Sauce Italian Bistro & Bar

Decided to check out this place with a groupon. Groupon fine print state «not valid for happy hour specials» so we went for a late lunch at 2:30pm. Pulled into the parking lot and thought the place was closed. There weren’t any cars in the parking lot and the building looks kind of abandoned. We walked in, and we were greeted promptly, however we weren’t sure if we were going to stay because the there was no one else in the restaurant. We looked at the menu and decided to give it a try since we had a groupon! We started with the spinach and artichoke dip, it appeared to be made with fresh spinach and was served with delicious bread. Then we ordered three lunch specials, two classic panini’s with salad and a grilled cheese with tomato soup. Everything was pretty good. When we were ready to pay we were told our groupon was not valid for lunch specials, so we paid full price and got a refund on our groupon. Overall ok place, but strange we were the only people there for the entire hour we spent there. Giving three stars for ambience and because we couldn’t use our groupon.

How is it this place seems to be slow?!
We ordered delivery off eat24 and it came super fast! The guy was also super friendly and nice. I hope more people give him a big tip like we did, lord knows driving around in the heat isn’t fun. Plus my food was still SO FRESH AND HOT!
The prices seemed fair to me and the portions were great. I enjoyed everything that we ordered.
Only thing I did not love was the type of Lettuce paired with the antipasto salad but the veggies meat and cheese were plenty and so delicious and fresh!
I highly recommend and cannot wait to dine in

If you could give a place negative stars I would, I placed an order from eats 24. Est time was 50 – 60, the order was placed at 9:30 then it was extended to 2hrs a delivery of 11:02 pm and after 11:45 my food didn’t arrive the restaurant closed. my order was finally cancelled by eats after 2hrs and 45 min. My order arrived after midnight, it was incorrectly made had tomatoes that I’m allergic to. Noting in the order was even ordered with tomatoes. I’m having an allergic reaction to it and there is no one to take responsibility.

First and foremost the man that sat us at our table was dressed in his pajamas. The wait staff was pleasant and friendly. I ordered a Dr. Pepper and it was flat, not a huge deal, and got a coke instead. The bruschetta was interesting (pictured) I wouldn’t order it again but it was decent. The fried calamari was good, however fried food is hard to mess up. I ordered the eggplant rollatini (pictured) it was pretty good. My girlfriend ordered the Mediterranean salad. This was absolutely disgusting, their house made creamy lemon dressing was definitely old and spoiled. We sent the entire salad back. It was not taken off of my bill. That upset me a little because we sent the entire salad back but I didn’t say anything. This was just an average dining experience and I wouldn’t recommend it.

I really wanted to like this place, I mean, who doesn’t like Italian food, but they leave a lot to be desired.
Let me start by saying, I am gluten free and they are NOT a gluten friendly restaurant. Most restaurants in today’s day and age have quite a few items on the Gluten Menu including Italian restaurants. Sauce however, had 1 pasta and 1 sauce, they didn’t even have a menu and barely knew how to handle the question of gluten free. My family ordered an appetizer (which was burnt), we paid and left.
Sorry Sauce, but until you fix your menu, we won’t be back!

Despite the disparity in star ratings and with 260 reviews currently sitting in the «not recommended» bin (meaning a high probability of fake accounts), I still wanted to give SAUCE a shot. The biggest issue seems to be with third-​party delivery services, so we planned to dine in instead. With its namesake, I was expecting the sauce to be a little more discerning, but sadly it wasn’t anything special. «Meh. I’ve experienced better» on Unilocal means 2 stars.
AMBIANCE: Like a toddler trying on his dad’s shoes, this place is too big for itself. The wooden floors, warm red walls, and large limestone art pieces definitely were nice. They even had mini sky murals like the Venetian, but overall it felt cavernous and museum-​like. Especially when it’s dinner time and there’s only one other table eating. Cue the tumbleweed.
SERVICE: Friendly, but not very fast. It’s a head scratcher because there was no one there! The other table had their own server. The massive bar had only two people seated, and even so, they had the bartender all to themselves. Where do the servers go in their spare time?
FOOD: We ordered the garlic knots as appetizers. I can say these were the best part of our meal — served fresh and piping hot! My bf had the spaghetti & meatballs, while I had the bolognese lasagna. First impression: the sauce looks so watery. I didn’t care much for it, but the ricotta and meat were good. I tried my bf’s dish and it was too bland for me. Even their drinks tasted watered-​down. Our cups and silverware had visible water spots.
Overall, I’d say get the Groupon if you really want to give them a try. They might have better dishes than the ones we ordered, but for me, I’d take Olive Garden. Check please!

A little disappointed with this restaurant. We called ahead of time to confirm reservations and vegan friendly meals. When we arrive the waitress had no idea if they even served vegan and gluten free options. She basically blew us off and since my mom has celiac it was pertinent we had celiac friendly meals. The chef has posted all over social media that this place is friendly. The end of it all we left very disappointed.

Let me start by saying that the food was not awful. It was okay but nothing spectacular. We ordered 2 appetizers and 3 entrees. My review is primarily on an incident that happened and the reaction and follow up of the restaurant. We had just been served our entrees and I reached down to grab my napkin from my lap when I noticed a little (and by little, I mean huge) something crawling up my leg. I will be honest… I don’t do bugs at all. And when I am dining and there is one just nonchalantly crawling up my leg, well… All 3 of us jumped up and quickly exited the booth. I went to the bathroom because I was paranoid enough to believe that it had ended up in my purse when I swept it off my leg. My friends had asked before I left if I wanted to go (which is what I should have done) or stay. I chose stay because I knew I would have to pay for this meal either way and I may as well try to eat. When I came back, my friends had moved to a new table and told me they told one of the servers but not ours. When our server came back (finally) we told her what had happened and she was apologetic but then disappeared for forever again.
I don’t know about you but once I have a cockroach on me, I kind of lose my appetite. So I picked at my food and asked for a box. The box never came… it was probably hiding with the appetizer plates we were told were coming but never came. Right before she gave us our check, my buggy little friend decided to make another appearance in the middle of the floor. At this point, enough is enough. The server grabbed a napkin and quickly got it off the floor then proceeded to give us our check. My friend checked to see if anything had been done for the trouble of having a cockroach crawl up my leg and it hadn’t. So we asked for something to be done. Yes, the manager took off a percentage. It didn’t even take off the price of my meal. To me, that was a bit of a slap in the face since even the server saw the little critter on their floor.
I don’t think I ever saw another review about a bug problem so this may be a fluke thing. I mean, we live in the desert and there are roaches. However, the restaurant had 4 other tables filled and we still couldn’t get anyone to throw us a box or appetizer plates and there was easily 3 servers, that in and of itself made me not want to return. You add the little friend that crawled up my leg and it is kind of a done deal that I won’t be returning. Hope you have a better experience!

So after my last review I decided to order out a few times since then. A PERFECT SCORE STILL STANDS PEOPLE. My delivery time each and every order so far has been well within reasonable timing and the food has been warm and yummy every time! I even ordered a huge order my last time for a big get together and everything arrived just as ordered. I’ll be a repeat customer no doubts about it!
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Yikes, previous reviews really ripped this place a new one, but I’ve gotta say… We have a great experience. Contrary to previous issues, our server/​bartender was tentative, polite and friendly. The food came out in fair time and was WOW surprisingly delicious. Bar food with a bit of culinary spritz. I dig it. We will be back again for sure. And it’s so close to the mall… Perfect lunch time meet up spot.

Honestly the worst take out I’ve ever had. Ever time we try to give them another chance for take out it comes close to two hours late and the food is soggy and/​or bland.
You’re better off going to Angelina’s Pizzeria where food does arrive fresh and is close to authentic Italian food.

Was a great place and good was good no longer living in the area anymore but when we are will be back

This was an interesting find. My friends had ordered take out and really liked it, so they wanted to try dining in. When we first arrived, they placed us in the dining area, but the guys wanted to be closer to the TVs, more in the middle of the restaurant and closer to the bar (figures!). The waitress did not mind us moving at all.
I checked in here on Unilocal and had a free appetizer to redeem — hooray! We ordered the pizza fries and an additional pesto stuffed cheese. The fries were good but in the middle, a little soggy — only because there is so much cheese/​toppings/​sauce on it. Don’t get me wrong, we ate it all up! The pesto stuffed cheese was excellent and we almost ordered more.
It takes a lot for a salad to WOW me but their Mediterranean salad was really tasty! It was the perfect addition to our two pizzas: meat lovers and a margherita. Honestly, my mouth is watering just writing this review again. I imagine that we’ll go back! Their menu had fun spins on classic Italian and Pizza shop items, yet still offered the classics.
They also have a Cigar Bar, and I know the guys would have loved to check it out, but we just weren’t up for it that night. As we started to leave, more people started to come in which was nice to see. I was a little worried when the big place wasn’t so filled at the start of our meal. I hope this place sticks around!

Sauce sucks. I have ordered delivery twice and both times the toppings on the pizza were wrong as well as the toppings slid to one side of the pizza. The delivery driver did not come with change on the 1^st order and asked me to let him keep the change which was $ 10.00 because he was unwilling to go get change. I thought maybe the 1^st experience was a fluke so I ordered again. 2^nd time was worse. Food cold. Pizza toppings wrong and on one side of the pizza. Panini sloppy and undercooked and the bonus chicken wings were raw and we ended up sick. I demanded a refund which they agreed and have yet to give me. They have been reported to the health dept and the BBB. The manager Kelly has no customer service skills and a guy named Rich (possibly the owner) he is horrible and told me to fuck off when I called for my refund.

I know you see mixed reviews on here but DONT DO IT. You will waste your money 100% guaranteed !!!
Never eat here and if your thinking of a late night delivery do not pick this place through eat24. The food was delivered an hour and a half past the hour time frame window eat 24 already claimed it would be. Then when the food arrived and not a single item was warm, nor even edible.
We through the entire 80 dollars worth of food into the trash. I wish I had pictures because the ones on here are not how our food looked…
And considering the fact that the manager Kelly did not want to create a happy returning customer and fix this situation was even more of joke.
If you order from here you will regret it. You mine as well eat the cash in your wallet because their food tastes the same… and it’s probably just as sanitary

Rating based on 2 delivery orders. First time was totally a 1 – 2 star experience. Dry rubbery chicken, flavorless pasta… This 2^nd time was great, 4 – 5 star even. Tried their 97.5 combo based on them being their popular items and figure if they’re actually good then that could redeem my first bad experience. Chimichanga was a nice fusion item. I don’t see how some consider it filling enough for 3 people. Decent size for one person though. The pesto pasta was good, as good as anything my dad would make (half Italian). Only gave one meatball despite the description saying meatballs, it was good so was disappointed they only gave one. Wings were different. Good but not what I was expecting.
As for service. Both times the delivery has taken longer than expected (90 minutes turned into 110 min or so and we don’t live that far). The box the pasta came in was plastic wrapped and smashed in, leaving sauce in-​between the box and plastic wrap. Was able to open without a huge mess but still something they need to consider during deliveries. If I recall I had the same issue the first order as well. New to go containers for the pasta maybe or just try to keep the pasta boxes on top if possible…
Overall, I think I might try it again and hope anyone who had a bad experience does the same.

There for lunch today. From the parking lot, we could not be sure that they were even open. Appeared to be only one waitress in the restaurant– working as host, bartender, and waitress. There was one other table being helped. We ordered beers, a pasta dish, and Tuscan panino. We got the beers quickly, but it took over 30 minutes to get our ordered dishes. A couple who came in about 15 minutes after us was served first!
Country-​style music playing way to loud. Possibly because of lack of diners the reverberation was painful at times.
My panino was only OK. Bread was so hard it was difficult to cut and chew even after sitting in the juices from the tomatoes and artichoke hearts. Pasta was adequate.
Definitely not the place to go for lunch if you only have 30 – 60 minutes.
Won’t go again.

After one visit at lunch and one visit during dinner visit in the last two months, Sauce is A-​OK. Various coupons/​discounts are available for sauce which we used on both visits. Groupon $ 18 for $ 30 was used on the first visit and Unilocal deal $ 50 voucher for $ 25, which was found on the Unilocal app, was used on the second visit.
On our first lunchtime visit, we were sat in the bar area and I took the recommendations of our server Bernadette. For the appetizer, we had the pepperoni stuffed fried cheese. For entrees, my wife had the California panini and I had the Italian chimichanga. The common thread with our appetizer and my entrée was the mix of pesto cream sauce and the tomato based marinara and arrabbiata sauces. I didn’t think that was a good pairing. I might have the fried cheese again but without the pesto cream sauce. I wouldn’t get the chimichanga again. There’s too many ingredients (meatballs, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, mozzarella, and feta along with the arrabbiata and creamy pesto sauces) that just didn’t meld well together.
On our second visit, we were seated on a Saturday night with one other table in the dining room. We ordered the kids fettuccine alfredo, the sauce sea bass (they were out of sea bass and salmon was substituted), and the create your pasta consisting of fettuccine, signature red sauce, meatball, roasted garlic, and mushrooms. If you’re a garlic fan and not looking for any kind of make out session after dinner, order roasted garlic with your pasta. There were a total of about ten cloves of garlic in my pasta. For dessert, we had the zeppoli which was probably the best dish of the meal. Even with the lack of business, service was still slow. Everything was OK with this visit with nothing being bad, but nothing being that memorable.
The menu is large with a mix of traditional dishes and different creations so it’s highly probable to find something of your liking. We just didn’t score with either of our visits. I’d come back here if we had a discount or deal as we did with our previous visits and maybe we might find the dish that is right for us.

It always a five.
Between the staff
The food
The owners
It’s perfect.
I’ve had everything from apps to full blown meals and dessert
I recommend the garlic knots and fried and charred wings
The chimichanga or chicken parm
And the New York style cheese cake
You can’t go wrong guys!!!

Went here tonight cause we had a Groupon and that was one of the worst Gorupon we have ever had.
First: The waitress Kelly had zero personality, I ordered a Summer’s Shandy and she brings me a Miler Light.
Second: The appetizer was a frozen bagged Arrincini, it was mush in the middle and not even good.
Third: Kelly brings over the pizza and small saucers, never have I ever see this. She off no cheese, red pepper nothing. She does not even bring a pizza cutter for us, so we used the butter night.
I dont think we will ever go back, from the moment we sat down to the to the time Kelly left for the day, Gerta took over out table and it was much better to see a smile on a servers face. It was a horrible experience. Very poor service (Kelly) and food. Was hoping it would better.

I was torn between three and four so I will round up based on my two positive dining experiences here.
I actually think this is a pretty good restaurant, but I’m not sure how anyone is finding them. They are in the parking lot of the Galleria Mall, but on the back side across the lot from Kohl’s. This is less than five minutes from our house and we didn’t know they were there. How did we find them? My parents were in town and they like to drive every single street in the area looking to see what restaurants and shops we have that they don’t have in Ohio. They came back from their scouting mission and insisted we try this place.
We have enjoyed all of the food items that we have tried here. On first visit (dinner) I had the Mediterranean salad which had a very tasty creamy lemon dressing that was memorable. I don’t recall what my parents and husband had that night, but I do remember everyone enjoyed their food and said they’d return.
Our most recent visit was for lunch on a Saturday. I had the steak salad special which was steak on a bed of spinach with mandarin oranges, gorgonzola, and a carmelized onion dressing. The salad was delicious and the steak on top was very flavorful and well prepared. My husband had the lasagna and really enjoyed it. I tasted some and thought the bite I tried was delicious. Both of our meals were generous portions and we thought the pricing was reasonable for the portions.
The service yesterday was a little awkward. I’m only mentioning it because I think the food is good and I’d like to see this place stay in business. Our waitress was also the hostess yesterday. She seemed really annoyed during the time we were there. She wasn’t rude to us, but she wasn’t friendly either. I did think she was a little short with the table next to us and they didn’t do anything to deserve it. My suggestion would be that you put more emphasis on good service so that people want to go out of their way to dine here.