Scalo Northern Italian Grill

I used to love this restaurant, but the quality has really gone down and the service was so so. Not worth the price.

The food was delicious and the service was great. The waitress was fast and our food came out nice and hot.

The food was delicious and the service was great. The waitress was fast and our food came out nice and hot.

Food was excellent as well as the service. Waitress was also excellent. Great service, great food, hope to come back again!

Food was excellent as well as the service. Waitress was also excellent. Great service, great food, hope to come back again!

The passion for good Italian food is apparent. I t is very nice getting to know your staff! They are all a dream!!

The passion for good Italian food is apparent. I t is very nice getting to know your staff! They are all a dream!!

The food was excellent, the staff was friendly, and all in all it was a wonderful dining experience.

Our server was great! We were hosting a lunch of elderly people and she could not have been more patient and understanding!!

Our server was great! We were hosting a lunch of elderly people and she could not have been more patient and understanding!!

We will certainly be back. The view here in just wonderful, except for the fogged windows.

Our server was great! We were hosting a lunch of elderly people and she couldn't have been more patient and accommodating.

We will certainly be back. The view here in just wonderful, except for the fogged windows.

Food was excellent. The staff was friendly. All in all it was a great dining experience.

Heidi was absolutely terrific - very professional - and interpersonally warm. Please give her a raise!!

Heidi was absolutely terrific - very professional - and interpersonally warm. Please give her a raise!!

Excellent food and service. Waitress was flexible and attentive to us.

Excellent food and service. Waitress was flexible and attentive to us.

Great managers there too.

We could not possibly have helped for a more fun, a more welcoming, or a more thoughtful venue for our homecoming and we could not possibly imagine a wedding anywhere else. Scalo was been home for us since even before Brooke began working their, in fact, the first time we had a formal dinner date there she poker her finger in my chest , jersey style, and told me she wanted to marry me! Steve thank you for all of your thoughtful help with the venue, for your cash gift and most of all for taking time out of your hectic schedule to join us. We are truly lucky to have you.

We could not possibly have helped for a more fun, a more welcoming, or a more thoughtful venue for our homecoming and we could not possibly imagine a wedding anywhere else. Scalo was been home for us since even before Brooke began working

Excellent menu for fat Tuesday. Waitress is great. Food great, Beer great.

Excellent menu for fat Tuesday. Waitress is great. Food great, Beer great.

Love your menu. Everything is wonderful from the food, to the servers, to the beer. I always have a wonderful time when I come here. I'll be seeing you soon.

Love your menu. Everything is wonderful from the food, to the servers, to the beer. I always have a wonderful time when I come here. I'll be seeing you soon.

Thank you for hosting our Lunches with Leaders. We especially appreciate you working with us to fit our budget. The food was delicious and the space was excellent. Thank you very much for the hospitality.

Thank you for hosting our Lunches with Leaders. We especially appreciate you working with us to fit our budget. The food was delicious and the space was excellent. Thank you very much for the hospitality.

A quick note of thanks for allowing our team to enjoy a wonderful meal with you last week. Your experience chef Natalie and the entire staff truly made us feel special. From the warm greeting, attentive service, and beautifully prepared dishes. A spectacular treat we will long remember. So glad you could join us too, your company was icing on the cake. Thanks for all you do.

A quick note of thanks for allowing our team to enjoy a wonderful meal with you last week. Your experience chef Natalie and the entire staff truly made us feel special. From the warm greeting, attentive service, and beautifully prepared

This place is AWESOME. This place serves amazing Northern Italian cuisine. If you are looking for lasagna or rigatoni go somewhere else. This is NOT a low class, run of the mill, factory with all the stereotypical Italian garbage so many think of when thinking Italian. This is the REAL McCoy - true, well cooked and elegant Italian cuisine the way you would find it in Milan. I have lived all over this country, and in much larger and nicer cities. However, Scalo makes Italian better than nearly every other place I have lived. Do yourself a favor - go there and see for yourself. The atmosphere is incredible, the food even better. This restaurant should be in New York or Chicago!

This place is AWESOME. This place serves amazing Northern Italian cuisine. If you are looking for lasagna or rigatoni go somewhere else. This is NOT a low class, run of the mill, factory with all the stereotypical Italian garbage so many

We took our whole family out to eat there for our daughters 16th birthday, and we had never eaten there before, we always liked trombinos for italian, but after the experience at scalos, weve changed our minds, the sea bass was melt in

I took my husband to Scalo for an early Valentine's dinner. I've always heard that it was one of the best fancy restaurants in Albuquerque, but I was very mistaken and embarrassed!
It's too bad because it has the perfect atmosphere.

I

!!!BEWARE!!! DO NOT EAT AT SCALLLOS
Went for a birthday dinner, ordered carpaccio appetizer which came WITH A LIVE WORM CRAWLING ON THE PLATE. The server took it back for investigation and said that "happens". Manager never came or

We tried this restaurant on Monday, which is half price wine night. I highly recommend the Cara Mia Pinot Noir, which comes in at $14 on half price night. I wrote a review about our food and service available on Associated Content. Search Lauren Blackketter and "Restaurants to Try Albuquerque New Mexico" (Citysearch wouldn't let me publish the link)

I was surprised to read all of the reviews about bad service. We eat here about twice a month, and love it. Twice, the manager has comped our entire food bill when our food orders have been delayed. They understand how to treat their regulars.

Terrible service, rude snotty waitress, no polite acknowledgement of our presence to even get someone to seat us! They also don't serve 21 year olds wine (even three days AFTER their birthday has passed) because according to the waittress it's their policy to not even bother with people who have one of those vertical New Mexico licenses. Thank you Scalos for ruining my sisters night out-you will never have our business or recommendation again.

The presentation is generally very nice & not too much on the plate. So you can enjoy an apertizer & an entree & even a dessert. A bit pricey but the food has always been very good.

The tables are linen covered, but then covered with butcher paper giving less than the ambiance of Carabas. The wine list is impressive, but they have none in stock. The bread was stale as we found that they do not bake it there. It is delivered weekly and heated there to make us think they baked it (nice). My in-laws recently visited us and my wife and I wanted to take them for a nice dinner. They saw a nice review of Scalo in the airline magazine, so off we went. What a mistake.. We arrive for our reservation to have the manager sit us at the front of the restaurant for over 30 minutes while being ignored and watching people who arrived after us without reservations seated prior to us. When I said something to the manager, she said "let me get you a glass of wine". I don't know where she obtained this wine, but it certainly was not from a bottle. Finally we are seated and when our food arrives after a short eternity, we faced further disappointment. The food (as they call it) was luke warm and substandard. The pastas were undercooked (not aldente, undercooked) and the meats were tough and tasteless, as if they had been frozen and refrozen. My mother-in-law could not even palate her $29 ribeye steak. When we requested assistance from our waiter, he went to the manager, and older woman whom we heard across the restaurant raised her voice to the waiter saying "I don't have time for their sh*t!!" never came to assist. Strangely, she was doing nothing but talking to the cook while having what appeared to be a cocktail. The waiter then went to another manager who was a very young looking woman who said, "I will be right there." She quickly disappeared into the bar where I later saw her sitting, never to return to our table. We were more than outraged and embarrassed. Finally, we chose to pay for our disappointing dinner and leave. The only person who even attempted to give us a good dinner was our waiter who I feel very sorry for. At least he cared enough to try......

This is small but nice place to take a business associate or a special one who likes italian that is prepared well (a lot better than the middle of the road Olive Garden). The staff I have encountered have always been professional. They do their job, but don't expect them to be these super friendly people either. The table staff appear to mostly college students working their way through. I have seen some negative feedback concerning rude and non-attentive wait persons. Fortunately, I haven't experienced this so far, so my own experience had been good. The lasgna plate is very good. Reservations may be necessary at times. They do get very busy. Parking can also be hard to get since it it's located in the Nob Hill area with parking at a premium due to some heavy shopping traffic in the same center. Definitely recommended.

The bread was stale and not warmed. The butter was very hard.
Lunch sandwiches were OK, but grilled bread was nearly burnt. Taste was quit good.

After the waiter picked up our bill and VISA, we did not see her for over 15 MINUTES!!!. Can you believe it?
We had to go find her. She was apparently in some sort of meeting. We think the staff was snooty, and not well trained.

We will not go back. My wufe says never! .

I have only had the pleasure of dining at Scalo's twice in the last year but each time has been a pleasant experience. I have ordered a pasta dish each time and both dishes were sublime. The wait staff was courteous and prompt. I did not feel pressured to eat my meal and run. I have only two complaints -the desserts are twice as large as necessary and the menu lacks a small dinner salad. You definitely need to have reservations on weekends during the school year (late August through May).

The staff needs to learn customer service skills. You would be fired if you worked in a real city! Bad Service!

I'm not from Albuquerque & was visiting from Texas. Since my friend & I were unsure of a good place to eat, we happened upon Scalo while exploring Knob Hill & thought it would be a nice place to go. It was around 5 p.m. on a weeknight. The restaurant was pretty empty except for a few people. The hostess escorted us past the main dining area & proceeded to take us upstairs to a dining room with about four tables. To add insult to injury, there was no one upstairs & the main dining room downstairs was pretty much empty. Now I admit, that we weren't exactly dressed to the nines, but we looked like just about everyone else in the area in jeans & sweaters. My friend & I sat at the table, looked at the menu & decided to leave. Never before have I been "hidden" in a restaurant. I would not recommend this place to anyone. I also noticed another couple get up & leave. I knew they hadn't eaten b/c the waitress asked, "Leaving so soon?"

they offer common italian food, pasta, pizza, salad... but you can get the same thing done at home easily also, what is the point of paying so much money and tip for that. their pasta is boring, with tomato sauce, common spice like basil and oregano, and that is it.
salad is fine, but the olive oil is not very tasty in it, probably it is not extra virgin.
the only good thing is the coffee, you really feel the strong taste of capuccino and espresso. maybe it will be good if they open in the morning and you can get a sip before work.

PROS: coffee
CONS: pasta

but not this bad. though the food is pretty good, it's not worth dealing with snooty new mexico waiters. we had to ask the bus boy where our waiter was maaaany times and waited an hour to get our bill while we sweated it out in the upstairs area. having just moved here from new york city you would think that this bad service would make me homesick... but there is fashionably bad service and then there is scalo. after this waiter at last brought us our bill he pointed out that we owed him at least 18% for a large party before we even paid. so tacky. i wouldn't rush back.

While in Albuquerque on business, my associates and I have visited this restaurant each year. It is the highlight of our trip.

an absolute unexpedted surprise both for quality and price - creative, full of flavor and imagination and first rate ingredients - even the homemade cookie selection was wonderful. Skip Santa Fe and eat here....

If you are looking for great Italian, you might have found it. This is the biggest problem with Scalo, the food. Someiimes great, sometimes very mediocre. Same holds true for the staff. Diligent yes, hard working, yes, but...the management is extremely horrifying and this reflects through the waitstaff's poor attitudes and unwillingness to accommadate.

SCALO is Italian. If you are looking for a silly preoccupation with a wine list (in a city ignorant of wines), a McDonalds refined waitstaff experimenting with pretense, and truly continental Mid-West, American-Italian food, Scalo is the place. They recently erected a cage-like enclosure around the patio to protect their nouveau-riche clientele from the surrounding community. "It's Gated!" What a bonus! Gate to gate.