La Scala Taylor

Thursday night birthday dinner for me. Reservations through OpenTable. This is a small, quaint Italian restaurant located downtown Taylor Texas. The atmosphere is intimate and I quite enjoyed the ambiance. Although not busy at all, my first impression was positive. My wife and I were seated at a table adjacent to the street window. Since it was my birthday I wanted to splurge for a bottle of wine and ordered a bottle only to be informed they were out of stock. I looked again while the waiter recommended several bottles in the $70-$80 per bottle price range. I switched my order to a bottle of Querceto ($39), a French made red table wine. Absolutely delicious. What a great wine (in my humble opinion).Next it was time for an appetizer and I wanted to try the Prosciutto wrapped Figs. The waiter then informed me they were out of figs. So, needless to say we are not being impressed with two out of two items so far not in stock. I then settled on the Goat Cheese Filled Ravioli ($16). The presentation was good with four pieces topped with an in house marinara. We each tried the ravioli only to be disappointed in the flavor profile. There was very little goat cheese and the ravioli itself was like day old bread: hard, chewy, and just not very good. I will say the in house marinara almost made up for it by being flavorful and plentiful. But no, I expected a much better prepared ravioli. Not good.The restaurant is trying to change up the menu and offer different entrée selections on a rotating basis. My wife had the beef tips ($28) in a yogurt based sauce on top of yellow rice with asparagus. The dish was presented cold. The rice was severely overcooked. The yogurt sauce lacked any discernable flavor profile and the asparagus was unremarkable. This being the signature dish of the evening, it was a real disappointment and entirely forgettable. The highlight of the evening was my dish. I had the Italian sausage with homemade pasta in an in house marinara. The sausage could have been broken into slightly smaller pieces and there was not much pasta but the marinara was spot on. The dish was presented hot and had an excellent flavor profile. The portion was ideal and I found myself thinking this should be the signature dish. We spent $131 with tax and tip. Service was good and not intrusive. The server was knowledgeable and thoughtful. Since we started the service with two "out of stock" acknowledgements and the appetizer was quite frankly bad plus the beef tips were much less than expectations, I can only give 2 stars. Having said that, I would try this establishment once more. I fully support small businesses especially in a small town. I want them to succeed but for over $100 I also expect a better meal.

Disappointing time at our yearly time back in Taylor and going to La Scala. Seemed like they changed chefs or owners or something, because it was definitely different and not as flavorful as previous times and the bread was super hard. Service was still wonderful.

This is *such* an adorable looking trattoria, and I wanted so much to love it for an out of the way date night. Unfortunately, it's another example of a place where the food quality doesn't really match the service or the ambiance -- and doesn't merit the prices being charged. They were out of some of the selections we ordered, so we tried other items, and some of it just wasn't good (like the mufaletta cheesecake -- that recipe should not have passed through R&D). You can tell a lot about an Italian restaurant just by their sauce, and it just didn't hit the right notes for me.

Ambiance & service are a 4, but the food has gone downhill, 2 at best. Everything reminds me of institutional food you might get in a cafeteria - dry, crumbly bread, jarred sauce, low quality cheese, with a 'fancy demi glaze' drizzled on everything in an attempt to elevate it. We want to love this cute local place so much, but after a few recent visits of 2* food, it's not a place we want to continue spending our money.

Amazing food here. The service is excellent. The wine menu is great! The atmosphere is really cozy and small. Only like 12 tables in the whole house it's decorated wonderfully. I really love their unique takes on classic Italian dishes.

Great food, amazing service and a cool vibe. We had the hot goat cheese appetizer, cesar salad, filet and house wine. Everything was great. Done properly, deep with flavor but not over-dressed. The service was prompt and engaging. We enjoyed their outdoor seating since we had our pup. I will return next time in town.

My husband and I dined here for the first time celebrating our wedding anniversary. The food was excellent! I got the shrimp piccata. The polenta was the creamiest I've ever had and the flavor of the shrimp was so good. The bread and dipping oil that were brought to the table was warm and soft. My husband got the spaghetti and meatballs. Both portions were enough that we took some home. We will come back for another special occasion. The prices were more than we can usually afford but for a special celebration it was worth it.

We had a wonderful experience at La Scala. Tucked into a beautiful old brick building, the service was friendly and food was delicious! We thoroughly enjoyed the pasta and left with smiles.

We have been wanting to try this out for a while. Unfortunately, we were severely underwhelmed. My gnocchi was ok, the risotto was just chicken with rice, not very flavorful, and their version of tiramisu was dry and not very flavorful. Better service could have also helped, we were the only customers and we felt like we were bothering the staff by being there. I don't ever want to give a bad review, particularly to a local establishment- especially in a town of chicken strips and hamburgers. However, the food and service were just not on par. I hope others continue to have great experiences here and if we hear more great things, we will give another chance and an edited review.

I am loving this new menu. The orange lentil soup was super good. I went ahead and got the Mediterranean pasta for my entree The Bear Monday is a delicious white fish I got the pasta with the marinara sauce It was really good. The service was excellent as usual. Michael tended to all of our needs and went above and beyond to make sure we were satisfied. The raspberry tiramisu was the delicious take on a tiramisu. big fan of the limoncello liqueur.