Pasta Jay's — Restaurant in Moab

CLEAN YOUR FILTHY ICE MACHINE. NASTY. YOUR MOLDY ICE IS MAKING PEOPLE SICK. I can't even remember the last time I had a bad experience at a restaurant. Avoid this place at all costs - not only is the food horrible and overpriced, but I got food poisoning from here! We aren't from around here so we didn't know that Pasta Jay's had a horrible reputation, until after we had a bad experience. I don't even know how this place is even still in business, or how it has above a 2 star rating on google reviews. I almost wonder if it pays for reviews, I wouldn't be surprised if it did. The food is awful and old and crazy overpriced. Avoid

I ordered their classic mac and cheese with chicken, and my husband ordered eggplant parm. My 'mac and cheese' was literally just overcooked rigatoni in a gross greasy alfredo sauce. (Seriously, how do you mess up mac and cheese???) It was left in the oven too long, so the pasta in the sauce was falling apart, but the exposed pasta on top was burnt, and hard and crunchy. It was 8 bucks to add a small amount of dry chicken. The chicken reminded me of leftover roast chicken from a supermarket. It tasted old and reheated. This pathetic meal was $24!! Insanity. I literally think they just served me some old leftovers that they just reheated in an oven. It also came out hotter than the sun. I had to let it sit forever and blow on it forever and I still ended up burning my tongue! So unsafe to serve something that hot. And no one wants to wait around forever before being able to eat their meal...

My husband specifically asked our server before ordering, if the eggplant parm was thin cut, and the server said it was. When his dish came out we were at a loss for words. It was a measly handful of pasta with THREE pieces of the thickest cut eggplant we've ever seen. It was literally 1 1/2 - 2 inches thick!! Pretty sure it wasn't even breaded, just 3 dried out chunks of eggplant served with this horrible pasta sauce made from all canned ingredients. I had to watch my husband, a huge lover of food, stare with disbelief before depressingly eating, and then eating half of my meal since his portion was enough to feed a child. The world's worst eggplant from Diarrhea Jay's, a dolid $18 bucks wasted. It probably costed them $2 to make. My husband brought up the concern to our waiter and he tried to justify himself saying that the eggplant is thinner than it used to be lol! What a joke, he straight up lied or didn't know it was thick cut and didn't bother to do his job and ask the kitchen before giving us an answer. After he realized he was wrong he did offer to replace his meal, but we were just so hungry and didn't want to be a burden. And probably best because this place would have just thrown out the dish or heat it back up and serve it to someone else.

We grew up in NY/NJ so we usually don't ever get italiab food outside that area to save ourselves from dissapointment, but we had a looong day of traveling and haven't eaten anything all day, and kind of just picked the first thing we saw. Our mistake. But even still, the food served from any restaurant should at least be safe to eat. We were visiting Moab passing through to Colorado, and wanted to visit the 2 national parks along the way. Now we couldnt enjoy them because this place gave us food poisoning! AVOID.

TLDR: Extremely overpriced, food doesn't taste good, served old food and got food poisoning on vacation, server lied to us.

2nd morning after, still have...

I’ve come to Pasta Jays every time I’ve come to Moab. So it’s safe to say I’ve been here over a dozen times.

Yesterday, I’m afraid will probably be my last.

While partially due to the food but mostly due the the egregious response from the manger.

Yesterday, we went and had a dinner with a party of 14. A decent amount of people including myself had some pizzas.

Halfway through my pizza, I was start to find some rock hard small unchewable parts I initially thought was from the sausage on the pizza. So I just did chewed the best I could and swallowed. Eventually I started getting more & more pieces until I chomped down on a massive piece & spat it out. Come to find out I had initially been swallowing fragments of what appeared to be either glass or translucent plastic fragments.

Now finding this out, I searched the remaining pieces for other fragments and found out that they also the smaller fragments on it.

After telling our waitress (who had been delightful during our visit) they promptly took my pizza & searched for the manager. After about 5 minutes or so our waitress alone came back to notify us with a message from the manager that they supposedly do not use and glass in the kitchen. So those fragments could not have come their kitchen.

Note, after 5 of us reviewing the pizzas we had received I was the only one who had these fragments baked into the pizza.

His offer was that we would get a half off that pizza & left no mention at making another pizza. Not being sure what to do and already being exhausted from the day’s activities we agreed & left.

I left hungry & quite pissed and how they handled the situation. It’s very sad as we were in town at pasta jay’s with our families as that was the place we had our wedding dinner a few years ago.

I don’t know of any of us will visit again in the future. They have lost our business & the business of the other 15+ people in our party.

Especially as we had toddlers who could have been exposed to this issue as well.

The manager’s complete disregard & lack of accountability. Not to mention not even using a messenger to avoid communicating with us directly is beyond unacceptable.

It’s a really shame as we have come to love Pasta Jay’s as I grew up always visiting here when we stopped by.

Again, it’s a real shame that it has come to this and this was something that while definitely accidental, could have been an issue mitigated if the manager had actually cared about what...

More of a casual, family dining experience, Pasta Jay's is located right off of Main Street in downtown Moab. They have good food and generous portions, but as the name suggests, it is not for those looking for a fine italian dining experience.

The Food:

Our family started off with an order of their garlic bread which comes with three (3) dipping sauces including Marinara, Alfredo and pesto. It was terrific and served quickly. My wife and I also had dinner salads which had vegetables that were both cold and crisp. We then moved on to our entrees.

My wife had the special, the Chicken Juliana which came on penne pasta with Alfredo sauce it was outstanding. Full of flavor, moist, and with all the textures you would expect. The sauce had the right consistency and complimented all the ingredients in the dish.

My son enjoyed their Alfredo Williams, which is their version of chicken fettuccine Alfredo. Unlike most other restaurants, the chicken was crusted and pan-fried adding additional flavor. Once again, the sauce was excellent and was added in the right proportion as too many restaurants over due the sauce in an effort to mask other shortcomings.

The only shortcoming came with my dish. I ordered their famed Chicken Parmiagiana. With all that I heard I went in hungry and excited. Sadly my lightly breaded chicken cutlet was a bit dry and over-seasoned. I believe they place the skillet in which it is served in an oven to melt the cheese and I can only believe they left it in there a few minutes too long. My entree also came with a side of penne with Marinara which was good.

I am sure given their reputation for Chicken Parmigiana my experience was the exception, not the rule.

If you are in Moab and are craving some pasta in a casual setting, Pasta Jay's is a...