The 400 East – Harwich, MA

Review

What an odd scampi! This was our first time ever having a scampi that had not only capers, but also basil AND tomatoes! The scampi was nice and saucey, but the sauce was lacking the one-two punch of wine and garlic that normally accompanies a great scampi. It may have been prepared a bit too quickly without really reducing-down the white wine sauce, as the whole dish tasted very shrimp-like, rather than sauce-like, and was a bit heavy on the basil, and seemed to lack any lemon in the sauce (granted, one lemon wedge was included on the side, but didn’t seem to do much when squeezed on it). The noodles were perfectly al dente, but were out-of-the-box regular store bought pasta rather than the high quality we’d have expected in a $28 dish. It included five (5) nice, big, jumbo shrimp, which were cooked alright, but not perfectly. Capers, honestly, were a nice change; but, let’s be real: this was a variation on shrimp piccata, not a shrimp scampi!

Price

  • $23.00

Type Of Pasta

  • Store-Boxed Yellow Angel Hair

Size & Number of Shrimp

  • Six (6) Large Shrimp

Notable Ingredients

  • Capers
  • Fresh Basil
  • Beefsteak tomatoes

Tails Up

  • Just enough quantity of sauce!
  • Shrimp were yuge!

Tails Down

  • The sauce, while plentiful, tasted fishy (well, shrimpy) and was heavy more on basil than a classic garlic or lemon or wine
  • Store bought yellow pasta
  • Shrimp were a bit overcooked / tough
  • In our humble opinion, if you’re going to use tomatoes, don’t use huge, unflavored beefsteak tomatoes. The tomatoes were not as ripe as they could be; after chopping, they included the white and green piths in the middle of the tomato, which made for super crunchy bites of flavorless raw tomato. If anything, they should have sautéed them more in the sauce, bu at best, use bruschetta type tomatoes
  • No heat or kick again! – We would’ve liked some red pepper flakes
  • Zero “freshness” – Where is the fresh lemon juice and parsley? C’mon, man!
  • This was just a shrimp version of piccata, let’s not lie!

Rating: 🍤🍤🍤 (3 Scamps)