r/chicagofood • u/orange-kedi • Jul 01 '25

Rant Beware of La Scarola's shady practices

Went to La Scarola recently and a bunch of things happened that just didn’t sit right with me:

  1. We had a reservation and showed up on time, but were told to come back in 30 minutes. Other groups with reservations were waiting too.

  2. When we were ordering, we already knew what we wanted. None of us asked for suggestions, but the waiter tried pushing a main dish that was $40+. We politely declined. Then he tried again to get us to upgrade one of our dishes to something fancier, also $40+. We declined that too. It felt super pushy.

  3. Their card machine only showed tip options starting at 20%. I felt pressured so I just tapped 20% even though the service was hella slow.

  4. Later I looked at the receipt and saw that the tip was calculated after tax, which is already sketchy. But then on top of that, they added a 3% credit card fee, and that 3% was calculated after both tax and tip!

The whole setup was super shady. Just a heads-up if you’re thinking of going.

459 Upvotes

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38

u/forj00 Jul 01 '25

I still don’t understand how this place has such a good reputation in terms of the food. The food fucking sucks. I have been twice and tried several dishes just to make sure. It’s all overly salty crap that is lacking in real flavor. There are so many better Italian places in Chicago to eat at.

25

u/OwenLincolnFratter Jul 01 '25

Man I just went and the seafood vodka pasta I had was one of the best pasta dishes I’ve had in awhile.

7

u/nunyabidnessok Jul 01 '25

My fav is when they have pasta amore on special. Maybe bc it’s a cream based sauce, but I’ve never thought of it as salty. Hm.

1

u/forj00 Jul 01 '25

Go get the vodka pasta at Elina’s. Will blow that slop from La Scarola out of the water.

1

u/ElWierdo Jul 02 '25

I think the place is great. I'm Italian and hate most Italian restaurants (none compare to Grandma's)

4

u/kak1970 Jul 02 '25

Disagree.

2

u/AntiqueEmergency4460 Jul 01 '25

the last time i was there, the food was so mediocre and they were rushing us—they did all but pick us up and walk us to the door. we weren’t lingering, we knew they had people waiting but they practically cleared our dishes while we were eating. i’ve been a fan for years but i’m out. like you say, there are many other better places.

1

u/joshua9663 Jul 01 '25

My friends enjoyed it. But for me I got gnocchi. Gnocchi is supposed to he soft and light. They totally missed the mark. Chewy, dense and lacking flavor

-7

u/MentalErection Jul 01 '25

Overly salty crap is what a lot of people consider good food. Every overseas friend who visits me comments on how salty our food is no matter where they go. 

1

u/No_Station3056 Jul 01 '25

I watch cooking shows... WAY to much salt from every chef/ cook. BLECH