Having been a fan of their jarred sauce for a while (expensive but the best in my opinion) I was hoping I could give this place a 5 when I made the reservation. Don't get me wrong the atmosphere is great and the staff was personable and professional, the antipasto the side of meatballs were great.
The problem is, I have a favorite dish and its one that every place does a little different and that's OK but when I saw that they had chicken scarpiello on the menu I thought I was in for a dinner to remember. Rao's does it with bone in chicken pieces which I suppose is more authentic if harder to eat and that wasn't the problem the problem is I have had better for half the money at a little pizza/pasta place in Westchester NY! The sauce was just so so and the sausage was not the best (nor the worst certainly) that I have ever had and the chicken pieces were a little less than meaty. Oh well I will dream that some day Martin Scorsese will cast me and I can get into the original and see how it stacks up!
If I had ordered anything else for dinner I probably would have given this place at least a 4 but it was sort of like meeting your child hood hero and finding out he has a beer gut and too much nose hair, he still might be a great guy but you built him up to be something better.