Italianesque — Restaurant in Nampa

KM and I visited Italianesque in Nampa in July 2020. We were very excited to visit this new restaurant, which was one of the first that we dined out after things open back up again. We had read great reviews. I was especially excited to try the vegetable antipasto, which I had seen pictures of online.  The owners had posted big bowls full of perfectly roasted vegetables. I love roasted vegetables, but I can’t roast anything in my kitchen over 400° without setting off my smoke detector.

Aside from getting side salads, we ordered and dined family style, asking for extra plates. I didn’t take a picture of the menu at the time, but the prices reflected on the current menu seems similar to what we paid. Here’s what we ordered:

Vegetable Antipasto - We were disappointed with this dish, which bared no resemblance to the photos we had seen online.

Salad - We enjoyed our salads. I was disappointed to learn that they only had vinaigrette for salad dressing, but they had a second vinaigrette back in the kitchen, which they were kind enough to bring out to me, so I got to try both. They were pretty good.

Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken - The portion size for both pastas was fairly small compared to what you would receive in most Italian restaurants for the same price. KM’s impression of both pasta dishes was more positive than mine. I’m going to speak bluntly. While I thought the fettuccine Alfredo with chicken was OK, the Olive Garden’s is much better. If that sounds like sacrilege, so be it.

Pappardelle Bolognese - I love a good Bolognese, but this one lacked the deep flavor that only comes with hours of slowly cooking down the sauce.  I have coaxed better flavor out of a quick spaghetti sauce made using a couple of jars store-bought marinara. This was the most disappointing Bolognese I’ve ever had. In fact, I never would’ve guessed it was a bolognaise if it hadn’t been listed as such on the menu. KM enjoyed this dish more than I did.

We couldn’t decide on which desert to get, so we ordered all 4:

Frozen Chocolate Pie - We both loved this dessert! It reminds me of something my mother would have made back when desserts using Cool Whip were popular. I would make a point of visiting Italianesque just to order this dessert. Heck, I might just even order the whole pie. 🙂

Twix - This is a house made vegan dessert that we both thought veered a bit too much on the healthy side to be enjoyable. It needed something to zhuzz it up. If you prefer cacao to chocolate and like Fig Newtons, this is right up your alley.

Lemon Bar - This was a pretty standard lemon bar. Not the best I’ve had, and not one that I would order again.

Blueberry Lemon Curd Pop Tart -  We both really enjoyed the pop tart, but it seemed very blueberry forward. We weren’t able to figure out where the lemon curd came in.  We would both order the pop tart again.

This business is owned by a wonderful family who will go out of their way to ensure you have a good dining experience. The service is excellent! They were also happy to answer all of our questions. I haven’t return to this restaurant sense, but I know that KM has at least once or twice, and has had good experiences. Even though I didn’t love this restaurant, it doesn’t mean you won’t. I recommend you go read some of the other reviews online, look at pictures of the food, and check it out...

I WANT to give this place 4 or 5 stars because it seems to be a small family owned business and we were SO excited to try it, but to give an honest review, I can't. We went for our anniversary because so many reviews said it was so good. When we walked in we were expecting a little fancy, but it's not fancy at all, but very quaint and cute. Perfectly fine! We did find it odd that every employee was in jeans and t-shirts and not at all professional looking. Again, not a big deal, just odd presentation. The first turn off that DID derail the rating of this restaurant was the water they gave us when we were seated. It was warm and had no ice, odd. Not sure if that's an Italian thing, but we didn't enjoy it and have never been served water this way. We figured not a big deal, let's stay positive. We ordered the salad and their cheesy bread as apps. There is literally nothing to the salad, mainly just arugula with a couple long thin slices of a carrot and a long, thin slice of cucumber and no choice of dressing. Which would be fine but not for $8. The cheesy bread is ok, not great and very garlicky. The alfredo sauce they give you to dip it in was runny, but again we shrugged it off, still believing the reviews. For our entree's we had the chicken alfredo and spicy mac. First bummer was the spicy mac because when reading the ingredients it listed jalapeno and I assumed that's what made it spicy. However, it was a buffalo sauce on it, which was NOT listed as an ingredient. I don't like buffalo sauce and would not have ordered this had it been listed. I still started eating because you live, you learn, right? After a while the buffalo sauce flavor faded because it was taken over with a very strong garlic flavor. My husband's chicken alfredo also had a very strong garlic flavor, to the point, it was ALL we could TASTE after several bites. We LOVE garlic, but someone had a VERY heavy hand when seasoning with it here. Drinks come from a can for soda and drink mix for lemonade, but for these they do at least include ice. I'm not knocking stars for that, just another oddity for what we were under the impression was a nice sit down restaurant. Neither of us were able to finish and just put it in to go boxes to leave. We didn't eat the leftovers either, it was literally that garlicky. The rest of the night we could not get that garlic taste out of our mouths, not with mints, not by stopping and getting drinks, nothing. Not until we got home and were able to brush our teeth. It makes me sad because we love supporting small family owned businesses, but we won't return to this one. On the positive though, the staff, though not super...

I really wish that given the 5 star reviews I could do the same. Unfortunately, I left very disheartened.

$14 for their focaccia (4 slices) with olive oil and seasoning. We did ask for balsamic to go with it, but the waitress was distracted by an old coworker popping in to visit. It took 10 minutes to flag her down for the side of balsamic because of said distraction.

The still water is served warm, not really "my thing" but could be someone elses preference, so I'll let that slide.

I got an iced tea, generally a server would probably ask if one would want a sweetener as it was unsweetened, but again, she was distracted, so maybe that was also the case here.

Following this, it took quite a bit of time to be acknowledged to place our entree orders... it was a Wednesday, and there were only 3 other tables being worked at this time.

Once served, we were once again disappointed with the quality of food. House made noodles, I will give props and respect for... the sauce.. not so much. The 1 5 dollar meatball with my bolognese sauce was burnt, dry, and over seasoned (specifically with fennel, very overpowering). The sauce itself, left a lot to be desired, it was as if it was whole canned tomatoes + water.

My boyfriend got the lasagna. I did give that a chance just in case my meal was a fluke, however, to my surprise as they advertise fresh, and in house made, came out tasting a wee bit fermented.

When we flagged down the bus boy, as the waitress was once again distracted, she then took note and inquired about what was going on at that point. When I proceeded to begin to address the issues we were having, she very quickly cut me off, and left to go find who I am assuming was the owner/management. This was very off-putting, leaving me to feel dismissed and unheard.

The owner/manager did remove the entrees from the order, and we did give the waitress a 30% tip, despite disappointment. We ended up leaving, and heading to Olive Garden for redemption. As someone that prides themselves on supporting local, and non franchise generally, this was a big bummer to have to leave hungry, to go elsewhere.

Maybe it was a bad night, I'll give the benefit of the doubt, but on a mellow Wednesday, this was an ouch. I'm usually willing to give second chances, but I do not see myself considering that as an option in the future.

Best wishes for a better...