Margaret & Sons Pasta Place — Restaurant in Port Macquarie

When I first opened my order of "cream of mushroom pasta" and "vegetarian lasagna" I was mistaken in thinking that I had accidentally been served the incorrect order and somehow been given two portions or cream of mushroom pasta. It wasn't until I put my fork in I realised that in fact the vegetarian lasagna had been indulged with a creamy mushroom sauce in place of the traditional tomato Napoli one would normally expect from a restaurant which prides itself on handmade pasta.

Not one to be dissuaded by the opportunity to be overwhelming impressed by a new experience I tentatively partook in its consumption, however by halfway through the first mouthful I was far beyond dubious, bordering on revolted... A Gross Understatement is the only accurate description of what I was experiencing. To describe this as vegetarian would not be inaccurate in that it contained (as far as I could ascertain) contained no meat, the only semblance of vegetables that I could decipher from the fungal swamp of uncultured cheap grey mush would be best described as the remnants of a malnourished compost bin. I would have preferred it swimming in Heinz tomato soup (unless you are exclusive to Campbell's) If my eyes and pallet do not deceive there was (what I hope was) ricotta, which was seasoned with some non descript greenery that may or may not have been amalgamated in a blender prior to, or, optimistically AT your premises.

Needless to say this dish underwhelmed my expectations. Here I feel I should take some semblance of the burden of guilt for my poor experience as upon seeing the disposable red and white checkered table cloths I jokingly remarked to my partner that I could already taste the powdered parmesan, this is the moment at which I should have had no further interaction with your poor excuse for a reason to alleviate tourist of their hard earned income.

Up until this point I could pass off the experience as a mistaken but well intentioned case of artistic licence. However after begrudgingly consuming the mere aroma of the "cream of mushroom" pasta I was transported via an aromatic black hole of culinary PTSD back to the 80's in what can only be described as the unmistakable taste that is "Campbell's cream of mushroom soup".

I'm not sure if you deglazed the pan with white wine as claimed on your menu, but I doubt it would have been the make or break of my experience.

The hand made pasta was well done, very well done as a matter of fact. What may be described by other less empathetic customers as 'overcooked'

I'd love to say that the pasta itself was fabulous, but it was more than 50% boiled water, so I'd be more inclined to critique the unsalted chlorine that Port Macquarie's lead and PVC pipes are blessed with transporting.

I understand that cooking authentic foreign food in small Australian towns is difficult, but there was less love and worse ingredients than your Nona had to work with during the war.

This was in the bottom three most disgusting things I have ever eaten, and I've eaten a live slug. If you have ever had a customer with or without dementia return I'm terribly sorry for their tastebuds and sense of self worth.

This premise is a disgrace to the town of port Macquarie, may you choke on powdered parmesan for the entirety of the existence of eternity. I had to put this in words so I could sleep this evening.

Maybe try opening a fruit and vegetable shop, cooking is...

I had the extreme displeasure of dinning here tonight.

Where to begin. Sizes : portions are extremely small so if you want to pay top dollar and leave a restaurant hungry this is the spot for you. I've attached a photo of my meal , mind you I also had to pay extra for a pasta sauce as the pasta came with nothing on it , not even Oil. P.s I did ask about the portions prior to ordering this and I received 25% of what was described. Kids meal weren't any better with the kids in the group having to be feed when we returned home , they might as well given 3 nugget and a tic tac to share among 5 kids.

Taste : the term "Home made" is used creatively, I'm guessing the person who opened the packet's of pasta is named either home and or made, this is the only way it can be explained. If you want uninviting food with no flavour do yourself a flavour and just go to the servo and buy yourself a sandwich, as this restaurant is currently experiencing a shortage of salt , pepper ,spices and an ability to know how to cook. given the veal was soaked in oil, maybe they were trying to save money on heating so there didn't want to heat the oil up prior.

Being able to receive feedback: we asked to speak to the manager at the end of our meal so we can pass on some feedback but the Son from Margret's and son ,drop nutz and acted dumb as he walked out passed our group and jumped in his Ute. What made things worst is instead of talking to us in person he then had to become a keyboard warrior and reply to one of our groups reviews, his inflated ego and false sense of cooking ability turned a poor dinning experience into a all round bad night.

Only saving grace was the 2 serving staff that were running around like headless Chicken trying to do everything and put out fires.

I think Margaret needs to stop trying to teach her son how to cook and maybe help him do something about those eyebrows

If I could give the restaurant -20 I would and how do you like...

We have went there on this past Easter break, and enjoyed the food there. We were a family of two adults and two kids and were the first one to arrive on the Sunday dinner. The restaurant is situated along the Pacific Drive just across Flynns beach, and on a busy day, parking the car may be a challenge. We didn't have much time since we had to be at the Observatory and the staff kindly took in our rush request and brought the ordered food at the earliest possible. We ordered a Garlic Prawn entree as a starter. This was a good surprise for us. However much a lot of people say "hunger is the best chef", I can safely recommend dish to any pasta / prawn / garlic lover. The balance of all of these was gorgeous! It would be better if the prawns weren't frozen, but I'm sure that was because of the long weekend :) We also ordered Fettuccine Carbonara, Ravioli Bolognese, and Margherita pizza. The Carbonara: The soupy sauce with the hand cut fettuccine was a great match for the hungry appetite. Big chunks of bacon also gave good accent to the taste. It also went super well with garlic bread we ordered separately. The Ravioli: Clearly, this was hand made raviolis that were prepared carefully and boiled in a nice bed of water. Each pocket was full of juice and flavour, topped with the bolognese sauce that filled in the mouth! The Pizza: We always love the plain simple Margherita so hence ordered. It was more to the cheese pizza type with thick crust and mildly herby sauce, but the amount of cheese was just right to finish the meal.

Each dish was generously served and we had enjoyed the food so so much! There were plenty of cakes on display that we couldn't conquer this time; surely next time we will take charge of them ;) Thank you for the gorgeous night, and we'll...