De Pastafabriek — Restaurant in Groningen

I have no words. This is by far the worst food I have ever eaten in a restaurant. This restaurant was recommended by many people so my friend and I decided to check it out. First off, you enter the restaurant through plastic flaps like they’d have in a butcher’s freezer. In hindsight this was the first red flag. It was really busy, which seemed like a good sign. You had to order through a QR system, and payed immediately. We ordered two pastas and an appetizer of bruschetta. After some time our pastas arrived: two plates of pasta. We were a little puzzled as to why we didn’t get our appetizer first and went to eat our pastas. Only they hadn’t provided us with cutlery, so we had to scour the restaurant for cutlery ourselves.

After a while our appetizers and drinks (which hadn’t been delivered either) arrived. We had been waiting on this before starting our meal. We took one bite and it immediately felt wrong. The pasta was so chewy and both awfully undercooked as well as overcooked? My friend had the same experience. The mushrooms were tiny and mushy, the chicken rubbery. I don’t know how you can mess up “fresh” pasta that badly but it was horrible.

To have a break from this abomination called pasta I tried some bruschetta. Seems like they have never eaten a bruschetta in their life because this was just plain odd. The bread was just a 1 euro baguette from the supermarket, untoasted. The tomatoes on top were not seasoned and were mixed with large chunks of raw onion. Again bad food, but more edible than the pasta. We could barely manage to finish 1/3 of the pasta and felt it sitting heavy in our stomachs the whole night. The cherry on top? I got nasty FOOD POISONING from this meal and spent the next day vomiting and feeling so nauseous.

It was expensive for what we were served and if we had just made it at home it would have turned out edible and way cheaper.

If you are ever in Groningen, avoid this place at all costs, no matter what any locals...

4 friends and me went out for dinner to the very well rated, centrally located pastafabriek in Gronigen. Unfortunately the experience was very disappointing. First of all, the ordering system via your own phone is convinient, but it is only possible to pay by Ideal or credit card. No Pay Pal, Apple pay Klarna or other very popular paying methods. As a starter we ordered bruscetta, which was simply blend. Fortnunately they provide salt, pepper, olive oil and basilikum at every table. Then I ordered the vegetariam carbonara and had high hopes, since they are called Pastafabriek. I received a very blend creamy pasta, with some zucchini pieces in it. The pasta had absolute nothing to do with a carbonara. Since the dish was tasteless i had no other option than adding loads of salt and pepper. All of my friends very disappointed with their pasta dishes. Anyways if you are looking for a place with cheap water, this still...

Unfortunately, our visit did not go well. Pasta was undercooked, we were already waiting for it pretty long and we asked to remake it. Second one was not much better. Tiramisu we got also included a hair in the package. Waiter looked at it and was like - oh, no, it’s just something inside, not a hair and was just standing. He changed it only after my friend told that I’m not gonna eat a desert with a hair inside. Also tiramisu is extremely heavy textured, nothing in common with original recipe, but if you like heavy mascarpone - that’s perfect for you (and also if you like hair).

So. Long waiting time, hair in food, undercooked dish and also we were not offered to remove it from the bill or anything what any other normal restaurant would do in such...