Wow !!! What happened to the food in this place. It used to be decent . Today was plain awful!!!. Ordered shrimp scampi. Shrimp came out raw and no flavor at all. Straight out from freezer to plate Disgusting. Server was told and was cool at took it off check. Can't complain about that. My girlfriends plate came out and again shrimp was raw. Must been a bad day for cook or they just can't cook frozen shrimp at all. Again server was told came back and comp us food. The bottom line the food was awful!! read more

Strings Italian Cafe - Underdone and translucent shrimp - Italian Near Me - Modesto, California

I love their salad & minestrone soup! Great! Now for the entree - I havn't found anything on the menu that I really like. I prefer Bella Italia, their pasta primavara with Romano sauce (which is marinara mixed with alfredo) is delicious!! My husband likes the pep pizza & the kids like the speghetti & penne with marinara, so when we go here I just stick with the soup & salad. The house dressing is great! Try it! read more

This is actually a 3.5 review. It had been so long since I had last been here, maybe 3 years or so. Its definitely one of those places that you remember being nicer than it actually is. The menu has changed drastically, they used to have all these great pizzas, now they just have boring pepperoni. Also, its a bit over priced. Heres the breakdown: Bread - 4 stars Salad - 2 stars...the same exact salad that is at Olive Garden! Entree (sienna pasta) - 4 stars I was pleasantly surprised by the pasta dish, it was delicious. If they could revamp their menu and interiors a little bit this could easily be a 4 star place. read more

Was not impressed. When I got there I was not acknowledged. After finally waiting to get my to-go order which was lasagna and soup so I'm finally came to ask me if I had an order. When I ended up getting home and opening the box it was filled with a quarter of lasagna and a quarter of fettuccine alfredo. For the price I was not impressed with the serving sizes or the quality. I will not be spending my lasagna money here anymore. Definitely not worth the price for a night's meal read more

Great customer service and had a great waiter. Sat down and staring eating right away :). Happy and will be coming again in the future.

Heard this place was "good" and I can't stress enough how horrible the food and service is. The waitress was like a child she never picked up our plates that were dirty. Brought bread after we sat down for 30 minutes I'm not a picky eater but I REALLY wanted lemon butter sauce w noodles and chicken this lady brought me idk what in Gods name it was tasted horrible so I asked for lemon butter sauce to put on top she brought me melted butter w lemons seeds in it. I legit only made this account to tell anybody coming here what to expect. Good luck coming here because you'll leave Unsatisfied and frustrated. I really wanted dessert but my waitress gave us the check and walked away she never came back to even get it I had to give it to another waiter. If I could give zero stars I would. read more

Strings Italian Cafe - There's the dirty dishes that stood on the table the whole time. - Italian Near Me - Modesto, California

I went there on Friday 8/13/2021 and the customer service was horrible. I normally don't leave bad reviews at all but I got takeout and my food bags were thrown around in front my eyes 3 times by one of the waiters (don't know her name) she had long curly hair. I remember when there customer service was superb! On top of that the food was horrible! I remember when their fettucine alfredo was exquisite but this time it was not which was shocking because I've gone there for years. I called them immediately and told them the food was not right and I got less than the portion size but the lady on the phone was like " I don't know what to tell you." I won't ever be going there again. IMO I always thought there pasta was better than Olive Garden but after that day I will choose to go somewhere else. read more

Service is not the best. I have been a server bartender for most of my teens into 20's and can't say first hand that this sucks. Food was pretty great but will never return just due to the poor service. Was slow and server just kept walking by is the whole time. Had to keep asking for things. Really felt like she just didn't care about anyone and that we were a inconvenience just for being there. read more

I would like to say this the best dinning experience of my life. I had ordered the meat and cheese Lasagna. The wait was exceptionally well, and the bread was magnificent. Once our waitress brought the food down from the Heavens to the table before us the most beautiful song in this relm played. Con te partirò sung by the amazing, Andrea Bocelli. As I took my first bite with the songs of angles I began to cry in momentous joy. This was the greatest experience of my life. Oh and I was hella high lol. read more

Strings gets the job done. That's not meant to be a back-handed compliment, but what else can be said. They give you tasty bread, that's cool. The entrees haven't left an impression, and I have a good memory for food. The waiters do try, but there is still that feeling that they are too busy to have a good time with you as their customer. Not really their fault; Strings is so popular that they herd people in and out. read more

The service is great but unfortunately that was about it. The balsamic pork dish was awful it was a couple of saw dust chops cooked in balsamic vinegar, the glue potatoes...well I could've done better and the green beans which were supposedly cooked were cold and tasted unwashed. They had the nerve to have us pay for the salad(which is usually free) because we didn't want to pay for the pork dish. and my little brother got the "chicken tenders" from the kids menu. It came with fries but frankly they look like Tyson nuggets I could've bought at the store...soooo not Tenders. So unless the cooking changes I'm not coming back here. They're only savior is the fact that they didn't hand make the raviolis and the servers are nice. Somebody call Chef Ramsey please! read more

Ordered the shrimp scampi, unfortunately the pasta that was served with it had marinara sause on it and it overpowered the flavors of the scampi. It would have been much better with a pesto sause instead. read more

Strings Italian Cafe - Wow...since when does shrimp scampi come with a red sause...lame - Italian Near Me - Modesto, California

I have been going to Modesto Strings for almost 30 years. I have always enjoyed their food and service, taking family and friends to enjoy their tasty items. Over the last couple of years, I have noticed an unpleasant change with the service as well as the food. Because of this, I stopped going as frequently. Since COVID has caused a huge hit for us all especially small businesses, I thought I would try the restaurant again. I took my son and a friend there at the beginning of December and it felt like old times. I went again this week and the food and service were excellent. I had the Eggplant Parmesan and my son had the Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo. They were both excellent! The customer service we received was excellent also. I spoke with a waitress and asked if there had been any recent changes. She stated they were under new management and the new owners were working hard to ensure the food was top notch as well as the service they were providing. I'm so glad I gave it another try and love the changes that have been made. I highly recommend Modesto Strings! If you, like me, stopped going as frequently or stopped going completely, give them another try. You will not be disappointed. read more

Food was not great at all. It tasted as if it was all meshed together. Nothing in my PRICEY DISH Stood out. The service was awesome though. There are other places very close to this restaurant that I would recommend over this place. read more

This is the second time I have tried to eat at this location and it is over half an hour prior to posted closing time and have been denied to be served. When I asked if I could at least place a take out I was told the kitchen was closed yet the front door was unlocked?....horrible business practice and will definitely not be eating here EVER and will make sure to tell all friends and family of the poor service!!! read more

The menu is different depending on where you look. I thought I was getting Pan fried meat ravioli with a creamy tomato sauce like it usually is, instead I got hard ravioli I could have made myself with a simple marinara. I never would have paid $11+ if I knew that's what it was...I know everyone is on hard times, but that was cheap packaged ravioli and I paid 3x the actual value. At least be fair and don't swindle people. Oh, and the artichoke dip appetizer wasn't even fully melted and clearly not fresh. Screw you for taking advantage of people. read more

The staff are the best and they all are nice the best waitress in my option was Stephanie she was nice and very patient while I was picking my drink and food over all the restaurant was amazing and I hope who ever reads this go eat there sometime read more

My "shrimp scampi" was more like a noodle cocktail with marinara sauce and a side of shrimp. And I was charged 17.99 when the menu clearly says 12.99, so in total it came out to 19 dollars and some change. Highly disappointed, will not be returning. read more

We ordered Strings tonight through Grubhub because we had been traveling all day and wanted something to go. I placed the order on my phone around 1:30pm, for a 4:00pm delivery to my house, since we already knew what we wanted and dine at this location frequently. When the delivery driver got to our house, he told us Strings had tried calling us because they were out of Picatta Sauce for the Chicken Picatta. (They didn't), so we were 1 meal short for my husband. After taking the rest of the order in the house, I noticed that our Artichoke Ravoli had Alfredo sauce on it. On Grubhub, I specifically put in the notes for Marinara sauce only and no Alfredo. At this point, I called the location and spoke to Brooke. She told me that they wouldn't be able to fix my order and that in order for me to get it corrected I would have to contact Grubhub, and completely brushed off responsibility and basically said it wasn't their problem. She also said "you placed that order quite a few hours ago and our cooks had to rush to make it when the Grubhub guy showed up to get it." I asked why the timing of me placing the order on the website had anything to do with their mistake on my food, and she said something again about me placing the order "hours ago" and the cooks having other things to do. That only told me that they completely forgot about my order, threw it together at the last minute and didn't pay attention to the requests on the order so they could rush it out the door. They also didn't notify the Grubhub driver until he was on the way out that they would be 1 meal short, and he was super nice and apologetic for their mistake. I would expect a restaurant to own up to their mistakes instead of blowing me off and telling me to contact Grubhub to resolve the order. They easily could have remade my messed up meal and I would have gone to the location myself to pick it up. Thankfully, I was able to contact Grubhub after the fact and receive a refund for the meal we didn't get, and also a refund for the one that was messed up. Not sure if I, or the rest of my family will be back after the service and response to our complaints that we received today. read more

Beware of Andy!!!! I originally gave this restaurant a 5star rating. I love Strings, however after this evenings dinner and horrible server I've changed my mind to lower my overall option! I order a seafood dish with mussels, shrimp & scallops in a zesty sauce. This dish is a favorite of mine. I can't eat much or pasta so I enjoy this one a lot. My husband order a calzone with no onions. We noticed my food in the window and my sons pasta. It was sitting for 10min before the server came and asked my husband if he would eat the incorrect one since the cooks messed up. We declined and asked for another one to be made. He walked away and kept our food that was ready in the window. We asked another server to bring our food and low and behold my seafood was cold. I ate one muscle and sent it back to be remade. He had it reheated for I got my same dish back and one muscle eaten from the dish. I asked if they reheated the seafood he said no. I then pointed out the muscle and another server said it was reheated. OMG beyond upset! This is not a dish that taste good reheated, turns to rubber. By all means this place has gone down hill and I won't come back. I used to come once a week, however I will drive across town for better service. I would have been okay with a remade dish or if they were busy but this is not acceptable for the money we spend going out to eat for me to leave with no dinner! read more

Horrible service- the remodel was beautiful but the staff ruined it and caused a 1 star. If I could give a 0 I would. There was only a few tables when we walked in so we thought this should be nice they are not busy. It took forever to get our menus, and our drinks ( that where never asked to be refilled, we had to ask and the she forgot to come back) . All 6 of the staff members where hanging out at the counter talking about super inappropriate things. One being an Old ladies vagina and some party, the second part of their Inappropriate Conversation was how most food is not fresh as some waitresses even questioned if the food they served was fresh. After our food was served (cold) our waitress said down at the counter and began to eat her dinner with her serving apron on. On one ever came back and asked how our meal was. Then when we got our bill it was wrong. She double charged us for a meal. Horrible and very disappointing. read more

Ordered delivery...wow! Great food - in restaurant fresh! The Zucchini and mushroom app were amazing!

Sad. My family used to come here quite often for great food and service. Last visit was quite disappointing. We saw they have remodeled and thought we would give it another shot. Lasagne pastry was cold and looked like they boiled someone's sock and threw it inside the pastry. My daughter ordered a pepperoni pizza that came out wrong, dinner salad was soggy, I honestly thought it was boiled cabbage at first glance. When drinks run out just help yourself to the sofa Machine behind the counter or bring your own ice chest. Sorry to say but this is my last visit here. read more

We love Strings so much. As 1x a week frequent diners, we go a lot. The lasagna pastry is to die for. And of course the accompanying salad. We always have great service and love our Modesto strings! read more

Not too bad, first time here and I must say I enjoyed it. The food I would say was above average but I was impressed with the feel/vibe of the interior, from the music to the design I was impressed at this little restaurant. Our waiter was on point so our service was good, making sure our drinks were filled and bread stocked. Good job Strings I will gladly return again. read more

My second time here. Discovered something my friend told me. Try the soup and salad. I did and the soup was very good filled with veggies. The salad was so so. Will prob go back for the soup. read more

Love, love, love!!!! My bestie and I eat here almost every Saturday for lunch and it is ALWAYS great service, delicious food and just a nice atmosphere. I will keep coming back again and again and again... read more

I've eaten at strings many times before but everytime I go it seems the quality of the food drops a few notches! Last night will most likely be the last time I bring my family there! My daughter had the chicken fettucine Alfredo and I had the chicken piccata. The chicken on BOTH our dishes was so dry and overlooked it was like the sole of a shoe.... It was inedible! I sent mine back. I could barely cut it with the knife. The second one they brought out wasn't much better. I should've saved the $60 I spent there and gone to McDonald's next door for a better meal... And I'm not a fast food fan! On the bright side, our server was great! read more

Went in tonight and was seated right away. Restaurant had 1 group and couple other tables with customers. After waiting for about 10 minutes and not even a hello from a server or anyone offering at least a water or something we got up and left! Will not go back because of lousy service! Modesto has more options than Strings, Sorry guys your service sucked! read more

Went yesterday to celebrate my daughters birthday we had 7 in our group, a young man waited on us and he was a wonderful server, but the food was so amazing I had the balsamic salmon and I'm a foodie and gotta share that it was the best salmon I've ever had cooked to perfection! Moist and very flavorful also everyone's else's food was perfect they really had an amazing plate presentation with fresh crisp veggies very colorful and flavorful the place looked much cleaner with the dust then last time and I must say I'll be going back and you should to because the food is really good! read more

Had lunch there today and totally unimpressed. I brought a friend to celebrate her birthday. We both had soup and salad. The soup was pretty good but the salad was not great. A bowl of iceberg lettuce out of a bag and a few raisins and a few grape tomatoes and this they call a salad. Strings salads used to be the best with olives, garbanzo beans,peppers & artichokes. It was delicious. Today's salad was a joke with nothing in it. I won't be going back. Also our dirty dishes were not Removed all the while we sat there and visited which was 2 hours. No water, nothing all that while. read more

I remembered this place as being good a couple of years back and my son really loves pasta, so this was it for the night. It was a Tuesday night, so there were only a couple of tables filled. There were a couple of warnings that this place has gone downhill. First bad sign was that the crayons my son got for his picture was previously used. I know it's a tough economy, but used crayons?? Second bad sign was that the items on the menu looked like something that you could do at home. My son had the Mac n Cheese which looked like Kraft Mac n Cheese from the box. I had the Bacon and Spinach Pasta Special that was coated with a lot of cheese. I mean A LOT OF CHEESE!!! Sheesh! I wanted some cheese, but it was 1/2 cheese, 3/8 pasta, and 1/8 bacon/spinach? Overall, the service was good. However, I was disappointed that the dishes looked like you can prepare them at home with minimum effort. read more

Decor is awful and needs a lot of sprucing/updating. The salad was the only thing that was ok. When it comes to the hot dishes, basically everything is frozen junk. It all tastes like it was just taken out of a can or the freezer, microwaved, and thrown onto a plate. I had the ravioli and was not impressed. Call me crazy but when i go out and have a good meal, i want it to be something delicious and not just something i could have gotten out of a can at home. If you want good Italian food DO NOT come here, not worth wasting your $. read more

Hosted an event for about 40 people recently on the patio. Food was decent but the service was awful. We asked them to move the tables out of the blazing hot sun and I was told that this was for the best so people would have more room to "mingle." I told them there are a lot of older people and they would prefer to sit and not in the sun. Nothing was done about it. Let's move on to the food "service." Salad was brought out in one large container and a big bowl of salad dressing. I don't know what the plan was for everyone to be able to get their salad, but it was no concern to our "server," despite the fact that the tables were all shoved together up against the far wall and very difficult to get out of. As the host, I had to literally gather up everyone's plate and serve them myself instead of enjoying spending time with people. We ran out of salad, but the server was no where to be found so I had to go in and ask for more. That was how it was for every. little. thing. They didn't bring enough plates, so I had to go ask for more. They simply dropped the food off on the tables and disappeared the rest of the time. They didn't offer to serve the guests or anything, which would have helped eliminate the problem of some people over-serving themselves which caused us to run out of food and have to order more. I was told soft drinks and tea would be offered. This never happened, only water and refills were only provided when asked for. Nobody cleared our plates - I did. I had to actually go around to everyone and start stacking plates and bringing them inside so we could have room on the tables! When I went inside, there were our two waitresses, enjoying the air conditioning with only one table of guests in the entire restaurant. I will never go back here again and I am so disappointed. The only person who was helpful during the whole process was the waitress Sarah who assisted my mother when viewing the event space beforehand, unfortunately she was not there on the day of. Keely who was in charge of our event couldn't care less about her job and was happy to take her guaranteed nearly $100 tip without lifting more than a finger. So disappointed, and I've been going here nearly my whole life since I was a child. This place would be fine for a meal with a few people but would never host an event here again and given this most recent experience, will avoid on principal for lunch, dinner, etc. read more

Every time I've been to Strings, it's been a pretty consistent experience. I always go in the later afternoon, so there is hardly anyone there. The food is always fresh, fast, and tastes great. Great atmosphere. My main issue is the customer service. Their server-to-customer ratio is always way out of whack, but not in the way you'd think. There always seems to be too many employees, most of which can clearly be seen standing around by the bar area doing absolutely nothing while 1 or 2 are actually waiting tables. None of them are all too friendly, either. A simple "you're welcome" would be nice when I "thank you" every time you bring something to my table! So 1 point off for customer service, but the rest is great! read more

Definitely had better at other locations, way tooooooo over priced!! I ordered eggplant parm and there was barely any sauce on it making it really dry. The meal came with a salad and it tasted like its been sitting out all day, why couldn't I of had a fresh crisp salad when I am paying $16.58 for one meal??? Strings used to be my favorite place to eat but coming to this location has changed that. read more

I have been coming to strings since I was a little kid. I have always been satisfied with how amazing the food is and the service. The pasta, breadsticks, and salad are some of the best in Modesto!! read more

My friend and I have had the same server twice. Alicia. Horrible service. First visit we told her we were not in any hurry, we wanted to enjoy our salad before our entre came out. Five to ten minutes later here come the entrees, asked for silverware and ended up getting it myself from another table because she never came back Second visit asked for seperate checks before she put the order in and of course got one check . Asked her to seperate checks which took 15 minutes. I'm a server myself so I know it's not a big ordeal to seperate them. We love strings and the food is always consistent . We will return but definitely will request a different server read more

Just ordered through DoorDash and this is the worst ever spaghetti is awful and the salad was old my suggestion don't go here it's not good at all I mean the fucking worst read more

Where to start.. first of all, at these prices, this place ought to be ashamed of itself. I've only been twice, but that was two times too many. I ordered seafood pasta, subbed Alfredo for vodka. The Alfredo most definitely came from a jar and wasn't even classico, prob ragu or something equally nasty. The fettuccine was under cooked and they used what seemed like precooked shrimp. The scallops were a travesty. They were like rubber. Fishy rubber. I forgot to take a photo of my unfinished plate, but there was more than half left. One of maybe three times I've had food so bad that I declined their offer of a to go box. The service was ok so they get two stars, but I will not be suckered into going again no matter how much I love my friends. You get no dipping oil for the table bread which is just their pizza dough, I think. Their salad is good & fresh, but I didn't come for the salad. They don't offer parmesan like literally every other Italian restaurant in the world and the mashed potatoes were straight boo-boo. My son did like his bacon/spinach linguine, but one of his favorite foods is those 99cent totinos so his opinion will be stricken from the yelp records lol. . If you want better Italian, Bella or pastas pronto on coffee are better bets. Heed the 3 stars and avoid this place. $17 for frozen, rubbery scallops and overcooked 41/50 shrimp? No grazie! read more