Big Sammy's Italian Eatery - Plainfield

My husband and I moved to Plainfield in 2021. One of our favorite things to do was to try new places to eat. We quickly fell in love with Big Sammy’s Italian Eatery. This little spot in downtown Plainfield was just what we loved. Good food, friendly staff, small/local business. We were big fans of their staples pizza, pasta salad, gelato, cannoli’s. They had a pretty good rotation of weekend specials as well. Around the time they opened their new full sized restaurant, we started to notice a change. Less weekend specials, the ones we did get weren’t as good, and over time the things we did enjoy often became worse and worse. The pizza became consistently burned and dried out. Our specials would come home with uncooked, full quarters of potatoes, the flavor was nonexistent. We stopped going as often, and when it wasn’t good we made excuses, such as maybe it was an off day. We aren’t complainers, so I’ll admit we never brought it to anyone’s attention, but today was our wake up call.Earlier this week we finally saw an interesting looking special on the menu that my husband and I were excited to try. We each ordered a stromboli, one sausage and one pepperoni. We each got a pasta salad and a cannoli. He went to pick it up and bring it home.I came into the kitchen while he was unpacking the food and saw him heating up the oven. I was confused, until he showed me the bottom of his stromboli it was completely raw, with dough spilling everywhere. He couldn’t even pick it up. We were also confused because his sausage stromboli was twice the size of my pepperoni one, and shaped completely differently. Mine was cooked slightly more sufficiently, but still rather gooey on the inside. In an attempt to salvage our food, we did try popping them in the oven for a bit longer. This resulted in the bottom of mine being burnt, while the insides of mine were still doughy and disgusting. I took one bite and couldn’t eat it. My husband cooked his food longer and it still wasn’t edible.While cooking our food that should have already been cooked, we decided to eat our pasta salad, since we were hungry. It turns out the pasta in the salad also hadn’t been cooked thoroughly. I wouldn’t even consider it al dente. It was just cooked enough to be edible, but in no way was it enjoyable.A part of me wonders if this is something that could be fixed with some simple customer feedback, but if you are in a kitchen, and can’t understand the basic requirements of your job to serve thoroughly cooked (and enjoyable food then you simply don’t belong in a kitchen.I will say that every time we go, the front staff have been kind, friendly, amazing, and doing the best they can. We have absolutely no complaints about them. The kitchen seems surly and disorganized, and even if I hadn’t seen it for myself, that is the exact impression their food gives off now.I used to be excited to share with family and friends the delicious, small/family business that made its home in downtown Plainfield. Now, I’m embarrassed that I ever have.(Photos with post: The first is the large stromboli with a pocket of dough oozing out. The camera got fogged up but you can still see it. This was not cheese. The second is the comparison of the two stromboli's. You would expect a consistent shape, even if the ingredients are different. The third is the inside of my smaller stromboli, while it seems thoroughly cooked on the inside, there are clear pockets of uncooked dough in the middle.

We do frequent Big Sammy's in downtown Plainfield and have noticed a real dip in food quality on our most recent visit.Ordered the new stromboli and was shocked to find, upon getting home, the food had completely raw dough, unbaked, at the bottom. We ended up popping out strombolis in the oven for an extra 20-30 mins to get is properly and safely cooked in terms of temperature. But it didn't save the taste by that point.Our order also included pasta salad which was so undercooked that the noodles had a crunch when chewed. Which is shocking how far the quality control and food prep has gone at Big Sammy's.100% I know they can do better, and when we frequented more often we never had a single issue with the food.But for our safety and for the value of what is paid, dangerously undercooked food is not acceptable and should never be served.I'm not sure if their resources are spread too thin between the new restaurant they opened and the downtown Plainfield location, but it's shocking how far things have gone down hill for food quality and now safety.Also if you plan to rotate a menu weekly the cooks should be capable and knowledgeable on making Italian dishes. A undercooked stromboli is shocking, and insulting if you want to be a true Italian eatery.For the immediate future we won't be returning, for your sake I woud say to try food at your own risk now. It's really sad and disappointing because Big Sammy's was the gold standard, but it's far from it now.

Dont confuse the route30 big sammys dine in restaurant with this place. Im not sure if they are affiliated but I think most the 5 star reviews for this location are people confusing it with the place 10 minutes away. I thought Big sammys Italian eatery would be a slam dunk as i saw it has a 4.5 rating but it definitely is not. Stale bread and literally use kraft american cheese singles on their sandwiches that they charge $10+ for.. how embarrassing for a place claiming to be a real italian eatery not to have fresh sliced deli meat and cheeses for their sandwiches.. i shouldve known to walk right out when it was dead empty on a Sunday afternoon

Nice people. Good atmosphere. Pasta is good, pizza was not. Issue with pizza order, was not made to our liking, no comps or other options were provided. They did comp an appetizer. All in all,we left with a pizza we didn’t order which was barely eaten to be trash later. Would not recommend.

Great Idea ... Sports Bar and GREAT Italian food ... Great food, staff, sports bar environment, and even Big Sammy came to our table. Try it, you'll like it!! I had the Chicken Vesuvio, my wife had the Egg Plant Parmesan, and my brother in law had the pork chop Vesuvio ... All were fantastic! Good selection of beers also plus a ton of TV monitors... Try it, we did, we liked it and we are going there again!!