Pastaria — Restaurant in Clayton

My girlfriend and I decided to visit Pastaria for our anniversary. My girlfriend is a huge Italian food fan and we had heard good things about Pastaria, and we can definitely say that we agree with the general consensus. The location is somewhat hard to find from the street level, but inside, it gives a calm and collected atmosphere with attentive and friendly staff that help provide you with water refills and bread in a quick, efficient fashion.

While the pricing can be somewhat on the higher end for certain dishes, the food comes in decently large portions, enough to which my girlfriend and I each ordered a dish that we shared together, and still had enough to take home afterwards. (The pictures attached are from split portions so they don't look as pristine as when we received them, but trust us when we say it was delicious.) Our server was extremely nice and helped us choose a delicious bottle of wine which we had with our meal, and it complemented it extremely well. I would recommend trying one of their pasta dishes that may be outside of your norm, as you may not expect apple slices to be good with pasta, but it was some of the most delicious food that we had.

It also seems like the location is very family friendly. We noticed a large handful of families and children that were there and it seemed like they were all enjoying their meals. There is also a small bar, if you're just looking to come in for a quick drink, however I wouldn't recommend it as the area for that is pretty tiny. They also offer delicious gelato which is great for all ages. We didn't have any of the pizza, but they also make full pizzas that looked delicious as well.

Overall, if you are looking for a nice place to eat that isn't so terribly fancy that you need to dress up, but that has delicious authentic Italian food, I would highly...

I’m surprised how underwhelming the food was for the amount of reviews. However, quantity seldom equals quality.

I’ll start by saying I make my own pastas; both semolina and OO flours I order from Italy so my expectations are high to begin with. I was happy to see the Toasted semolina linguini featuring a shellfish butter on the menu - it had me excited!

The moment the dish was set in front of me my heart sank. I could immediately tell the shrimps were previously frozen and overcooked, and my first bite confirmed it. Just the chewy texture with no flavor to the shrimp at ALL.

The pasta was just OK, but the shellfish butter and chili barely clung to it. With that being said, I’m trying to figure out if the shellfish butter was in the room, let alone the dish. There was no enhanced shellfish flavor whatsoever, and overall the meal was lackluster at best. The only remarkable notes of the dish was how greasy my mouth was after every single bite. I left more than half the dish uneaten.

I wasn’t in the mood for gelato for once so I tried the birthday cake because tiramisu is extremely overrated and seldom made well. This cake was incredibly dense and on the dry side. It’s never good when the icing between layers falls off the cake itself because it’s lacking moisture, or old. The “crumbles” were massive chunks of Fruity Pebbles mixed into cookie batter. Just no. This also didn’t get finished.

Our server was great though. Attentive but gave space, mindful of the wine and gave honest opinions. I had 2 glasses of wine, the linguine, and the cake totaling $100 with tip.

I told my husband I never want to return. The girls night itself was fun but this was the worst restaurant I’ve been to in the Niche franchise...

Update (removing one star for food code violations)

Second time at Pastaria, food and service was good, other than the waitress took my glass away without asking with still some good beer in it 😁.

Something that caught my eye this time was a girl by the open kitchen, looks like she was in charge on confirming the others and finishing some of the dishes by adding some cheese (maybe) on them.

She was doing this with her bare hands while repeatedly touching her nose, in front of the cooks, waiters and people dining.

Touching ready to eat food is not only gross but also forbidden under Missouri's food code, let alone messing with your nose at the same time.

From my previous review this place seems to have some serious management issues when it comes to cleaning and apparently now food management as well.

I bet if you visit and look at the kitchen you will see this stuff happening and the owners should be able to see it in security video.

I little chat with the team, perhaps asking them to take a food management certification (few hours of easy reading) should help resolve these issues. We tried Pastaria on our visit to St Louis following recommendations from friends.

Our expectations for Italian American restaurants is always low and we were very disappointed at Katie's the day before (another recommended place).

Our friends insisted we give Pastaria a try so off we went.

It was actually pretty good and the service was great as well.

The place was filthy though, with an inch of dust covering walls, mirrors and other objects.

If I was the manager I would shut down the place for a day for a deep cleaning, perhaps check/change the AC...