Sapore DI Mare

I’ve been coming to this little Italian place for several years with my family and it’s always been such a treat. Family favorites include the calamari (best I’ve had in the area by far!), the veal Marsala, eggplant parm sub. Salads here are also huge. Service has always been impeccable– every server we’ve had has been very accommodating and professional.
Always so hard to resist their bread and garlic oil! Everything on this menu is so tasty. You can’t go wrong.

We came all the way from Frederick after hearing about this spot. AMAZING FOOD AND AMAZING SERVICE!!! We had the crab cake on angel hair pasta, crab cake sand which, Spagetti and meatballs, and some house salads! The people were so friendly and the food was awesome! We will definitely come back!

This place is a diamond in the rough. Large portions, great prices and friendly service. Consistently great food. Love the warm bread! Entrée are large enough that you have left overs to take home. Reasonable prices. Our favorites include eggplant parmigiana, veal piccata, puttanesca, homemade soups, baked ziti, and cannoli. Highly recommend

This place is one of Harford County’s best kept secrets. Looks like a small pizza/​sub shop when you walk in-​which it is. But sit down and order some pasta. Excellent Italian pasta dishes at a small price.
The bread is always hot and fresh. The service never blows me away but is consistent and decent.

We eat here at least two times per week. Best Italian food in the area. Pizza is amazing. Eggplant parm is amazing. The specials are always delicious. The waiters are incredibly accommodating, and the owners are so friendly. Worth the trip to joppa.

We get pizza here once a week. It’s the best pizza around. Once in awhile we get other entrees and they are always good too.

I have lived in Joppatowne since 1999 and when I moved here, this was a High’s convenient store. Soon after it become Sapore di Mare’s and I heard people talk about it, but I never tried it, even though it is within walking distance from my house. I recently had a second baby and one of my friends brought me and my family dinner one night and it was take out from Sapore di Mares.
My friend brought us baked ziti and breadsticks and the amount of food was so much that it was enough for us for dinner for two nights as well as leftovers for lunch one day! My husband and I were so impressed with the food that we chose to go to this restaurant on our first date night since our son was born. I ordered a chicken alfredo dish and my husband ordered the lasagna. I really can’t get enough of their breadsticks! They are so good, they practically melt in your mouth.
We were having our son dedicated at our church a couple months later and planned a reception afterwards with about fifty guests. We talked with the owners at Sapore di Mare’s and got some pricing for their catering menu. After looking at some other restaurants, we decided to go with Sapore de Mare’s and we were not disappointed. We ordered two trays of baked ziti, one tray of lasagna, breadsticks, and salad. Vinny came to the reception shortly before our guests arrived and set up the trays with the heating candles. All of our guests loved the food and kept asking where it came from.
My husband and I have decided to order from here whenever we have a large get together. It is just too convenient not to! It’s also one of our top choices for date night :) I am just disappointed that it took me so long to try this place out!

Sapore Di Mare is a hidden gem for the Joppatowne community. I lived near them for almost a decade and I probably ate there at least once a month for all that time. The pizza is the best in the area and the staff are friendly.

I eat here about once a week, and get the pizza. It’s wonderful! Best pizza in Harford County.

My wife and I found this place after recently moving to Joppa. We have had dinners and pizza here and find that the food is good. The sauce is sweeter than I would like but all staff members were have encountered have been friendly and very accommodating.

«Taste of the Sea» is what this little, unassuming Italian restaurant translates to. And I must say, my favorite dish here is one with seafood! I’ve been here a fair few times as its so close to some relatives. They always sit five or six of us right away and the food comes out fast!
Sapore di Mare may not look like much from the outside but inside, look at the murals! Man they take me right back to Italia! There’s not much sophisticated about this place– handwritten white board lists the specials, paper menus, plain tables and chairs, and neon lights that ring around the ceiling. But who cares about that! The food is what matters most!
Right, so back to my favorite dish– I think it’s called the Chesapeake Special, it’s never actually on the menu but always listed at the bottom of the specials. Angel Hair pasta cooked just right with juicy crab meat, and this creamy, delicious sauce with Old Bay (I think it comes with shrimp too but I asked to not have it) I mean can you be more
B-​More than that? Mmmm so good!
Most recently I tried another special with Roasted Eggplant, Prosciutto, and Mozz with Tomato sauce over penne. Not the best execution, but great flavors in the sauce. My biggest gripe is that I don’t think they could have sliced the eggplant any thinner and given me less of it– I ordered the eggplant special… give me eggplant!
Next time, we’ll have to leave room for the desserts than sounded so delish!

HAIR IN OUR FOOD!!!
Our family ordered a large pizza, salad, wings, and fries for carryout dinner. The pizza was pretty good except the crust was kind of soggy and not as crisp as it should have been. The fries were pedestrian, blah blah blah fries. I wouldn’t order the fries again. The salad was terrible. The chicken was overcooked and the dressing was bland. What took the cake, and the final reason why we will never eat at Sapore Di Mare again is the buffalo wings. They were also totally boring like the fries. Very blah. What they don’t tell you on the menu is that an order of wings is SIX wings. I have never ordered wings and gotten six. Usually you get 10 or 12 wings in an order. I asked the manager and he said it was correct, they only give you six wings. They charge $ 6.50 for an order, and at some other places around here you get 10 wings for $ 6 or $ 6.50 so six wings is really out of line.
The best part was the long black hair in the celery for our wings. Our family are all blondes so it didn’t come from us. Gross.
The food was unremarkable, the manager was rude, and there was a hair in the food. We won’t be coming back here ever again.

My husband and I live not far from this restaurant and have only visited once about 2 years ago which was not a great experience. We were tired and thought we would catch a bite to eat close to home and decided to give it another try, hoping they had improved over the years. Not a wise decision in the end, we should have gone further down the street to Santini’s. I had forgotten how «cafeteria like» the décor is, and although relatively clean not very inviting. With so many Italian restaurants in the area, this is one is on the bottom of our list. The food is inexpensive, which reflects the food quality.
I ordered tomato soup as a starter and the Alfredo with blackened chicken (added) as an entrée. The waitress waitress then looked over her shoulder at the cooks, I guess to see if there was someone competent to handle this «unusual» request. My husband started with a salad and Bolognaise as the entrée.
First off the salad was a salad, nothing special. The tomato soup was so bland, I ended up taking it home, added salt and seasoning to add flavor and then it was consumable. The Alfredo, OMG… they might was well have just given me a plate of butter. The sauce was watery and the only thing you could taste was the butter. Don’t get me wrong, I love butter, but this was over the top and rather disgusting. The chicken was so overcooked it was like jerky (made great dog treats).
My husband’s Bolognaise was flavorless. It simply tasted like plain hamburger meat on a pile of noodles. It tasted like no spices, seasoning or salt were added.
The waitress was great, very attentive, which was our only positive experience. In my opinion, this is the place to go only if you lack taste buds. If you want affordable, inexpensive Italian food in the area head over to Santini’s, which is a far superior.
We wanted to be fair and give it another try after all these years, but it appears nothing has evolved. In the world of food, two strikes and your out… this was our last visit. This bothers us since we prefer to support our local businesses. We don’t mind paying top dollar, if the food is worth it.

Bar none, some of the best pizza in the state. Period.

Its not downtown fine dinning, but I’ve eaten at Baltimore’s best and this is just a real nice place. Feels warm and welcoming and the food is great. Primivera and Vodka sauces are great. The pizza is straight up delicious!

This is my diamond in the rough Italian place. Nestled inside Joppatowne in a small but cozy building is this authentic southern italian restaurant that also has my absolute favorite NY style fresh dough pizza. The prices are rock bottom amazing for the quality and quantity of food you get. Wine pours are generous :)
Pepe and Vinnie run this place. They are from Naples, Italy… born and raised, and know how to make good food.
Daily specials include things like Shrimp/​Scallop/​Crap Chesapeake over pasta, or an occassional ribeye and cake, or a home made stuffed seafood ravioli with a rose’ cream sauce.
Try one of their many pasta dishes like Penne a la Vodka, Linquini Calamari Marinara, or any of the classics like Veal Saltimboca, Chicken Cacciatore, Chicken or veal marsala etc.
I HIGHLY recommend the Fried Calamari appetizer, with a squeeze of lemon and a dash of salt. Its served with their marinara which is to die for.
Their bread, pizza dough and such is made in house.
They will make you pretty much anything you want if you ask for it, so if you like something on the menu but want to change it up, just ask. Tell Pepe or Vinnie that Kevin sent ya.