Sabatiello's Kitchen Nightmares DeBriefing

1. I made the cut. The owner serves us steak, and I, smiling like an idiot, watch my husband cut into his steak. While the steak was good, the middle was undercooked, as were many of the steaks you saw served on the show.

2. I highly doubt that being on Kitchen Nightmares will give the resto a boost as the owner hoped. The show portrayed an Italian Steak House whose chef cannot cook a medium steak. Maybe the chef has figured it out by now, but I am too scared to go back and see. I'm afraid the owner will recognize me and ask me a question about the show. If someone else can go check out the steaks and report back, I'd be so grateful.

3. A lot of commenters on the previous post thought that Sammy came across looking like a jerk, but I bet a lot of owners are tyrannical when they have a million dollars sunk into a place.

4. The only horrifying thing to me was charging high prices for food that was not the quality that was promised: selling a lower quality steak than listed, charging $29 for sole with imitation crabmeat, and reheating week-old lasagna. What's the point of eating out? I can get better food for cheaper, and I can microwave a frozen lasagna dinner at home for 3 bucks.

5. I was happy to see that the kitchen was clean-- except for the raw chicken right beside the cooked, which Gordon Ramsay freaked over.

6. I think it's awkward that the main dining area is upstairs. Even if upstairs is full, the resto will look empty if people are not downstairs. Nobody wants to risk being the only one eating in a resto; people like to see who's there before they commit.

7. The show made me nostalgic for Dunn's Loft, the steak house that had a brief, glorious, rollicking run on Summer before it went down because, like Sabatiello's, there just was not the business to offset the high rent. However, at Dunn's, the steak was delicious and the atmosphere far more celebratory.

Related posts:

--Jan 2008-- Stamford Restaurant: Dunn’s Loft... Steak!
--March 2008--Stamford Steak Awards 2008
--Feb 2008--My experience with the TV show: Gordon Ramsey, Cleavage, Me, and a Kitchen Nightmare in Stamford