Scampo

08/07/09

Love the Food, Great dining experience!

by bpetruccelli

My husband and I come here frequently and we've never had a bad meal nor bad service. I love the fava bean dip with the bread sticks and Patrick's Naan is a MUST. The

The Mozzarella Bar is amazing...we love the king-crab cocktail. If you like Lamb... try the Saturday night supper special. I also recommend the tagliata ..(thinly sliced sirloin steak.) The pizza's a re great!

eat and enjoy!!

• Pros: Patrick's Naan is a MUST
• Cons: non

03/27/09

Inedible Fish

by FoodJunkie

I took my wife for her birthday to Scampo

The mozzarella was great - had the avocado/crab combo which was awesome

the spaghetti with cracklings was good also

unfortunately the cod was inedible and think she may have gotten sick from the meal. Initially it came out and was very undercooked - the manager brought the food back and apologized - when she returned the fish was so bad we could not eat it.

I was disappointed as it virtually ruined the night...

Not a go to place at all.

• Pros: Good mozzarella bar
• Cons: Cod we ordered was inedible

12/21/08

Great for out-of-town-guests

by RyanRose

For the most part, I'm digging the latest addition to Lydia Shire's empire. Hidden on the ground floor of the fabulous Liberty Hotel, the airy space, marked off by exposed brick walls and arranged around a spotless open kitchen, is a great place to bring out of town guests for a bit of Boston ambiance and history (the Liberty was an old jail). And compared with Locke-Ober, it's a far less stuffy, masculine and meat-centric place to sample the cuisine of Lydia Shire, who is herself a piece of Boston history. You can catch her here during the week too, flitting from table to kitchen, and her touch is obvious in the adventurous, clever and substantial foods on the menu.

However, there are a few parts of the restaurant that aren't quite worthy of Shire. The cocktail menu appears to be a thrown-together affair, with silly names and awkward drinks. Boston's currently in the midst of a torrid love affair with old-fashioned cocktails and deft young bartenders, and Scampo's not cashing in on this. The wine recommendation that I received was good though, and with an Italian menu this is more important. The prices are also a bit high for what you get -- I'm not asking for an Olive Garden-esque trough of food here, but $8 for the Elephant Ear Walking, a signature dish, is a lotta bread for, well, a piece of bread. It's clear though that the target customer of Scampo, like that of the Liberty Hotel overall is someone for whom money is no object, and to whom appearances and big names sometimes matter more than substance, and so perhaps Scampo is succeeding -- just not with my kind of customer.

Anyway, I'll still certainly bring friends back here and would recommend it for a special occasion where splurging is ok -- it's beautiful and festive-feeling inside, there's something on the menu for everyone, the servers are attentive and the location is very convenient. And it's still somewhat new -- so I'm hoping that the kinks will eventually smooth themselves out.

• Pros: Great ambiance, open kitchen, Liberty Hotel location
• Cons: High prices, staff could be more knowledgeable

Boston's beloved Lydia Shire puts a spin on comforting, modern Italian in the Liberty Hotel, with extensive wine and mozzarella bar.

by Gerrish Lopez

Befitting its location in the uber-chic The Liberty Hotel, Scampo's (Italian for "Escape") stylish dining room hosts a mix of dressed-down hotel guests and eager Boston foodies. The sleek setting includes two full bars and a copper-colored dining room that features a wall of wine bottles. The large, fast-moving open kitchen features a raging brick oven, as well as a tandoori oven. Menu highlights include tandoori chicken, spaghetti with hot peppers and cracklings, buffalo mozzarella with peaches and pistachio pesto and suckling pig. Ingredients and preparations are richly authentic and the staff is friendly and helpful.

Photo courtesy of Scampo

04/20/08

Wish I ate here

by kmc1128

My first piece of advice is bring a sweater or a jacket. It's like a refirgerator in there. Our first table, in the icebox section, was too cold to handle. I looked around and didn't see many people around. Probably because ice crystals would have formed on their food. We requested a new spot, but were told to wait at the bar until something in the "dining area" opened up. Dining area? So, where were we just at? We sat at the bar for a while eyeing another couple that were seated at our old table. They were next to us at the bar shortly afterward. Finally we were seated again, only two tables away from our old one (so, still cold), and this one had a new special feature. It rocked 20 degrees back and forth. I finally requested to speak to the manager. He was very nice about everything, requested we wait at the bar again, and he'd find us something in 30 mins. He even sent over breadsticks with fava bean dip. They were awesome, but I'm not sure if it was because they tasted good or because I was ravenous. We waited 35 minutes, still no manager, so we Scampo'd out of there. In the end, I can say that the ambiance was nice, the wait staff and manager were friendly and understanding, but the food remains a mystery....

• Pros: Waitstaff seems nice
• Cons: Coldness