Mirko Pasta — Restaurant in Atlanta

A great place ruined by a horrible owner. They always say not everyone is meant to be a business owner, and I 100% agree. I was so excited to try Marko Pasta for the first, so I placed a To-Go order. I made the 25 min drive from my home through Buckhead traffic just to try this place. I order shrimp Alfredo and a side salad. I was able to take a peek at my salad when I arrived, but my pasta bag was tied with 3 knots so I wasn’t able to get a look before leaving. The owner seemed friendly (so I thought) so I trusted that everything was fine. I drive the 25 min home just to open the container to dry pasta. I mean absolutely no sauce on the pasta. I could tell there may have been very little sauce poured on the pasta because I saw a little residue on the side of the container but that was it. I’m not sure if the chef was skimpy and it all evaporated or if maybe a tablespoon of sauce was poured in, but I mean, the bottom of the pan was completely bare. I was disappointed because I was excited to try the pasta, but I figured at least I had the bread and salad to hold me over for dinner.

I called back to speak with the manager to tell him the issue. He immediately got rude and said, drive back over, and I’ll give you a cup of Alfredo sauce..... what? He told me to drive back 25 min from my home to pick up a cup of Alfredo sauce. Every time I tried to speak, he would over talk me, so I doubt he heard me say that I am not driving 50min between both ways just to bring Alfredo sauce home. He didn’t even offer a fresh meal just to pick up the Alfredo sauce and take it home and pour it on my dry, cold, and now over an hour old pasta. I said since the commute literally makes no sense could be honor a credit for a future visit. He yelled “NO! If I don’t see the pasta, I’m not giving you anything”. I even went a step further and offered to text him a photo or email him a photo because most businesses have an email account. Nope, he said the only thing he could do was give me a cup of Alfredo if I was to drive back tonight. I told him that was not happening, and all I was asking was for a credit for a meal I cannot even eat. He then hangs up the phone on me..... yup the owner really did that. I politely called back and asked the young lady who answered the phone could she please deliver the message to the owner that I will be disputing my meal's charge with my bank. Not only was his response unacceptable and unprofessional. The only part of my meal I was able to eat was the $6 side salad. “He then randomly gets on the phone and says, do whatever you need to do. I don’t want to see tour face in my restaurant again and then hang up the phone again”.... fine, you will never see my face in your restaurant again. But you will see that chargeback for my $30.

Please don’t waste your time here. If you want real quality pasta I highly recommend La Grotta or Ninos Italian. They both have superb service, great pricing, and excellent food quality. I’ve met both owners and not only were they sweet and accommodating. They were the most important thing a owner should be. Professional!!! The one bite I did take of the dry pasta tasted exactly like barilla noodles. Such a shame. It says a lot when I could have gone to Olive Garden for half the price with double the quantity...

This was my first time trying out this spot on a whim as I was in the area for Phoenix & Dragon. My partner and I came in on a Friday at 7pm, no wait - but was a little confused when we first entered and saw a bar, no host stand, and some guy in a black tshirt waved us down from halfway across the restaurant to tell us to sit anywhere. After grabbing a booth, a busboy delivered bread and some weird concoction of olive oil and possibly mashed cannelini beans? Whatever it was, it had zero flavor.

When our server eventually came to our table, she dropped off the water carafe and said she'd be right back. Didn't introduce herself, didn't take our drink orders (even though we'd been seated for 10+ minutes by that point), and everytime she came back, it was the same response from her as she piece-by-piece assembled our table for us: brought the water then realized we didn't have any straws, then waited another 5 minutes for her to bring water glasses. We waited another 5+ minutes for her to "be right back" while we watched her stand 10ft away just talking to coworkers, while we had been there for at least 15+ minutes without anyone taking our drink orders appetizer orders.

As far as food and drinks--

I ordered a sangria that was so cloudy and watery, I've never seen or tasted a sangria like that in my life. After that I switched to the Sella red wine, which was fine, but I was disturbed by the amount of dust and hair floating throughout the restaurant that collected in my wine glass.

We ordered bruschetta to start, and I had the Pollo Parma (chicken parmesan). The bruschetta had absolutely zero salt or taste, even with the "fresh" basil... I had to add the table salt and pepper to my portion.

The chicken parm was not anything special at all, and honestly was reminiscent of the chicken parm I'd get served in high school, except with chicken tenders instead of the rectangle chicken breasts.

I had maybe only taken 2 or 3 bites from my meal before the unknown waitress came by asking how we were, and I was just grateful that my partner asked for the check at that point because of the amount of large dust and hair floating around in the air that you could see in the sunlight. The visible dirt and dust and whatever else in the air was SO BAD that I was literally able to catch 2 pieces of them in my fingertips as it floated in the middle of our table, right above our food.

0/2 would recommend - DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR HEALTH OR ENERGY GOING HERE!!! We spent over $120+ for 2 people (2 drinks, 2 entrees, 1 app) and this was sooo not worth it!!!!!

I attached a photo of the limp, flavorless bruschetta that looks the line cook stepped on before serving. Didn't take any other pictures after that because of how upsetting the whole experience was (and being preoccupied swatting dust away from our food and drinks).

We're super disappointed that we tried to be spontaneous and try a local neighborhood spot. The previous reviews didn't seem too bad, so I felt obligated to write this honest and recent review to save any others from...

I've come here for many years and over the last few years, the food quality has depleted drastically and the things that used to make mirko cool and interesting seem to have gone away.

The last time that I went there, I was on a date with my boyfriend. We spent about 115$ on dinner and it was wildly disappointing to say the least. The bread and bean dip to begin with was still really yummy but that was the end of the good food. We got the Arancini balls for an appetizer. They were basically just glorified mozzarella sticks and they tasted as such. For our entrees, I got the Chicken Marsala and my boyfriend got the rigatoni with the fungi sauce and added chicken. I would bet money that the Chicken Marsala was frozen and then just reheated in a microwave. The texture of the chicken was just off and the side of the Au gratin potatoes was firstly, not au gratin, and secondly, very cold. My boyfriend's dish was definitely better but still not good. The pasta was actually undercooked and the fungi sauce was bland. We also compared our chicken just to confirm that mine was definitely frozen. Dessert was the final kicker however. Maybe we shouldn't have gotten dessert after the experience with our entrees, but like I said, I've been coming here for years and I wanted to think that it was just an off day for them. For dessert we ordered the Chocolate Mousse. When our server brought it out, it clearly was not set. It was gummy and pudding-like. It was actually atrocious and so we didn't eat it. We pushed it to the front of the table and just waited for the server to come back. When he comes back he said "Eww yeah I know I saw how bad it looked coming out of the window I'm so sorry about that guys. Can I get you another dessert to replace it?". That was the final straw. As someone who has been a server plenty of times, I was absolutely shocked that he just told us that he knew that the chocolate mousse looked off and gross, but instead asking for a other one or explaining that potentially the mousse was just not set up for the evening, he brought it to use anyways hoping that we just wouldn't notice and would eat it.

All in all we ended up spending 115$ on our dinner before tip which was no better than any dinner I've ever had at Olive Garden. So just save your money and if you're thinking of coming...