Baltimore Restaurant Guide

Is this what you consider decent dinning? Not even close!

OVER-hyped, OVER-priced and OVER-rated are approprate descriptions of Sabatino's. With great anticipation we took our seats and were promptly served gin & tonics that were flat and insipid. A mussels appetizer turned out to be a plate of cold, overcooked, previously frozen, mushy shellfish, with a sauce that any out-of-the-can, heat-and-eat marinara could have easily surpassed. Veal entrees were equally overcooked and uninspiring, with a florentine spinach that still had an out-of-the-can taste. Add to all this an expresso coffee that barely filled a third of a demitasse (why so stingy?), and service that, while polite, was almost absent-minded (how can a waitress forget forks and spoons?), it becomes obvious that Sabatino's won't be seeing the likes of me again! About the only things that don't deserve the OVER-tag were the chianti and Sambucca, probably because these items didn't have to pass through the Sabatino kitchen. If you savor food of this quality, stick to the heat-and-eat items from the supermarket freezers - they're a lot less expensive!