Broders' Pasta Bar — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Let's start with the positive: On August 7th, upon arrival, a pleasant male host immediately seated my party of two in the outside patio. The outside atmosphere was busy and clean - a nice patio setting. We were brought a bread basket, which was divine - absolutely divine. The bread is worth a visit, in and of itself.

This is where things take a left. Before ordering my dish, I asked my server if the fettuccine had lots of sauce. I am well aware of a more authentic butter/parm sauce, hence my question to the server. I told her how I preferred it, and she assured me that the fettuccine had plenty of sauce, so I ordered the fettuccine alfredo.

Out comes my fettuccine alfredo, and the noodles had only a minimal amount of sauce - almost dry. This is precisely what I had asked the server about before ordering. My friend flagged down the previously "pleasant host" (since he was walking by and we couldn't find our server) to request a bit more sauce. He explained a side of sauce wasn't possible and that he would have to remake the entire dish. To be clear, he did not offer to remake or fix my dish; he just said that a dish would have to be remade to have more sauce and that "next time, just inform your server that's how you want it." I told him kindly that I did ask about this before ordering. He then strangely told me he would "have a conversation with the server and discipline her." My tone in the conversation was very nice, so I couldn't figure out if this was just a weird exchange or if he was being condescending. He also informed me that this is how real Italian food is served in Italy. At the point of his patronizing cultural lesson, I decided to forgo the fact and tell him that I'm married to an Italian and have lived in Italy, but again, this is why I asked about the dish when I ordered. Nonetheless, it became clear to me that there would be no resolution. I was so hungry, so I ate three bites (thankful for the bread) and then boxed it up to take home to make sauce another night for leftovers. A fresh, hot meal wasn't in the cards for me that night.

Our server never once came to check on us at any point throughout the meal - from beginning to end. There wasn't an apology, resolution, or adjustment on my bill. Nothing was rectified, but my more significant issue was that nobody seemed to care. Now, this is just one meal in the grand scheme of the world's problems, but it is hospitality, and I have myriad choices about where I spend my money. This was a terrible staff experience under amicable circumstances, so I can't imagine the result had any of this been contentious! The lasting impression I now have of Broders is disappointing, and frankly, I'm disappointed that I was disappointed!

Recap. Bread: Divine. Noodles: Nice, but I wish I could have enjoyed them fresh and how I requested. Staff: Condescending and poorly trained. A deterrent...

Prices have increased dramatically from when I went there in winter 2022 to now, summer 2023. In a short span of time, I witnessed my $20 become roughly $28 and a dessert that I have had go from $7 to $12, so that is the part that may upset some. With all that said, this place is still one of my favorite Italian food places in the Twin Cities, if not my favorite. Apart from the prices, a few more things have changed, such as open for lunch now instea of just dinner, and of course, the ever changing menu. I have been here 3 times and I have not seen their menu looking exactly the same as the last time I was there, specifically regarding the types of pastas.

The food is just delicious. I have had a few pastas that I have seen remained on their menu, such as the fettucine con manzo and the pappardelle con coniglio. I have also had other pastas that only remained on their menu for a certain amount of time, such as the ravioli di zucca, the ravioli di granchio, the stringozzi langostino, and more. Their pasta is very well made because every single bite, whatever you include in the bite whether it is pasta alone, pasta with the other ingredients, or just the ingredients themselves, the pasta tastes the same, which is amazing, because the flavors truly work together. My only critique is the calamari. For $17, the amount given is way too little, on top of the fact that calamari is fried but there is very little sauce underneath, and the lemon is also fried so instead of lemon becoming a complement ingredient, it becomes a part of the edible dish, which works for texture but leads to the calamari itself very underseasoned. Everything else is a hit! Excellent food one can count on.

I strongly recommend the tiramisu dessert. The coffee flavor was strong and they had some extra sweetness there that was very comforting. It was not artificial sweetness that would make me feel like I was eating plain sugar. Maybe even the best tiramisu I have had anywhere here in the Twin Cities. I also recommend the profiteroles (price went up from $7 to $12), which are really simply made from cream puff pastry, ice cream, and chocolate syrup. It tastes amazing and I can imagine one taking this idea to make at home.

Overall, I love it every single time I visit this place! This will be one of my top go to restaurants for bringing my friends to try...

Unfortunately I write this review with a heavy heart. This place used to be phenomenally good but I’m afraid Covid has done them in. I write this review to try to save others from making the same mistake we made. First, the staff are unusually very frightened of people and will not open the doors at all. They do pick up only and will only drop it off in the trunk or back seat so don’t think about trying to be helpful at all or you will be scolded. The Caesar salad for 2 is no longer for two; it’s a very small portion (a lot smaller than when you could dine in) but the price of course is high. The manager informed us though that they used a scientific method to determine that the portion could still feed one to two persons (menu at the time of visit still showed it as Caesar for 2 and not 1-2). The worst, heartbreaking part though is what used to be one of their best items: lemon chicken risotto. It used to be heavenly but now it hurt like hell to see it. Again, a very smaller portion than when you could dine in (but price does not reflect this of course) and the worst part is that it was swimming in what looked like a pool of some sort of buttery oil. The oil filled up so much of the to go container! Such a shame. The only other item we ordered was spaghetti and although it was not swimming in oil, it was very bland and not like it used to be. We paid 75 dollars for 2 small pastas and a Caesar salad for one ... that didn’t matter to us at first because we thought it would be how it used to be. But the high prices, unfriendly staff and terrible food is just not worth it anymore. I wish they just would have stayed closed and kept their pre pandemic staff who were always so helpful and friendly and especially the chefs who knew how to prepare and present the food. I’m so sorry for writing a bad review on a former very crazy good restaurant but I hope it will prevent someone from having their favorite restaurant leave a bad taste in their mouth. Hopefully it will encourage management and staff to think about how they can make it an enjoyable experience for loyal...