The circles are napped with a light scampi sauce and placed around a mound of vegetable-imbedded couscous.

The overdone shellfish was mushy, and the scampi sauce was completely devoid of garlic or any other taste.

I was underwhelmed by both of the meat entrees we tried, lamb osso buco and filet mignon with scampi sauce.

And even the Italian restaurant favorite, scampi sauce, lacks the heady perfume of garlic.

A generous hodgepodge of steamed shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams and calamari came in a so-called "white scampi sauce," a thin broth with garlic and rice.

If I could come up with a scampi sauce as addictive as snail butter, I'd be one very happy cook.

A "scampi sauce" is often served over chicken or fish.

A less fortuitous entree was sea scallops with a scampi sauce that, as one of our guests put it, was "more scanty than scampi."

I was less taken with the Absolutely combo of grilled shrimp and chicken breast in a scampi sauce.

While the scampi sauce of wine, butter and garlic was up to par, the shrimps that came with it were mushy and flavorless, as though defrosted and frozen several times over.