Italian Village — Restaurant in Murray

My family raves about the pizza benders here but those aren't really my thing, so I got the fettuccine alfredo and was unimpressed. This was my first visit. It was on a busy Saturday evening.

Pros:

-All the employees were nice. No complaints there.

-Very short wait time.

-I liked the menu. It was simple, easy to read, easy to hold, and was made out of a plastic-y material that could probably be wiped with disinfectant wipes and be okay. I don't know if they're actually doing that, but it's nice to think they could.

-Waiter took our order quickly.

-The food arrived quickly and was served hot.

-Large portions.

-The bread had a nice texture, between the toasty crust and the not-even-a-little-bit-toasty inside.

-The salad was nicely coated in just the right amount of dressing. I appreciated that the dressing was already distributed—rather than plopped on top—so I didn't have to try to stir it in.

Cons:

-The soup was so salty I couldn't eat it.

-The bread was also very salty but I could still eat it. It was probably the best part of the meal.

-The salad was a bowl of lettuce with two carrot sticks and one tomato wedge. It was a lot of lettuce, but it looked kinda sad as a salad.

-The fettuccine alfredo was really not delicious. The sauce was both runny and bumpy and just tasted blah. Definitely not one of the better fettuccine alfredos I've tasted.

-The pepper shaker was dirty with I-don't-know-what stuck to it.

-My cup was sticky on the outside at the top, as if maybe the waiter had sticky fingers when he picked it up and handed it to me. (The inside was fine and I used a straw.)

-In fact, the whole place looked like it could do with a real good wipe down.

-Okay this isn't a big deal, but it bugged me that the salt and pepper shaker tops were all bashed in. I took one off and tried to fix it but I'm not that strong. They really bugged me though.

-We saw our waiter once when we ordered and again when we got the food and then not again. We had to wave him down to get some refills. To his credit, he got the refills very quickly once we asked.

-We weren't sure whether to pay at the counter or at the table because the waiter handed us paper tickets that weren't in a little jacket or anything. Usually if a restaurant takes your card at the table, they put the receipt in a little jacket folder thing.

-It was super noisy and I couldn't hear about 85% of the conversation of my dinner party. Luckily it sounded like it was just the loud noise of people talking (no obnoxious music playing) but it was still noisy.

-There's a seemingly-random 2-cent price difference between soda and juice. Maybe there's a reason for it, but it seems odd. Why 2 cents?

So... Overall, I wouldn't go back. The niceness and promptness of the staff was appreciated, but was not enough to make up for the lackluster cleanliness and food quality. My family really loves the pizza benders so they'll be back,...

Ok, so... I have gone to this place on Christmas Eve ever since I was a baby, it's just been my family's tradition, so I will do my best to be impartial, but... Forgive me if I seem to be a bit biased, but I figure someone with almost 23 years of experience might be able to give a pretty informed opinion.

First of all, the atmosphere here feels almost a little bit out of time, in a good way. I walk in and almost feel like I should be seeing the place with a VHS grain effect, it feels like I'll look over and see Ralphie's family from A Christmas Story the next booth over. But the place is very maintained, like they took a picture of the place rather than just let it collect dust.

The food is great. At least, I assume it is. I only get the same thing every time I go. Their pizza benders are always a crowd favorite, no matter who I bring, and the other dishes are plenty delicious as well, if a bit greasy. I always get a dinner combo, their standard pizza bender (it's sorta like a calzone with pepperoni, ham, sausage, and cheese inside) and 8 meatballs, and while some could say the meatballs taste a bit too salty, that's just the way I like them!

The servers are pretty good all things considered. We've had a couple over the years that weren't fantastic, but it happens every now and then. For the most part, they keep your drink filled, they treat you nicely, and they do their best to get your food ordered and to you as quickly as possible. (And this is based on going every Christmas Eve, one of their busiest nights.) Waiting for a table isn't terrible either, they do everything they can to get you and your group seated as soon as possible.

On the note of waiting though, their wait areas aren't exactly comfortable. It's ok, but you do get a sore back after a while, especially if you're waiting 10+ minutes on a busy night. And no, they do not do phone in reservations as far as I know. And if you gotta go to the bathroom, better wait in line, the bathrooms only allow an occupancy of one and, on a busy night, you might have to stand outside of it for a while. Overall though, these are only minor gripes rather than complaints, small parts of a much larger and very positive whole.

I guess my only other gripe is that this place isn't super well advertised, though it doesn't really need the exposure to be sure.. Even if you were to drive past it, you might not see it, the building and sign are pretty nondescript. You pretty much gotta know a guy in order to know it... But once you're there, you'll go back...

JUST DON'T!!

When I say this is the WORST "Italian" we have ever had I mean THE WORST! I'm not even sure you can call it Italian to be frank. Lets start with the service though. The staff is all but friendly. To frame this up the restaurant was not busy plenty of open tables and multiple servers/bussers going about. We sat there for nearly 20 minutes before we were even greeted. While waiting we overheard other tables making jokes about the food quality and service. No apology, no acknowledgement of hey be right with you... nothing.

I ordered the spaghetti with meat sauce and pizza combo. My partner ordered the chicken cacciatore and side of meatballs and when it came out we both laughed. In short Chef Boyardee is fine dining compared to this. The meatballs were so tough you could use them in a sling shot. The salad like plenty of other comments was underwhelming iceberg lettuce with a single tomato and carrot on top. The chicken cacciatore was the most shameful excuse for the dish known to mankind. Chunks of chicken thrown onto spaghetti with canned Kroger sauce and a few peppers on top not cooked or even mixed together. The spaghetti was the same, little to no noodles swimming in plain canned sauce. The "garlic bread" was gross. Everything was pre made boil in a bag garbage and more salty than this review. The pizza was bleh pretty much the only edible thing but id still save the money and have better luck buying one in the frozen section at the store.

The restaurant was FILTHY!!! The host sat us at a table that still had food on it. The waitress got the busser to come clean it and he was like I cant remember if I did this one or not. Super disorganized. The place is dilapidated and in desperate need of some deep cleaning.

Now to the kicker... I rarely leave reviews and I understand that it sucks getting feedback. But if you've made it this far you probably have read other reviews and seen how the owner responds even when they are in the wrong. Maybe take some advice from these reviews and make some improvements instead of always dismissing, making excuses or disagreeing with the customers. This place should be on Kitchen Nightmares it could use some serious overhaul. Hopefully the owners stop disagreeing and wake up and make some changes before you find yourself out of business.

If I could give 0 stars I would. I most definitely won't be giving this place...