Numero 28 — Restaurant in Bastrop

WAS THIS A FLUKE? Honestly I was so so excited about this Restaurnat and really thrilled to try it. Sadly we were extremely underwhelmed. We didn’t mind the 35 minute wait because we heard it was worth it. Sat down and ordered 4 appraisers. My son through the fried Ravioli was calamari because it was so chewy. The Caprese was just like I make at home only with less salt, less basil, and less balsamic. The flat bread was more than half burned. The olives were really good, although half cold and half warm. Which was fine, but would have been best one or the other. That’s ok we thought, we will just wait for the main meals. After about 45 minutes in and the food hadn’t come. The waitress went to check on it and realized that she never put it in. “That’s ok” I said “mistakes happen”. Assuming it would be fine. 25 minutes or so later out came the food. My daughter’s lasagna was a puddle on the plate. She said she much prefers our homemade lasagna. She ate maybe half of it. She was super hungry. My son’s pizza was raw. He ate one piece and was done. My Arugula salad was fairly ok, although I ordered shrimp and the shrimp was only half cooked. I’m guessing due to the rush on getting it out quickly. I am used to the arugula being bitter, but it was so bitter I just shoved it down as fast as possible. The waitress never came to ask me if it was good. I just left the shrimp and let them take it. We did take the pizza with us. I plan on trying to heat it in the oven and cook it more so it can be eaten. After all of that my son has been eyeing the gelato for days every time we walk by. So we asked about desert. We ended up with the chocolate cake and tiramisu. The Tiramisu was AMAZING!!! It tasted homemade and was so light and fluffy. The chocolate cake tasted like freezer burn and had so much Nutella on it that my daughter only had one bite. My son gobbled some more of it, and then left most of it on the plate. The waitress comped the desert due to the long wait time, but I’m just so sad that I don’t want to go back. I know so many people love this place and I really...

My waiter, Mike, was AWESOME! This is really the only reason for the 3 stars.

Here's my guess...after the high amount of business their first week open, the management emphasized quick delivery of food. This leads to everything being cold and undercooked.

We got the meatball appetizer. The mozzarella cheese was almost entirely unmelted and the sauce was lukewarm. I brought this up to my server and said, "you might tell the cooks that they should thoroughly warm/cool everything I spite of the rush.". He immediately took the meatballs back to be heated. They came back out at the same time as our entrees of chicken parmesan and a fettuccine Alfredo type of dish.

I immediately saw that the chicken parmesan had completely unmelted cheese on top and was deflated. The noodles were piping hot while everything else was lukewarm😔.

The Alfredo type dish (which seems to be their signature dish) had undercooked noodles and was a very small portion of spaghetti noodles with a cheese sauce. We had to pay extra for chicken added, btw.

I wasn't going to say anything to the waiter or anybody but as I was about to leave the owner (apparently) came by to ask how everything was. I explained to him how, in spite of my favorite towards al dente noodles, the Alfredo type dish had undercooked noodles. Rather than saying a basic "I'm sorry that happened." Or something similar he proceeded to try to explain to me how "that's just how the dish is with fresh pasta." And basically say I'm just wrong. At this point I grew a bit annoyed. I was born and raised in Europe before coming back to the states and Rome was one of my favorite places largely due to the food and tried to explain this to him to express how I appreciate an al dente dish but this was beyond that.

I'm hoping these types of simple errors will be corrected as time goes on but my first impression was not a...

OK, here's a very honest review....

The good: the service was very attentive and friendly and the atmosphere was cute. The cocktail was tasty and the dessert was really good.

Now the bad: The calamari had no flavor. The chicken parmesan was very dry and tough and also had no flavor. The side of pasta was OK. My wife got the cacio e pepe, which was OK if you really like cheese. Portion size was small for what we paid, and menu isn't very extensive. Meals do not include salad or bread, which is also a disappointment.

This place just opened, so it might have some growing pains. I didn't realize it was a chain, which is disappointing. I hope they succeed, and not posting my opinion to be malicious, it's just my...