Pasqualino's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Bryson City

We were shocked when we walked in; a little hole in the wall restaurant decorated like a Grecian/Romanesque hall with finely-dressed wait staff was definitely not what we expected from this tiny town. The service was top-notch, our server had all the menu answers and after some small talk had amazing local suggestions for our hiking adventure the following day. Really a great experience. As we left we were thanked repeatedly for our patronage from the staff as we passed. Wish we could pick this place up and take it home with us to become our regular dinner spot!! Meal details: My husband asked for some local beer options and was not disappointed, the server was spot on in his descriptions. I got a dirty martini which was decent. Upon sitting we got fresh breadsticks and an olive oil/vinaigrette dipping sauce that was very well seasoned with spices. If you’re expecting Olive Garden breadsticks, don’t bother coming here. These were soft and fluffy and soaked up the vinaigrette wonderfully, and were not saturated with butter or salt or fake cheese from a shaker jar.

Entrees come with a side salad and pasta with sauce of your choosing, we both got the Alfredo and it was smooth, delicious and authentic, not at all chunky or salty like chain places. The dressings were made in-house, we got caesar and blue cheese for our salads, top notch in taste, and they served the salads before our entree (which is correct, some restaurants bring it all out together and that’s annoying). The appetizer calamari rings were fresh and fried to perfection, with a marinara dipping sauce. For our entrees we got the local flounder, baked, and the shrimp and scallops meal. The flounder was perfectly lemony and baked well, truly delicious. The star of the meal was the shrimp. Piled high on my plate, I expected about four shrimp and about four scallops but this dish was heaped with perfectly cooked seafood. The shrimp were seasoned and grilled before being added to the butter sauce, and the scallops were baked very well, not over-cooked or chewy at all. They flaked apart at the touch on my fork. Finally, we got a variety of desserts to-go (couldn’t take another bite, so full!) The cannoli was amazing, crunchy shell and delicious filling. The caramel cheesecake was good, soft and cheesy, and the tiramisu was not overly-espresso’d, I personally like mine soaking in a puddle but this was well-portioned without making the pastry soggy and also removing any crunchiness from the ladyfingers. A good balance, especially since we took it to go and ate it a few days later.

All-in-all this random, closely authentic Italian restaurant became a highlight in our national park hiking trip, completely unexpected but...

Me, my wife, and her grandparents ate here about 2 years ago. Me and my wife ordered the margarita pizza because we are pizza lovers at heart and love Italian food in general. We have both been to and lived in Italy for more than a month and for the entire time we were in Italy we were served amazing pizza. Obviously Bryson City isn’t Italy and we weren’t expecting Italy quality, but at the end of the day a margarita pizza is simple and not hard to make but here at this restaurant they not only have no idea what a true margarita pizza is but on top of it the owner is so arrogant and ignorant that they will come out to argue with you about how they are making a true “Margarita pizza” which couldn’t be more of a blatant lie. A true margarita pizza from Italy is just fresh tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and dough made fresh from Italian ingredients and that IS NOT WHAT WE GOT HERE!! Instead I was served a pizza on basic dough that was covered in whole tomato chunks, no actual tomato sauce and very little cheese. My wife and I knew immediately that this isn’t a margarita pizza and that we were being scammed. We told the staff to take the pizza back and that we didn’t touch it and don’t want to pay for it because it’s not what we ordered. Instead of taking it back and being friendly, the owner decides to come out and argue that the pizza is made in true Italian margarita style (he was trying to play us as foolish Americans who haven’t been to Italy), we knew he was full of it and we disagreed. The owner then turned even more rude and insisted we had never been to Italy to see a true margarita pizza which is not true as me and my wife have LIVED in Italy for months. Anyways, instead of doing the right thing, the owner was rude, argumentative and refused to take the pizza off the bill and made us pay for it. I’m just now making this review because me and my wife just went and spent another full month in Italy and never once were we served a margarita pizza like they serve here because it’s not how they make it and I received confirmation from local Italians that a pizza with whole tomato chunks is a specialty pizza of its own and not a margarita pizza. This place is as far from authentic Italian as possible and the owner is a rude, ignorant and arrogant American-Italian man who was born in America and pretends to be from Italy. Stay away and go anywhere else. I decided to leave this review because after visiting Italy again and realizing how wrong and rude the owner was it just really rubbed me...

I had extremely high hopes for this place after reading other reviews.

We showed up after a 5 hour hike ready to gorge ourselves on some good Italian. What was received was anything but amazing.

Upon entering we were seated quickly and greeted by our waiter. That was the end of the good service.

We placed drink orders and asked for a few minutes to look at appetizers. Our waiter seemed annoyed as he walked away to get drinks.

He came back, we ordered the app and our food. This was the last we saw of our waiter for the night aside from his asking us to “borrow” something from the table. More on that later.

Someone brought out a salad and soup. The soup was room temperature, and the salad, a Caesar, was horrid. The dressing was warm and too heavy on the anchovies to the point it tasted like it was straight from the Nantahala around the corner.

Our app and entrees all came out at the same time. The bruschetta was soggy and lacked any flavor.

The manicotti was decent, no salt was added to the dish so it was bland.

The spaghetti and meatballs were as expected, aside from yet again no seasoning.

We never saw our waiter for drink refills or anything. Eventually I caught the eye of the owner and asked for a refill, some salt and olive oil. He was nice enough. He seemed annoyed with the waiter. We explained about the soggy app and he comped it no issue.

About five minutes later the waiter came and grabbed the olive oil from the table with a “I need to borrow this”. Not asking, not requesting.

As we ended our dinner, we were bombarded with staff asking us if we were ready to leave. The hostess brought the bill even though we weren’t done, we planned to get dessert. The waiter came and asked if we were done after, and to clear the table.

Within 3 minutes of this interaction, the hostess came back and asked if we were done yet. We were being rushed out with food still on our plates. My kid still had half a Stromboli.

Regardless of the subpar food and service, we wanted desert. The restaurant lost out on another $20 - $30 on my already $76 bill, all because they wanted to rush us out.

I had high hopes. i was let down. I won’t be back, and you shouldn’t come...