Combine Brothers — Restaurant in Pennsylvania

Second time here. Last time here. Waited a few years before coming back because the first time was similarly not a great experience. Food quality is no where near what you would expect for the prices, although portions are big, most of the food was not eaten due to being really bad.

My family of 4 regularly spends $150-$175 to dine out together. 3 sodas, 1 $2 beer ice special, 2 appetizers, 4 entrees and 1 dessert cost us $130 before tip at Combine Bro's. Our food took awhile to come out even though they were slow and waitress looked tired. We weren't happy with 80% of the food that came out. Quite frankly, we didn't want to bother with returning anything because we doubted it would come back better. At the end of the meal, we had 3 full containers of food and just wanted to make an escape. We ended up throwing out all leftovers the next morning because the food was so bad I didn't think I could salvage it.

I didn't like anything except the bread, which was hard and bland, but at least there was prepackaged unseasoned butter to top it. Mushroom marsala appetizer tasted like they were canned in salted soggy brine with canned minced garlic and tasted nothing of marsala. They were small brown mushrooms, not sauteed, but instead boiled or microwaved in a brownish salty garlic brine with absolutely no butter or wine flavor.

Same exact mushrooms were used as the "sauteed mushrooms" that cost $3.75 extra added to a pasta dish. Unfortunately I had added them to my meal before knowing this since we had ordered appetizers at the same time as our entrees. My bowtie pesto was ruined by a really bad tasting mushroom. I took two bites and pushed it away. Pesto is my favorite. Very sad waste of $24.

Oldest daughter (25) thought her chicken Parm was very strange tasting almost like it was off and the marinara acidic. She filled up on bread, wedding soup and soda.

Youngest daughter (19) liked her appetizer (mussels), they had a nice broth and there were a lot of them so she shared with Dad. However, her clam and shrimp pasta Alfredo $30 was in a floury grayish flavorless sauce that didn't taste of cheese nor cream. She filled up on mussels and bread. She was disappointed since this was the end of a two week gluten free allergy test and her pasta was flavorless. This was also her birthday dinner. She got cheesecake to go.

Husband's $25 steak special was decently seasoned but a little bit well/dry, his sides which he hated, "greens" were spicy sliced indistinguishable mystery green things with banana peppers + he also had the joy of the gross "sauteed mushrooms" on the side. No sauce or butter on his steak or sides, no sauce on the table and waitress didn't come back until giving us a check so he couldn't ask for any.

Dark hallway and no host at table when we came in but we didn't have a long wait. Waitress was okay, not super attentive, pleasant but looked tired. Didn't offer any advice for the food, didn't know anything about the two beer specials offered, and gave me a salad anyway when she asked what kind of dressing...I had said no salad, thank you. I guess she heard balsamic vinaigrette cuz that's what was served.

Most of the tables were empty at 7pm. A few guys drinking inside and an older couple dining outside. Kind of dark and cold inside (not temperature but not cozy, like the style). I think they were going for modern urban industrial but just comes across as unwelcoming.

Just not worth trying again. Will be sticking...

The most important part of our experience was our server!! I apologize but I don't remember her name, but I know she has been with Combine Brothers for 28 years!! Talk about amazing dedication, they must be doing something right for thier employees!! The industrial look of the place is okay. Not sure how I feel with the aluminum flooring, as it really didn't add anything special but had you thinking of the floor and not the overall environment. Now of course to the food. Again, the server made all of the difference in our first time experience!! She is the reason we will be back with our 4 adult children!! She knows how to take care of and anticipate the needs of the customer. As we had never experienced the variety of sauces offered, she went out of her way to bring us a variety of the popular sauces and then followed that up with bringing out our individual requests!! Now that is how you make sure the customer is going to enjoy the Combine experience!! My wife had the Cabanara pasta dish and enjoyed it but has had better at other places. I had the 8 oz Ribeye, medium cook, with the vermicelli and black olive, garlic and olive oil sauce. I enjoyed every bite and as I like spice, i added the red pepper flakes to all!! That made it amazing and i ate it all!! A comment on the bread, aka extra large rolls!! You will see comments on and additional roll will cost you $1. For us, the one roll per entree was plenty!! Plus, we don't need the extra carbs on top of the pasta. The bread is very good. The only thing they need to offer instead of the nasty butter packs is the shallow, wide bowls with olive oil!! Then the customer can season with salt, black pepper or red pepper flakes as they desire!! That would make the experience with this bread, heavenly!! So overall, a very good experience. Just a couple of areas to improve upon,...

I enjoyed this restaurant immensely. I had the Chicken Fettucine Alfredo with a salad and a large bread roll I also had an unsweetened iced tea. The server was very attentive and the food was very good. The Chicken Fettucine was good with just about the right amount of white alfredo sauce, not too much or too little. I ordered unsweetened iced tea and when I mentioned I would sweeten it to my taste she asked which sweetener I preferred and provide that to me. She also kept the iced tea topped off for most of the meal. The bread is a well made white bread boule.

It is a very nice and cozy restaurant. I was on travel visiting my son who lives in a group home nearby and went in without a reservation and was seated immediately. I have favorite restaurants in cities across the country, to include Washington, DC, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, San Diego, Denver, Los Angeles, Berkeley, San Jose, San Francisco, Phoenix and many other cities. Although, this may not be the most trendy restaurant in any of those cities, the service and the food would place it well within the standard of restaurants in most of those cities.

It is an Italian restaurant. They may want to expand their menu to include some non-Italian food choices and include food allergy free food choices such as gluten free and a selection of vegetarian and other food types. This doesn't have to be an extremely large part of the menu. The salad was good but I prefer my lettuce to not be as cut up as it was. The dressing was put on the side which permitted me to put on how much dressing as I desired. I am getting older and eat smaller portions so the server provide me with everything I needed to save the left over Chicken Fettucine Alfredo and the bread.

This is likely the best restaurant in the Sharon, Hermitage and...