Pastaio Handmade Pasta | Grosse Pointe — Restaurant in Grosse Pointe

I wrote an email to the Pastaio team on 3/21 about my experience and never heard back. I cannot review the food as we never had any but my rating is based on experience and atmosphere. Per my last email …..

Hi Pastaio team –

Sorry for the lengthy email ahead. I have debated writing this but ultimately think it’s important to acknowledge.

On Friday, March 14th I had a reservation with my family at 7:40 at your Grosse Pointe Park location under the last name Taylor. We arrived on time and checked in with the host to let them know our party was here for our reservation. We were given little direction or information and proceeded to just wait for our table to be ready between the host stand and the front door.

As we are standing near the host stand waiting for our table, I see one of the male hosts bring two cocktails out to a waiting party on a tray. I noticed that he took one drink off the tray and the tray wobbled almost causing the second drink to fall over! He luckily caught it and I thought “whew, crisis averted!” Or so I thought.

We continue to wait. We see a 4 person booth and a 3 person table open up. We thought surely the booth is for us! There are only two parties waiting – our party of 4 and another party of 3. It’s 8:05 at this point and we see in the end in sight. False alarm! The host proceeds to leave the 3 person table empty and seat the 3 person party at the 4 person booth. We continue to wait some more. We are offered two cocktails and finally get our table around 8:10.

We are seated at our table and the male host from earlier is walking back with our Aperol spritzs on a similar tray from before. I should have seen this coming. Drink 1 is set down on the table. Before we know it, drink 2 is falling off the tray and SPILLING down the back of one of the members in our party. Your employees tried to jump into action but I think the shock of what just happened set in. With our member’s back soaking of Aperol spritz, we get up and leave because he can’t sit there for a full meal with soaking wet clothes.

The restaurant was packed that night so being behind on your reservations is somewhat understandable. I’m not sure if people lingered longer than you thought, you accepted more walk ins than you were capable of handling with your reservations? Could be a multitude of reasons. Our 7:40 reservation turned into an 8:10 seating. The delay in seating on top of the spilled drink on a night we were out celebrating not 1 but 2 birthdays was a huge bummer to put it lightly. We were looking forward to a nice celebration and a tasty meal. I’m surprised that there was no offer to cover a dry cleaning bill, maybe a gift card for another meal there?

The food looked and smelled delicious – I wish you much success! Bummed that we couldn’t have stayed around to experience a nice...

I had high hopes for this new place but it was the worst dining experience of my 20 years living in Grosse Pointe.

Despite the restaurant NOT being at full capacity, we waited over a 40 minutes with a reservation while the manager appeared drunk, disheveled and was yelling at some person in the back (beyond unprofessional). The overall attitude of everyone there made us feel like we were inconveniencing them?

The food was equally disappointing. The pasta was overcooked, almost mushy, and lacked seasoning. The sauce tasted more like canned tomatoes than the rich, slow-simmered flavor you'd expect from an “authentic” Italian restaurant. The portions were small and overpriced for the lackluster quality.

To make matters worse, the atmosphere felt like a low class dive bar vs an eatery. The cleanliness was questionable— there was glass and cigarette buds on the floor. The plate wasn’t clean which I pointed out.

Overall, Pastaio feels like a place that prioritizes aesthetics over substance. There are far better Italian options that deliver quality food, attentive service, and a welcoming environment without low class people.

Sadly, this experience left a sour taste in my mouth—literally and figuratively.

Would not recommend. In fact, would actively discourage given the cleanliness issues and low class managerial staff (I can only imagine the felons...

Hands down, absolutely the best grilled octopus I've ever had. It literally melted in my mouth. And I've had octopus in Greece and elsewhere many times, but nothing this tender and flavorful. I also had their beet/spinach salad...lovely, tangy vinegarette nicely done. My husband had their lobster tail, shrimp pasta dish...just marvelous. Their pastas are handmade and you can taste it... just perfect. Our waiter, Eric, was very attentative, as were other staff who jumped in to help when things got busy. And they got busy very quickly- every front room table, the booths and the bar seating were full by 4:30....and stayed that way for the next couple of hours. The only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 for atmosphere was because, with all those people, it was noisy in there. But the quality of the food made up for the noise and they do have a back room that looked like it was being used for overflow that is probably a lot quieter. But, all in all, a great place to go for an excellent meal. We will...