North Italia — Restaurant in Austin

I’ve taken my family here a few times over the years and we have enjoyed it. It’s in a great spot next to a kids play area and in the domain with great shopping, etc.. I recently took my family back and was pretty let down by the experience because somehow, some way, on a Saturday at the start of the dinner hour (4pm) , they were either out of or didn’t prep the first 3 things I asked for. I wanted the lasagna, they didn’t have it made or wasn’t available anymore I guess. I asked for their house special ole fashioned, they were out of the terimono. The waitress said they could make a traditional old fashioned instead and so I agreed. What I didn’t know was that they were going to upcharge that drink 6dollars more than their house special termino old fashioned. So minus one ingredient and I got charged 6 dollars more. Then I asked for the soup of the day. Waitress told me they didn’t have time to make it today. For real? Haha. It’s a Saturday at 4pm dinner time and your management failed so miserably that nothing was stocked or made in time for the weekend? I just expected more from this place. Also I made a reservation for 5 people at 4pm and They sat us at a table for 4 and squeezed a chair in. Why though? I made the reservation for 5 and was on time. The place wasn’t packed.. The waitress suggested the Bolognese instead since the lasagna and soup weren’t an option now , so I agreed because it is the house special. There is quite literally nothing special about it. To top this off, I wrote in the reservation that this was a celebration of my wife’s return home from a deployment she returned from that day …aaaand 4hrs after eating here my wife got sick. Can’t recall her dish but remember liking it better than what I got. Glad I didn’t get it now. Seems like food poisoning as we didn’t eat anything else after this. I Hope this is a one off for them but based on how unprepared they were for the first three items I asked for and not having a reserved table ready for 5 people, I doubt it. Not sure we will come back to this one again...

Let me preface this review with the fact that we’ve given North Italia four tries over the years. The location is great and the menu at a glance looks fantastic. That being said, every visit, the issue that comes up is consistency. This is surprising for a chain restaurant and also one with decently high prices. And I assume their main competitor at the Domain is another Italian spot, Mia Italian Tapas, which provides an outstanding product and experience every time.

This time, our pizza, which is on the surface one of the tastiest pizzas I’ve had in Austin, had way too much crust. It looked like the cooks had rushed to put in a bunch of pizzas at the same time, and we got one of them.

The spicy vodka sauce pasta, which I order every time I visit, was so spicy it was inedible. Not at all like the past times I’ve had it. It also came out lukewarm. The noodles on the bolognese pasta stuck together, creating a massive pasta nest and making it hard to enjoy.

Compared to the downtown location, for whatever reason, their pasta portions are literally half the size. Would it be that tough to offer a bit more in the large bowl that they are served in? It did not fill me up, and I’m a pretty small individual. At the downtown location, I would have had a full belly and some even leftover to take home.

As many reviewers mentioned, the service is also inconsistent. Always alright, but never great. If you ask for drink refills, extra Parmesan, etc. you will have to ask at least twice and watch your bill to make sure things didn’t “accidentally” get added that you were not informed of in advance. I understand… the servers are trying to beef up their bills so they can get larger tips. But I’d recommend focus on providing an outstanding service experience instead so people want to return!

I love North Italia’s product, I just hope they focus more on improving their execution because I would like to return without feeling disappointed by my experience...

Overall a little disappointed. Came in with a party of 7 with reservations and was seated promptly. We ordered some appetizers and drinks which all went well. Appetizers were Calamari, Casio e Pepe Arancini and Grilled Bread and Oil. Calamari was ok but way over breaded and had more of an onion ring vibe going on. The Casio e Pepe Arancini was excellent! Highly recommend it and make sure you combine it with some of the pesto sauce that comes with it. The grilled bread was good and straight forward. After we ordered our salad and main course and this is where it was off. The salads came out promptly and were fine but right after the salads came out our server came over and informed us that our meal was ready and asked if we wanted it now or wait till after we finish our salad. We politely asked for them after our salad but there was really no choice as as soon as they walked away the food runner arrived with our plates with no questions and promptly served them to the sides of the salads that we had just received. Now if this was a casual restaurant I can understand but I do not believe North Italia would state they are a causal restaurant. The food was decent. A few of us had the Bolognese which was very good and good size portion. There was also a Wild Shrimp Scampi that was ok, shrimp were a bit on the small size but had a good flavor. We had ordered some drink refills as well during some of this and the food runner said he would tell our server, in which we watched as he just went to pick up more food and never even spoke to anyone on the drink refills. Lastly the place has two single use restrooms for a fairly large capacity place. Several times there was a line for the restrooms and while the place had plenty of people it was not...