Sal’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria

Sals is a great Italian restaurant with tons of variety for a good price. The calzones and salads are top notch. The prices are very fair. The service has always been friendly. The only problem I have with sals is when I have to make your order custom there will always be an overload or lack of a certain ingredients.

We’ve dined here a couple of times and gotten take out once. Food has been mediocre each time. We’ve had three different pizzas on two of the visits: margarita, Pisano and the works. They use canned mushrooms and roasted red peppers and artichoke hearts from jars. This results in very soggy pizza dough in the middle. The pizzas are overpriced and they use poor quality pizza ingredients… chicken parm dinner had two chicken patties that were processed and previously frozen. For what they charge, these should be actual chicken breasts that are hand breaded. Salad was drenched in thick, greasy Cesar dressing. Make sure you check the balance if you pay using a gift card. We didn’t and realized that the server took our balance of 50.00 when we dined there the third and last time. Needless to say, we won’t be coming back to this place.

Great locally owned spot, the atmosphere, service, and food are always good.
Their calzones are the best in Blacksburg.

Solid 3.5– I came for lunch and got the Small Create Your Own Pasta of the Porcini sauce and Penne. It was good– it had a lot of mushrooms (which I really enjoyed) and the sauce was very flavorful. The portion size was also pretty good for lunch. The only downside was that there was a lot of large pieces of garlic that gave an unpleasant taste in certain bites. Also, the bread and olive oil that they brought out was great– the infused oil had just the right amount of garlic and heat. Overall, it was pretty good; would return for the lunch specials ($ 8.95) because the dinner menu looks a bit pricey.

Online says it is open until 10:30 so we came at 9:30 not knowing that it really closes at 10 but Randy our waiter was still very nice about it, he treated us as if it was not closing time. My husband had the ribeye steak and I had a Angelina and everything was perfect. Very flavorful, very savory it’s the best in town.

All the stars. This place is mine and my boyfriends permanent date night spot. The atmosphere is great and there’s always a mix of old Sinatra era songs playing in the background adding to the ambience. We are still working our way through the menu because we want to try everything. I have never had a meal here I didn’t love. Everything, from the pizza and calzones, to the pasta and seafood, to bread and salad is fantastic.
However, Sals holds a special spot in my heart for one of the simplest things on the menu. I am in love with their Tortellini in Brodo — a brothy soup with cheese tortellini and greens. This is my ultimate comfort food. I order it every time I’m sick or need a pick me up and it never disappoints. I’ve tried several times to recreate it at home using several world renowned chefs recipes and I have never come close to the amazing flavor I can get at Sals.
The guy that runs the place is fantastic and the one time I had a mix up with my to-​go order (out of the countless times we’ve ordered there) I called and explained the situation and he graciously offered to either remake it right then or give me a credit for my next order. I chose to have it remade and when we went to pick it up he brought it out himself and apologized for the inconvenience. It wasn’t really inconvenient and we were just happy for the awesome way we were handled but it just goes to show how much he cares about his customers.
All in all, Sals has incredible food, great atmosphere, and a huge menu that will keep you excited to try new things for a long time, but it is really the way they treat their customers that puts them over the top.
Go. You won’t be disappointed. And make sure you order the soup.

The waiter didn’t bring any utensil to my friend and he passed by him millions of times w/​t talking a simple look at my friend… So my friend kept eating the bread and watching me finish my salad… The food was okay, not impressive at all on my side (though I was impressed by how greasy it was…) both of us only finished our salads and decided to pay for the entire dinner and go…

Really good italian food and pizza. Friendly staff. Good for casual eating or date night.

Visited on 5÷30÷15 around 5:30pm. The new joint down the road had a big wait going on so we went to Sal’s. It was pleasant. Not much wait. Our food was good and plenty of it. The bread basket was delicious. The owner came around the dining room to greet and thank everyone for coming in. They charge a $ 3.50 plate charge for sharing an entrée. It is locally owned. The salads are fresh and don’t taste like it was bagged mix from grocery store. The house dressing is yummy. They have patio seating which is nice.

The food here is good but I’d hate to check the calorie count! I love me some Italian food and went here three days in a row while in town. This place seems popular as there where several tables full when I came in. Their philly cheese steak is really good.

Not the best pizza I have ever eaten, but the ingredients used were fresh and the pizza was not greasy what so ever. Service was extremely attentive and sincere. Keep it up and don’t let your standards slip.

The food was very good. I had the blackened chicken with a black pepper cream sauce and it was very well prepared. I was somewhat disappointed with the service. The server was pleasant and just okay. The salad came out first but before I had the first forkful to my mouth the entrée was brought to the table. After the food was delivered the server was not easy to find to request cheese and pepper

After plans fell thru at another place that was too busy, our party decided to walk over and check Sal’s out. It ended up being good enough to check out twice during my stay.
Sals Italian is located in the First & Main Center with upscale shopping, restaurants and a mega cinema with IMAX. I had only been to this shopping/​restaurant area one other time last Summer. It’s most certainly a place I will come back too and is convenient to everything.
After our party of 20+ invaded Sals an hour before closing we were immediately taken care of by manager Joe and his staff. Luckily they had a room just for us and it really worked perfectly. Menus, silverware and drinks were out quickly which was exactly what we needed with an early wake up call. But not before a round of Lemon Drops began to hit the tables.
The restaurant is divided up into three areas. The room where we were that can be private, a main dining area and the bar. The main area can seat a lot. Every room was clean and tables not occupied cleared. It has a Olive Garden décor feel to me.
The staff was what made this a most memorable experience and deserves praise. They stayed on top of lots of drinks and had food out in less than 30 minutes which was perfect. I only heard compliments about the food. Lots of different dishes, pizza was one of the main items and enjoyed by all. I had an appetizer of bbq wings that were good, not great. The beer selection is below average, but you will find something. There are no drafts which is what I usually order. I tried a bottle of New Castle Brown Ale for the first time and loved it.
Warmer weather is around the corner and they do offer an outdoor seating option too! I can see this being a busy place. Even though it was not used it was still clean.
Before departing I used the restroom just before closing and found them impeccably clean. There is no doubt the place is managed well. I will come back when in the area. Thank you Joe and staff you made it an awesome social for out party.

I have eaten at Sal’s several times over the years and have never been impressed. People often cite them as having the best pizza in the area, but the best thing I can say about their pizza is that it’s edible.
Their pastas are generally pretty good, but rather overpriced, in my opinion.

To make it simple: it’s over priced, under portioned (calzones are very small in comparison to other local restaurants), and just lacking in taste all together. Forgettable staff, average ambiance. I grew up in the NRV and by birth, should love this local favorite. I just don’t. The calzones are small, and simply just aren’t that great.

Mostly good food and good service …
14 of us went after graduation and the place was getting packed, but they seated us fairly quickly and got our food out without much delay. The owner fellow seem very congenial, although he was a bit pushy with appetizers which almost doubled our entire bill. The complimentary bread was fresh and tasty. Calimari was OK, caprese insalata had too much garlic for my liking but was also OK too. Bruschetta caprese was all tomatoes and no mozzarella, not worth the price. Their specialty pizzas offered good variations, were tasty, large portioned, and toppings were generous. 20% Tips were included in our bill. All in all, it was a good experience.

This was my first time ordering an entre from Sal’s. I’ve had their pizza many times, and it was always pretty good, although its kind of hard to mess up a pepperoni pizza. I ordered the veal alla marsala with linguine. The entre was served with a side salad and bread, which was pleasing, however, the veal was like a piece of rubber and completely inedible. I also ordered the nutella cheesecake, which was good, except it seems to have come out of a box from Sysco, but I forgot to ask.
The other thing that has always erked me about Sal’s is that they have a sign outside their store that says «fresh seafood», which is a little hard to believe considering this is in the mountains. No restaurant in Blacksburg serves truly fresh seafood, its all from Sysco, but there is no need to advertise fresh seafood when you’re not serving fresh seafood. The mozzarella is also not fresh, I asked the server if they made it fresh every day (which is actually simple to do, I worked at an Italian restaurant for 2 years and made fresh mozzarella every day from mozzarella curd) and he told me it was from Sysco.
I told the waiter that I did not want the kitchen to remake it because it was late and I honestly just wanted my money back. His response was, «Would you like cash or a gift card so you can come back and see us?» Having worked in the food and beverage service industry for over 10 years, this question struck me as really odd and a little off-​putting. Why in the world would I want to come back if I had a terrible experience. This was a terrible response to a mistake on their part. It would really help for them to to study the «Service Recovery Paradox» which dictates customer problem resolution and recovery. I will not be coming back, sorry Sal’s.

Went in for lunch. I would have given a 5 because the food was amazing, but the service knocked it down to a 4.
The bread and infused olive oil they bring to the table while you’re waiting is phenomenal. The garlic knots with cheese were very good. We got the Napoli Combo and split it. They do charge you $ 3.50 to split, but they split it for you before they bring it out. It included the Lasagna (delicious), Chicken Parmesan (very good), and Sausage Parmesan (also very good). It was more than enough food. The tea was also good, not too strong or too weak.
The waitress had too many tables and our table was also split off from the rest of her tables, so we were pretty much ignored most of the time. Even when I saw several other waiters and waitresses just standing around, she didn’t ask anyone else to check on us or take the table over. Had it not been for that, it would had easily been a 5 star rating.

Officially our family’s favorite place for pizza! The pizza box says, «You’ve tried the rest, now try the best!» they should change that to, «You’ve tried the rest, now eat the best!»
We usually order take out, but we occasionally dine in. We did so on a Friday night and it was very busy so be prepared to wait or call ahead to make reservations.
The owner passed out slices of cheese pizza while waiting which was fantastic because our toddler had almost reached his waiting limit.
The food:
All the food we’ve eaten there has been fantastic although I caution you when picking your own ingredients on a pizza because they load it down. They give you bread and garlic infused olive oil for dipping while you wait. It was all I could do to keep from tearing into it and gobbling it up while growling menacingly at my husband.
Last night I had the salmon salad. It was a huge salad with Kalamata olives, artichokes, red pepper, mushroom, red onion, romaine, and very good house balsamic. Enough for multiple meals! You can get a similar salad at Bull & Bones across the street, but the salad is not nearly as good as you’ll find at Sal’s and more expensive too, but that’s for another review.
The atmosphere:
A little dark for me, but has a romantic ambiance. Perfect for those not dining with little people. Can’t wait to take advantage of the outdoor seating in the summer months.
The service:
Although the wait was long the service was excellent. Our son started getting fussy while waiting for our food to arrive. The owner/​manager? came by with a toy car and mini percolator for my son to play with which kept him entertained enough to finish our meal. That consideration will keep us coming back!
On a final note, Sal’s offers multiple locations in the New River Valley and I can say definitively that Sal’s B’burg is the best!

Family-​style Italian food is served here by a friendly waitstaff and the owner may drop by to say hello and make sure you’re having a good night!
The couple times I have been here I’ve enjoyed the pizzas much more than the pasta. The pasta isn’t bad but it’s nothing I can’t make at home (with a few exceptions) and I make it a rule that I don’t order anything while I’m out that I can easily make at home.
On the pro side, the atmosphere and service are fantastic, with great pizzas.
On the con side, I’d have to say that the pasta dishes do tend to be a bit too bland. I would highly suggest that they look into adding a bit of flavor to their dishes and not just look for the serving sizes to draw people in.
Overall Sal’s is a perfectly fine place to go with some friends, especially if you order a pizza or two to share. Their appetizers are good too so maybe split one of those among the group. Generally I’d just stay away from the pasta dishes and enjoy everything else Sal’s has to offer.