The popular concept of pick and choose your ingredients is great but that's as great as it will get here.
Tucked in the back corner plaza near chipotle the restaurant is bright orange, clean and inviting. The employees were young and friendly. We ordered:
Entree:
- salad bowl with salmon
- pasta bowl with arrabiata
- kids pasta with butter sauce
Sides:
- salad
- bruschetta
Drinks:
- red wine
- choco milks
The romaine had lots of browning. The veggies looked like they were sitting out and lacked crunch (I basically added every flavor veggie in my salad and couldn't taste any of it since it had a soggy texture). The salmon was small and lacked any flavor at all. My friend also ordered salmon salad and it looked completely different...almost mahi mahi color. So before they toss your salad they yelled "Salmon!" to the back and a few minutes later it came out wrapped in foil. Hmmmm....pre cooked salmon and slightly heated in foil. Interesting.
My husband was not able to eat the pasta and said it was the worst he has ever had. I sampled his and I concur. Lacked flavor...and this was arrabiata so there is something wrong with not having any flavor.
Kids pasta with butter sauce was a reject as well. I had to add salt, which I hate doing, pepper, oregano and cheese to add some flavor. They literally gave a thumbs down and kept asking us if they could be done. Kids ate a few bites and we threw most of it away. This probably saddens me the most...it's fine if I don't eat but when my kids don't eat because it tastes bad, it's a big "no-no" in my book.
Bruschetta. I know it's supposed to be toasted but was it wheat bread? Why was it so brown? Ah..maybe because it was BURNED. The bread was thick and tomato chunks were completely soggy. Believe it or not this actually had the most flavor of everything we ate although the texture was wrong.
Wine was a Small plastic fetzer bottle and came with a plastic cup. No comment.
In my humble opinion pasta should be served hot. If the toppings are cold and pasta is lukewarm that just isnt the right combo for good pasta. If they allowed you to pick the fresh toppings then they cooked it in front of you with a little evoo and some seasoning then added it to hot pasta now that is a concept that could work. The only thing they have going for them is good service and big portions but if you have any desire to taste Italian food I would not recommend this place. Sorry Pellini but you will have to be added to my "Do Not Eat" list.