The Pasta Tree Restaurant & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Milwaukee

If I could give this review a title it would be "Worst Valentine's Day Ever at Milwaukee's "Most Romantic Restaurant!" My boyfriend and I went to the pasta tree for Valentine's Day yesterday. Our bad experience started when I called to make a reservation and no one would answer the phone! I called three times on two different days trying to speak to someone on staff. I finally gave in and made the reservation online as their voicemail suggested. We were both looking forward to a wonderful, romantic meal when we began the hour drive to the restaurant. On the way I was concerned we would be late for our reservation due to traffic (we weren't) so I called three times to let the staff know and once again, no one answered the phone. When we arrived the host seemed preoccupied and did not greet us, just immediately asked if we had a reservation. I told him we did and that I had received a gift certificate from LivingSocial for Christmas. He very rudely and brusquely gestured to the paper and said "oh, we don't take those on Valentine's. It says it somewhere on there." We thought this was a little odd since we had read the fine print pretty carefully before making the reservation but were willing to use it another time. The host walked away from us with no other words that I heard. After a few seconds we realized we were to follow him but he was already pretty far ahead of us. He walked into an area that appeared to be a kitchen so we stopped, unsure if we were to follow (kind of gross to have cusomers walk basically through the kitchen in my opinion). After a few seconds he came back and waved us in to follow him into a second dining area beyond our view. He brought us to a table and left us and said our server would be (Sara?). While we waited for the server, I started to read the gift certificate again to see the exclusions. While we were reading our server came by and rudely and abruptly told me we couldn't use the certificate. She then asked us our drink order and handed the two of us ONE menu. At this point we both felt extremely uncomfortable and unwelcome. While she was gone I continued to read the certificate to find that Valentine's was not listed as an exclusion! When the server returned she asked how we were doing. I replied "honestly, not great. We received this certificate as a gift and are unable to use it after driving an hour to get here, even though Valentine's Day is not listed in the exclusions!" The server's tone was immediately combative and all she had to say was that they have never accepted the certificates on Valentines, that is said it wasn't valid on the website it was purchased on, and that they couldn't do anything to help us. To this I replied that "this had been an extremely negative experience" and that I thought "we were just going to leave." All the server had to say in response was "ok." No apology, no sympathy, no kindness of any sort. To add insult to injury, on our way out the host walked past and said "have a nice night", in a tone that almost seemed to imply he had expected it to happen when we walked in 20 minutes prior.

Now I understand that a business might have policies in place about when a certificate can or cannot be used, but the bottom line is that it was not listed under the exclusions on the gift we received. Whether the website was updated after the purchase of the gift is irrelevant. They should have at least offered an apology for the inconvenience. Not to mention that they made us feel unwelcome and like our patronage was not wanted from the second we got there until the second we left. Between the two of us, we have almost 20 years of retail and food service experience and both are department managers at a successful, local business, so we know bad service when we see it. We agree that this was the worst customer service either of us have EVER experienced. Needless to say, we are apalled and extremely dissapointed with the staff's actions. So, if you are picking your next date night restaurant, I would advise you...

If I could give this place 0 stars I would, however I’m giving two because there were a couple redeeming factors to our first time visit at the pasta tree. I made a reservation around 5pm for 7:45 on a Friday, and had established in the reservation that it was my anniversary (dating- while silly it is something my fiancé and I do) and we had just gotten engaged and were celebrating. Hoping we’d get a decent table and served well - we got the opposite. We were greeted by the hostess, who not only sat the party that came in after us, but then exclaimed that we weren’t going to get a romantic table because it was by the men’s room, when there was ample space to put us elsewhere; and while it’s not fault of the hostess, she sat us next to a couple who also happened to use our table as a leaning post which was rightfully annoying. We then waited 10 minutes for our waitress who took our drink order, but no food, about 5 minutes later she came back with the wine we ordered and took our food order, she was wonderful when she was around, it just was not a lot. Often we found her deliberately walking by our table and not asking if there was anything we needed, with either going to or going from her destinations as she kept walking by... however giving great service to the table leaners next to us. To further our already disagreeable service, a couple who came in 20 minutes after us were sat in one of the more private and romantic window seats, which had been open for some time after we had been sat... Finally after almost an hour and a half we were served our dinner by the hostess (not uncommon to do food running) who then bursted out saying it was her favorite dish and she was going to eat my food whether I finished it or not, which didn’t excite me, it made me feel uncomfortable... when I tasted the ever so favorite manacotti....it was to put it plainly, bland and boring, so I was ready to call her over and give it to her. My fiancé enjoyed his dish, the lasagna, but frankly I’m not sure how they manage to call rolled lasagna noodles and ricotta rolls - manacotti. There was NO seasoning to this dish except some parsley flakes, which you can hardly call an herbal ambrosia of flavors. The Alfredo sauce I opted for because I do not eat veal (which their meat sauce has) was subpar - I’d place it ball park with jar sauce. I was frank with our waitress and accommodating understanding it is no fault of hers, but I was beginning to be agitated as everything was stacking up. By the time she came to the table to do a check in, I had eaten about a quarter of it, and exclaimed that I had eaten a good portion and it was okay and not to worry and get me another meal - most in part I was not confident I would get it in a timely manner as it took almost an hour to get my entree AFTER my appetizer to begin with. Following that, she gave us the check and exclaimed they had taken my meal off, which was appreciated but not necessary, I understood that I continued to eat a dish I didn’t really like, but still left a good portion of it. We got the check and my fiancé paid, we began gathering our things as we waited for her to come back and run his card through, just as we were about to leave they came out with a plated tiramisu on the house, which was wonderful and thoughtful, but a little late. Generally, I will give a place another chance, as we are all human, but this first impression is going to make it hard for me to want to go back. We spent a decent amount of money still even after a meal coming off and a free dessert. Regrettably this will not be a restaurant I will be recommending to friends or family, and I’m very sorry that we had this experience at a place that shows a lot of pride in what they do. We spent two hours at this restaurant and most of it was waiting around for service or wondering where our food was, as we watched people come and go before and after we had been sat. It was so disappointing and I hope that everyone else who was there this evening had a much...

I went to the Pasta Tree with my fiancé a little over a week ago. We felt confident about having a socially-distanced meal at the Pasta Tree due to the high recommendations and $40 deposit we made for our reservation. Unfortunately, the restaurant was packed and not practicing social distancing as they said they would. We were seated in an area where we had to walk through the kitchen to get there and I noticed that the people preparing the food did not all have masks on, but that is not what this review is about.

We had a reservation at 6:15. My fiancé has a tree nut allergy and we previously reviewed the menu to ensure they had allergy-friendly options and they did! Because it was a higher priced restaurant, we felt confident in their ability to accommodate us. In our first interaction with our waiter, we asked if he could check if the bread/butter they brought us are tree-nut free. In our previous experiences, restaurants won’t even bring something to the table with a known allergen. Our waiter came back with our wine and we asked again about the bread/butter. He had forgotten - that's OK! It was a busy night and I am sure he was overwhelmed. About 40 minutes later, I got up to use the restroom and asked another employee if she knew about the bread/butter and she didn't. After still not hearing from our waiter, I decided to just call the restaurant and ask - the hostess on the phone confirmed with us that there were no nuts in the bread/butter, so my fiancé ate it.

About one minute after he ate it, someone brought our food out. It smelled delicious. However, I am a vegetarian and my plate was covered in meat after ordering a veggie dish. Then, we got a call back from Pasta Tree and were told the butter had pine nuts and walnuts in it. They had given us the wrong information. My fiancé and I left immediately to seek medical treatment as this is a life-threatening mistake. As we were leaving, I briefly explained the situation to an employee - she said to call Tuesday and the Pasta Tree would help us to right this wrong.

On Monday, I emailed to let them know my fiancé had almost completely recovered. It didn't feel right to leave them feeling worried. Looking back now, I don't think they cared at all. I called three times on Tuesday with no answer and I wasn’t able to leave a voicemail due to the inbox being full.

On Wednesday I sent a follow up email and then a Facebook message because The Pasta Tree was active on Facebook. I received a response from the owner and head chef, Suzzette Metcalfe, she said she couldn't answer the phone because she was "working". She said she could call me Thursday at 1PM. I work normal business hours, but made accommodations to give her a chance to right this wrong. I took my break at 1pm and waited for her call. It is now a week later and still no call.

As someone who loves supporting local businesses, I wanted to give them a chance to correct this disservice. The Pasta Tree and Suzzette Metcalfe did no such thing after multiple opportunities. My fiancé has never had an allergic reaction at a restaurant until this day. The Pasta Tree has been in business far too long to not be able to accommodate or handle known allergens. We should not have to ask more than once, nor should the information we are given be incorrect. Nor should we be neglected when we give the restaurant an opportunity to correct it and hear our story. Something as simple as an apology would be appreciated and we still don’t have our deposit back. I am so thankful it wasn't worse and that my fiancé was able to recover, but stay away from this place if you have an allergy.

Emma, the hostess, is so sweet and incredibly hard working. I don't know how much she is paid, but it is not enough for the stress she was experiencing that night. She was the only positive part of our whole experience at...