cons: The Place is A DISASTER!! WORST SERVICE EVER!!!! more

If you are looking for a five star italian meal with a wait staff and owner to match, drop by the Italian Grotto on Scottsdale Road in Old Town. I have been a customer for the past seven years and have never been disappointed with the food or conversation. The ""Grotto"" is sports central with five tv's behind the bar and Sinatra cd's playing in the backround. I have met baseball scouts, football refs, ESPN announcers, retired NFL players, and travelers from all over the world while at the Grotto. Want to listen to some classic jazz live? About once a month, the Grotto hosts some legendary musicians who have semi-retired in the area. Gary, the owner, may be an acquired taste for some, but my take is ""don't change a thing"" . Gary is the real deal; almost always in the restaurant and consistently cool. On more than one occasion I have brought in NCAA athletes and Gary has rolled out the red carpet. And Oh, some of the reviews on this site that knock the staff and owner tell more about the author than the Grotto. And the sea bass is great! more

This food is delicious and the atmosphere makes a perfect area to dine before you the clubs of old town Scottsdale. With a friendly staff and amazing food you won't be disappointed more

I feel it necessary to review for as many sites as possible for the Italian Grotto in Scottsdale. The owner/manager apparantly is some sort of schizophrenic. We tried this place once a year when we are in Scottsdale. I don't know, since we receive the same treatment each time. This year was the worst and even though we will never go back, it is necessary to warn people of the experience that they would have here. Besides being insulting to my elderly parents, he lied to them about the menu and the prices. When they requested fish on their Caesar salad, he said no problem. They asked how much extra it would be. He said ""Don't worry,I won't charge you for sneaking a little fish"". He TOLD me rather than send bread that goes with the meal, he'll give us a half and half plate with garlic bread and tomato bread, as a special treat to the table. He told us at 2 in the afternoon, he would charge us lunch price of $8 an entree as advertised in the window, instead of the $11on the menu. He claimed that he was a new man because his third wife had straightened him out! Even though I didn't feel good about his stories, my parents, thought we should trust him! WRONG,WRONG,WRONG,.When the bill came, he charged $15 apiece for the Caesar salad, $11 apiece for the entrees, and $5 apiece for two kinds of bread! Exact opposite of what he had promised. The bill was hand written in a long list of numbers, with no explanation. I asked the waiter for an explanation. Instead of explaining, he crossed out a couple numbers, wrote in a couple more numbers, turned the bill over and showed me more charges of $5 apiece for the ice tea!! We got out of there as quickly as possible. I did not want to have a confrontation with this mad man with my parents present. It is a shame that this person is still in business. If there are any reviews about this restaurant that are anything other than what I have just described, they are either part of the wait staff or family of the owners! Pros: Corner Location Cons: Manager, Wait Staff, Prices, Treatment, Changing Stories, Changing Promises more

Wow, what a miserable experience. I can't remember a time when I had been treated with such disrespect at an establishment. When our party of four arrived we had no intention of overindulging on a big meal, for we had already been snacking on sushi down the street. When we asked to split two entrees among the four of us our waiter rolled his eyes at us and gave us such an attitude. He never returned to our table to ask about refilling our drinks and actually ""shooshed"" my fiance when she tried to speak. When we confronted the manager he said that he supports his server's decision to give us crappy service because we were not spending tons of $. But if he had come back to table to refill our drink order we might have since we were drinking watered down $7 cocktails. When leaving, the host/manger chased after us out into the street demanding at least a 10% tip for his waiter. Of which we left none. \r Not to mention the food was sub par at best. The sausage parmigana was great dissappointment. The ""homemade"" sausage tasted just like the sausage I purchase at the supermarket. The marinara sauce was horrible. If there was a negative scale on the star rating they would get NEGATIVE FIVE STARS. DON""T GO!!! \r \r The host/manger's name is ""Meatball"". Who does that?? more

I just got home from eating at the Italian Grotto. It put me in such a bad mood that I had to write a review to try to warn others!\r \r Our waiter was terrible and seemed almost angry when two members of my party ordered water to drink instead of booze. Then he was even angrier when we decided to split entrees. After we ordered he tried to get us to order the garlic or tomato bread instead of the free bread. I jokingly asked which was cheaper. He put his hands up to stop me talking and continued with his sell. Seriously.\r \r The food came and was really not that good. It was bland and boring. The waiter hardly spoke another word to us for the entire meal. He never asked if we needed refills or if we needed anything at all. It was annoying but this isn't what made me so mad. \r \r Since we split our entrees, we were charged an extra $5 per entree! For what, I couldn't tell you. We asked the manager for a menu to see if the sharing charge was publicized. He rolled his eyes at us, grabbed a menu and asked what we were looking for. We told him and he turned super rude. We told him that we did not have a good experience there because the waiter was so rude. The manager said that he stood behind his waiter and we had to realize that our eating at the restaurant and splitting meals was costing them money. He said of course the waiter treated us that way if he knew he wasn't going to get much of a tip. We informed the manager that we had each been servers at some time and knew the proper way to tip. He said he was wasting his time talking to us. \r \r Because we know what it's like to be servers, we typically tip 20%. Tonight we didn't tip anything. Then the incredibly rude manager followed us out of the restaurant yelling at us about the lack of tip.\r \r We tried to shake it off because he is obviously a bad person who owns a restaurant with subpar food. But he was just so mean spirited I felt like I had to post this truthful review. AVOID! Pros: NOTHING! Cons: Awful manager, terrible service, boring food more