Pavarotti's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in County Westmeath

Passed through athlone this evening, needed food, it was busy so we assumed it was good. Nothing could be further from the truth, if you like Italian food, do NOT go here. Dolmio stir in closer to Italian cuisine than this place. No flavours, no herbs or garlic, lidl-quality seafood, parmasan like powder and pasta sauces tasteless. So so so bad. If I could have given it no star I would have. Only place I've ever eaten where I felt strongly enough to give a review

Response to owner: I ordered seafood pasta in a tomato sauce, I got seafood pasta in a cream sauce, no problem with that if the food tasted good, but it was tasteless. The seafood was not fresh, I'm sure it was a seafood mix from a packet, it had no flavour and I had to add loads of salt. There appeared to be packet dried herbs scattered around the plate, again, fresh herbs would be better. I'm glad in a way I got the cream sauce because my wife had prawns (not very many it has to be said) in the tomato based sauce (not fresh tomatoes, it was as if it was out of a tin). We tasted each others and we both thought hers was awfully bland, again we had to add a tonne of salt. No garlic, chilli, lemon, basil, herbs, just really awful. The parmasan wasn't parmasan, it was cheap powdered fake stuff. We only had main courses thankfully. Also, you need to seriously upgrade your bathroom facilities, in a place where people spend money to eat they don't want to see dirty and delapidated toilets, it gives the impression the food is prepared by unclean staff in unclean kitchens. Sorry if this review sounds harsh but it was such a poor experience. I can forgive getting the order wrong.... I could even go so far to turn a blind eye to the bathroom..... But when you're charging good money for such bad food I had to write the review. Most Irish people are happy to 'be fed', hence the good reviews I see presumably, but the quality of the food does not deserve a good review. If I cooked it myself at home, I would have been...

Arrived here at 8:15pm on a Sunday night 13 Oct. The waitress was extremely unwelcoming, she just looked at us when we walked in the door. We asked for a table for 2 and she grimaced and appeared indecisive and looked back at the chef and told us “we only have lasagne or spaghetti bolognese, no pizzas the oven is off”. Which later turned out to be a lie. Her behaviour told us she did not want customers. We were seated and brought table water, and no menu for the possibility of ordering starters. We were asked about drinks and I asked what wine they had and she started to list wines, so I asked to see the menu which was then brought to the table, but again this appeared to be an inconvenience. We ordered lasagne and spag bol and waited.

5 minutes later another couple entered the restaurant and seated themselves. They were provided with menus and placed their orders from the full menu - not lasagne or spag bol.

Another couple then entered and were seated and provided with full menus; one person at this table got a pizza.

5 minutes later a table of 3 entered and were seated and provided with full menus and ordered from it.

Then approx. 8:30-8:35pm a table of 7 arrived and asked for a table, were seated and ordered from the full menu.

Our drinks and food arrived. The food was good but this was completely overshadowed by the terrible attitude and service of the waitress. A different waitress arrived to clear our plates and asked us if we wanted desserts. Unfortunately, from the time we had ordered our food, we just wanted to eat it and get out of there. It was a very uncomfortable experience for us both. If things had been different, we would have ordered starters, mains from the full menu, and possibly desserts, and a bottle of wine. We will never return to this restaurant and do not...

The place was packed and we thought this was a sign that the food was good. We were deceived! To start, we had the avocado shrimp cocktail and the tomato and mozzarella salad. For mains, we had the cannelloni and carbonara pasta.

Shrimp cocktail, it was not. It was a plate with mixed salad and a pile of cooked small shrimps on the side, a few slices of avocado covered in what seemed to be a "thousand island" dressing.

The pommodorro salad was a few slices of tomato with slices mozzarella on a bed of thinly sliced iceberg lettuce.

The cannelloni were fine but served with either (more) salad or chips (so weird). flavour for that was fine. Pasta was overcooked.

The carbonara was awful. I missed it on the menu, but they they added cream to the sauce (not a real carbonara) AND the "bacon" (which should be pancetta) was like a boiled shredded ham. Tasted like canned ham. Pasta was overcooked. It was gross.

When asked about a wine list the options were "red" or "white.". The glasses had a film. Anyway, we had the red (chianti) but it wasn't good.

The place was so busy there was no service to speak of other than to take our order and deliver out food.

Getting out of out seats was a challenge with other patrons jockeying their chairs to let us out. It...