DePalma's Italian Cafe - Eastside — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

I was disappointed in the quality of the food at the Eastside location where I took my daughter for her birthday because it is near her apartment. I had gone to the Timothy Rd. location years ago with my son and I recall it being much better.

We started with the Housemade Focaccia Bread with spinach & smoked gouda sauce, $8.50. Unfortunately, it was more like cornbread than the foccasia bread we know from other restaurants. It came with a very liquid white sauce. It definitely is not worth the money.

My daughter ordered the Mediterranean Pasta- tomato linguini pasta tossed with olive oil & garlic, basil, kalamata olive, tomato, Greek peppers & feta, $16 (add shrimp $6.) It was a large serving with a lot of olives and a reasonable amount of feta; however, once again, it did not have the amazing flavor she, or I, thought it should. She asked for the add-on shrimp and received 3 tiny, poor quality shrimp on the top, center. Maybe they were embarrassed by that because they only charged an additional $4. These shrimp were the size found in a typical 30 to 40 shrimp/lb, (or maybe 50+/lb) that probably cost $7 to $9 retail, i.e., smaller than her pinky finger.

I ordered the Seafood Charmaine- shrimp & sea scallops with a spicy sun–dried tomato, spinach & jalapeño cream sauce over fettuccine, $22. I received a pasta portion about half the size of my daughter's, three nice and very delicious scallops, and I only found two poor quality shrimp - tiny like those in my daughter's dish. There was almost no flavor to the pasta and sauce.

Both my daughter and I attempted to add flavor to our entrees with black pepper and crushed red pepper, but discussed the lack of typical Italian herb flavors one would expect in an Italian dish.

We split a Italian Chopped Salad- cucumber, tomato, red onion, black olive, feta, basil, & sun-dried tomatoes with turkey, salami & hard boiled egg over romaine, $13. If you have ever ordered a similar salad at Buca di Bepo, Maggiano's, or even when they had one at Schlotzsky's, you will know that this one pales in comparison and is definitely not worth the money.

I wanted to get her a dessert for her birthday but we decided that would likely be a mistake based on the meal. It is always disappointing to feel like you wasted almost $90 on anything, but when it happens on a special occasion, it sort of adds...

So we went to diplomas on Saturday night. The way to get in was just a little over 30 minutes long but we were able to find a place at the bar and enjoy a light conversation and a glass of wine while we waited for a table to be cleared. Even though we may have been a little late for the dinner crowd a little after 7:00, the place was filled alive and bristling. We were seated just about half an hour after arrival in one of the corner booths that made for a cozy and intimate meal. After looking over the menu for a brief moment, we decided on pizza and ordered the wild mushroom three cheese pizza. A side salad with the Gorgonzola cheese dressing, which we ended up ordering extra for pizza as well the Gorgonzola dressing is outstanding. The service we received at the DePalma's was fantastic, very attentive. The waiter kept us informed of the arrival of our appetizers, which was helpful with the wine selection and also helpful in our decision to find the order of the mushroom 3 cheese pizza. The pizza arrived at the table hot and smelling delicious. We both thought the crust on the pizza was just fantastic, and the quantity of mushrooms and cheese was perfect. Only one in our party had a complaint, and that was it was too cheesy, so that wasn't a bad thing at all. We definitely enjoyed our meal at diplomas Saturday night and will return as always. Nice little treasure to the east...

The pictures I could not add: stuffed mushrooms (they were so good) and so was the bread. We did love our waitress. She was very nice and made me feel welcomed (which can’t be said for the rest of the workers). The only two major complaints we have are:

1.) Being made to feel as if we walk around with freaking flies in our pockets and dump them in our drinks. The waitress shared my lack of wanting to get another sprite and or a free dessert (the manager bluntly said “oh, I don’t know how that happened we keep all our doors closed… well, Mr. Manager, apparently not because a freaking dead fly ended up in my drink and I didn’t notice until I saw something floating in my drink). Instead of owning the mistake, he instead offered a free dessert (which don’t get me wrong, if I had my appetite, I probably would’ve took him up in that. But, honestly who would want a free dessert after finding a fly in a drink they were drinking on?).

2.) My noodles were over cooked (and didn’t have sauce all over them.. the plate you barely see in the first picture, is the plate I used to remove the...