Meef's Pasteria — Restaurant in Beavercreek

I’ve been wanting to try this restaurant since it opened, despite some of the lower-rated reviews. Unfortunately, the cons outweighed the pros here.

Pros: The garlic knots were awesome. The service was friendly and polite, and the restaurant is cleaner than it was when it used to be CBCBs. The portion sizes are also huge.

Cons: The spaghetti is the exact same quality and consistency you’d expect from a can of Chef Boyardee. The side salad was literally just shredded green lettuce for tacos with a few pre-shredded carrots and cabbage pieces mixed in. The chicken parm was fine, but the sauce lacked flavor. Everything was costly—the side salad was $6/bowl (you could get an entire bag of salad mix from the store for that price) and the chicken parm was $26.

Atmospherics: The restaurant still looks like a burger bar. There are a few pictures of Italy plastered on the walls and Italian-themed music playing on the loudspeakers, but neither of those things makes this feel like a nice Italian restaurant. The owner should really consider putting white tablecloths on the tables, scrapping the paper placemats, and replacing the Blue Moon umbrellas on the patio tables with plain ones—all things that would make this place look upscale without actually needing to do much work or increase prices. It could benefit from some brighter lighting and some interior updates, too.

The chicken was fine enough to bring home the leftovers, and I of course took the garlic knots. The spaghetti was just not good. Unless prices are lowered and the quality of the food improves overall, I likely won’t be back. As others have mentioned, money would’ve been better spent at a chain like Olive Garden (which, by a lot of people’s standards, isn’t a “real” Italian restaurant in the first place) or any other small, locally owned...

Pros: The food was delicious! There were four of us. We had lasagna, stuffed shells, a chicken dish, and a ravioli dish. The portions were big enough to take some home.

Cons: Like a previous review stated, they really would benefit from closing the place and renovating it before opening back up. You are basically sitting in the old Cold Beer & Cheeseburgers bar where they are now serving Italian food. There were things on the floor on the way to the bathroom. It looks like they are in the process of changing the decor but haven't gotten very far.

Our server was brand new, had just started 30 minutes before we arrived. She really didn't know the menu at all, BUT she was very nice and found out answers to all our questions and was very proactive. She really did a great job, in my opinion.

The menu was kind of pricey, but the food was really good and the portions were large.

We will absolutely go back again and see what improvements...

Place is a wreck, needs to be closed for a month or two until it is fixed repaired and ready to serve. Holes in the walls, art on the tables, drinks hit or miss, waitress doesn’t know the menu, one chef, one waitress. No Point of Sale, so receipt is a sheet from a notepad. Not a receipt book, a college ruled notepad. The food is served late cold and flavorless. The garlic knots have no garlic, the sauce has a metal can taste to it, and they have no idea what salt is. But at least they charge $30 an entree. 30 minutes for appetizers, an hour for food. Meatballs couldn’t be cut with a knife, piccata was dry, and flavorless. The taste of Italy was sad, flavorless, all in one bowl, couldn’t tell anyone from another. $10 wines for $55…. The table next to me found out that lesson the hard way. AVOID AT...