I so wanted to give this a better review, and there are a lot of good things about this place, but they have made some controversial changes since last summer and, well, they are having a little trouble keeping up with the increased customer demand.
First of all, they used to have one of the best happy hour menus around for food quality/variety and drinks for the prices. In the past few months, they have almost doubled the happy hour prices, and shaved some of the most simple amenities from the dishes - kind of like when cereal prices go way up and then you realize that the box sizes have shrunk too. Wow - that's not cool.
So the zuppa di clams used to be excellent and priced well with Italian bread on the side to soak up all that clam/garlic/white wine broth. A short two months later. the happy hour menu posts this at almost twice the original happy hour pricing, the bread costs extra (seriously?) and my most recent order the clams were rubbery and too salty and also slightly smaller portion.
There is very little ambiance to this restaurant - bunches of tables out in the open and close together so no quiet seating or elegance - but I assume that was by design. And that was perfect when it was great Italian food at a good price. Now that the prices are inflated and the food not so good - the "cafeteria style" seating becomes more of an issue. There's just not very much to like here.
Hope they find their way back. It was great when it first opened. Hope they are listening to their customers and reading these reviews. There are an awful lot of dining options in Scottsdale and that place they occupy has seen it's share of former failures.