Sardines Ristorante Italiano, Fort Worth

My husband took me there for my birthday July '10. The lighting was dim and there was a live 3 piece jazz band. We enjoyed the cozy atmosphere and good music. Despite other reviews, we were pleased with our service and food. Looking forward to our next visit.

Well with the dim lighting it was hard to spot...but they brought my wife RAW chicken. A good 1/2" of the middle of the chicken breast on the chicken marsala was uncooked. Wow..cant believe the chef doesnt know how to poke a finger in the chicken to see if it's done? Sent it back..and no second chances with that level of incompetence. We shared the spicy seafood spaghetti which turned out to be very overcooked. The service was great and the jazz band was cool. But the food was just terrible. The girls were right..just go to Olive Garden and save yourself from food poisoning.

My last visit there tonight, the evening of May 9, 2009 a was a particularly bad experience. My wife and I arrived early in the evening at approximately 6 PM. The restaurant was at less than 25% capacity. Tonight marked our 12th wedding anniversary. The floor tables at Sardines are only about 2 feet X 2 feet square and so we were allowed to sit at two adjoining tables, by our request, as we usually order a lot of extras and are both large people. It was not a problem as there were empty tables in abundance all around because it was so early. After we ate our appetizers and awaited our dinners to be served, and while we were enjoying our mixed drinks, a young man, seemingly in charge of Sardines this evening, approached our table with a hostess lady. The woman came to the table, handed my wife her bag and proceeded to remove the table telling my wife that they needed it. The young man stated that “We are overbooked and have a party coming and need this table. You are OK with this?” I told him I was not, and it went totally downhill from there. He implied that I would have to be OK with it and kept trying to get me to agree it was fine to burden us with his poor scheduling problems. What I feel I was a victim of was a lazy effort to find a table to use from among the many other empty ones there, and some good old fashion rudeness to what might have first been thought an easy to push around elderly couple. Wrong move mister! The idea of handing my wife her bag while she was sipping her drink was truly bad manners, disrespectful, and extremely poor judgment on the part of the Sardines restaurant staff. member. The table was taken from us and moved about six feet away with a constant harangue from the young fellow about how it would just have to be, and he was sorry for the inconvenience, and he could see that I was upset, basically making a public showing of his position. What really upset me was the fact of his condescending attitude, and the fact that there were literally dozens of unoccupied tables all around the facility, many of them being single tables, so I know that other empty tables could have been utilized from elsewhere except for the lazy factor.. Their poor planning should not be an excuse for rudeness, inconvenience to actively dining persons, and panic measures for an “emergency” that was nothing close to justifying the absurd situation, and I clearly told him so. We asked for our check and promptly proceeded to pay for what we had consumed, canceling our dinner orders. On the way out, we were again confronted by the young man and he again tried to explain to me his reason for having to inconvenience my wife and I. Again, we exchanged words ad I was clear in telling him that there was no correct or justifiable excuse for poor service and his efforts to placate me with his “charm” was not helping matters. He himself did not know when to stop so I finally had to flatly tell him that further communication between us was finished so I could just get out of there as soon as possible. Obviously, I will not recommend this restaurant to anyone in the near future. Instead, I will try to warn others of the sometimes obvious lack of professionalism and overly abundance of immaturity that was evident to myself and others in attendance at Sardines Ristorante Italian , 509 University Drive in Fort Worth Texas, on this evening. Hopefully, Sardines will try to get back to their old standards of treating the customer as a guest and remembering that the staff is the overhead to help the customer’s visit as enjoyable as possible. Sardines Ristorante Italian , 509 University Drive in Fort Worth Texas, used to be a really enjoyable place. Tonight?... not so much.

It's funny how when one person has a bad experience they exaggerate everything. Sardines is hands down the best southern italian food paired with live jazz trio's to quartets in good ol' Fort Worth. It's survived being sucked up by eminent domain over near the Art museums and the massive influx of chain restaurants in the area. Supporters of local and independent businesses in the area should be proud to call Sardines a friend. First off, if it took 40 minutes to get your drinks you must have called ahead and shown up early or late. Small restaurants can get thrown for a loop when the whole restaurant is packed and then 14 people come in early or late--this is the purpose of a reservation. The fact that you said "you almost walked out" really shows how classy you are. I've been out not just to Sardines but other restaurants as well, and if I ate the food and drank the drinks-- I pay for what I ordered. I cannot beleive you would even have the audacity to walk out on a table of 14. To boot, if it took 45 minutes to get your checks maybe you should have mentioned that each person in the party required seperate checks. I used to wait tables, and this is hell if someone tells you at the last minute "oh yeah all of the food and alcohol for the entire table is going to be on seperate checks." I mean what do you expect...Magic? Maybe you should stick to your chain restaurants madame where they will gladly let your kind eat for free when you actually ate the food and are just ticked off. Don't let these people deter you, no where else in the area can you find pasta with fresh mussels, scallops, shrimp, fish, and clams in a spicy red sauce. Or maybe some rack of lamb combobulation the chef has decided the serve to the patrons for the night. Not to mention excellent tiramasu and chocolate cheesecake. All served to you in front of a LIVE JAZZ BAND. I can't think of any other place like this in Fort Worth and I hope it stays here as long as I do! Yes, selfish I know. But I LOVE MY SARDINES!

We just had a event for 25 people and everything was great, The service was top notch as always, we booked our party through their event planner Lisa and it went great.The food is awesome if you like steak you have to try the Chateaubriand this steak will give the best steak house's a run for the money.The atmosphere is eclitic but elegant great for business or romance.my wife and i dine there almost wekly and will keep doing so.

...three and a half hours of my life and can never get back...the waiter was horrible and the manager did not care...please look at the dates....the atmosphere is a ploy to lure you in.. It took 40 minutes to get water and our drink orders taken...Only half the table got waters because they were washing the glasses...we never got what we asked for...several people had to go to the bar to get their own drinks..the first drink was great...the second barely had any alcohol... after another 30 minutes we finally ordered...an hour later 10 of the 14 people got their food...the others were out of luck...my husband NEVER got his food...when we asked what the deal was the waiter didnt even know what my husband had ordered... the waiter would leave for half hour at a time....we ordered dessert only to have it dropped on 2 of my guests and to have the waiter yell" OH $hit".... When we asked for our tickets he it took 45 for us to wait and find a manager to complain to...he was absolutely no help...he said "well what do you want me to do about it".... We could've walk out on a thousand dollar food bill and they never wouldve noticed which we are kicking ourselves for not doing....the manager wanted us to go back so he could make it up to us....Yeah Right...like we would ever go back.... I told him that the waiter didnt give a crap about how he serviced us because he knew no matter how bad he was he was going to get his 150.00 tip... SKIP THIS PLACE....THE AMBIANCE IS A SMOKE SCREEN...IT IS OVERPRICED FOR THE FOOD AND THE SERVICE IS T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E...

I love this place. the atmosphere is a little homelike yet very romantic. During the week the music is very relaxing yet on the weekend it is very ubeat with the 3-4 piece jazz band. My favorite is the chataeubriand. this is to die for. The service is great.

This restaurant used to be our farvorite Italian place to dine however service continues to go downhill. We arrived at our reservation time of 7:30, ordered a $40.00 bottle of wine, ordered our food (nothing fancy). By 9:00 pm still no food howowever 3 other tables seated after us received their food. We left paying for onlyh the wine - No tip. Its a shame. This used to be a good place to dine. we will give our business elsewhere.

Wonderful little Italian Restaurant! Great for dates, romantic piano playing accompanying your meal. The seafood pasta (which is what I order every visit I've made there, although I cannot remember the actual name of the dish) is incredible. A lil bit pricy I suppose but they give you an enormous amount of food, and I swear the pasta almost tastes better the 2nd day when re-heated in the oven at around 150 degrees. If you like Italian, you have to get to Sardine's, you'll love it. The only downside is after eating here you can't really stomach corporate American Italian such as Olive Garden any more...a small price to pay.

Never ever been moved to write about any dining experience until now. Sardine's is simply "Ambience in Motion" and an outstanding experience. The food is delicious, the portions are hearty, the taste is tantalizing and the wine flows. The piano music is soft and yet jazzy and supplements the courtesy of the waiters and the decor of the surroundings. It is a laid back place with outstanding dishes whether fish, steaks , or pasta and dare yourself to order something with a seafood garnish. Sardines' would compliment any city in America with it's style and culinary excellence. Greg Bednarik