Sarducci’s Creekside

Pizza gets 4 stars. The rest of the menu looked great. Very friendly owner and staff. If we ski up here again we’ll be back.

So we had heard about a new Italian place that opened up around Shanty, we finally made it there and unfortunately we won’t be going again.
First, the bread they brought out looked good, oddly shaped but had that golden browning look that fresh bread should have. But once I cut into it, I knew there was something wrong, not done. Almost the entire inside of the loaf was uncooked.
I picked at the crust (I was starving) and in doing so I also came to the realization that the bread had no real flavor.
I’m a bread baker and one time, I was in a hurry, I forgot to add salt to the bread. Salt is super important for bread.
I asked for a new loaf, and the next one was more done, but still not done-​done. That style of bread won’t have a crumb like sandwich bread, but still I know undercooked bread. This load also, had almost no taste. As per the fineness, this loaf was Super hot, like almost burned my fingers hot.
Enough about the bread it was free, but I bring it up for the management there. I imagine due to the shape, this bread is made there, also because of the lack of taste, factory bread will have more flavor and more uniform shape.
My advice, make sure enough salt is put in the dough and properly dissolved for even distribution. Lastly on the bread, cook smaller loaves, serve two if you need to, but this will ensure they are done and also means they will reheat faster without the need to turn them into a hazard.
Onto the food.
We had the seared tuna appetizer. The grade of tuna they used was good. But the tuna seemed like it had been seared earlier and maybe lightly reheated, as it was not cold and was not warm and was fairly evenly heated vs having warm outside and chilled pink center.
My wife’s wedge salad was good.
My prosciutto pizza was not bad, scale of 1 – 10, solid 7, maybe an 8. The basil was flavorful, the prosciutto was good, I loved the sauce. But the crust, sometimes my most favorite part of a good pizza, was bland and flavorless. Makes me wonder if the free bread and pizza dough share a common dough, not uncommon for a pizza joint. Lastly, the dough was not done for every piece, so cooking a few more minutes would have made it perfect.
My wife had the mahi, asked for the cream sauce on the side. The first plate served had sauce on it. The replacement plate had the sauce on the side, great sauce btw. The mahi was fine, not terrible, nothing spectacular. The asparagus was done perfectly and the cherry tomatoes were good.
Due to the ‘wait’ they knocked 10% off and the service was great, our waitress was helpful and attentive. But for the price, $ 45 meal after discount with no drinks or desert, the quality of the food is just so subpar.
So yeah, last time we will go there.
I was hopeful, as my meal at the River Bistro had been great, I know their different restaurants and possibly different owners, but general proximity I was hoping for a raised bar of sorts on the food.

Never had a bad meal. I love that I can eat outside also. The staff is friendly and accommodating.
I am getting hungry just writing this.

Great staff and a very creative chef. This young man has some excellent, unexpected food pairings and creations. They are making thrive own pizza dough as well. It is attached to a nice little coffee, ice cream shop, has a great little outside courtyard for relaxing, and shares space with Shanty Bar. You can order fro Sarducci’s and eat in, on the courtyard, or at Shanty Bar.

We’ve been coming to shanty creek and Bellaire for over ten years. Places come and go. We enjoyed our meal at Sarducci’s so we really would like it to succeed. My Cobb salad was very good. My dining partner enjoyed his shrimp served over a corn fritter and side salad with green goddess dressing.

The food is amazing! Tuna appetizer was really good & sandwiches were to die for! The staff was very friendly! They were very accommodated to our group of 10 (including 3 small children).