Salvo’s Pizza — Restaurant in Spring Hill

What did we do this Friday night? Oh, just get yelled at by the head chef & owner (Matt Antonovich) of Mozzarella Bar in Spring Hill. Let me explain.......

Our food was terrible to mediocre, at best. I sent my Cacio e Pepe (cheese & pepper pasta) back for undercooked pasta. The return dish came without the main ingredient, cheese. Husband’s food was mediocre. We sat at the bar since the tables were reservations only. And our server/bartender was having a terrible night with a broken coffee machine. Husband had already finished his food while mine sat there basically untouched. (I was also completely out of water and drinking from husbands glass, at this point.) When the server finally stopped, a good 20 minutes after food was delivered, I told him my replacement dish still wasn’t good and didn’t have the main ingredient. Y’all, he came at us! He was completely unapologetic & just kept saying “what do you want”. At this point, I said “please stop talking so I can tell you what’s wrong”. He did, and I did. He said he would relay to the chef. Before we left, I asked to speak directly to the chef. I told him we had been there before and had recommended to others. But after the meal we had, we would be taking back those recommendations until the kinks were worked out. I told him why our meal wasn’t good. He completely escalated the situation telling me he ate my entire 1st meal and thought it was delicious. I replied the pasta needed an extra 30-60seconds in the water. Then he starting yelling at us, and said “next time just go to Olive Garden”. 😳😳😳 We proceeded to say we would not be back. He turned & walked back to the open kitchen.

The girl at the bar next to us motioned me over. She asked “did he just tell y’all to go to Olive Garden?” Why yes Erin, he did. While she and I were talking, the chef came back out saying “you’re just a disgruntled customer and now you’re going to every table to bad mouth us”. WHAT? No; she asked me to come over and we were talking in normal/quiet voices. I did not venture to any other table.

Would I recommend this place, 10000000% NO. Neither this server/bartender nor this chef should be in the hospitality industry. There’s the saying, ‘the customer is always right’. I didn’t care about being right; I just wanted to be heard. The exact opposite ended up happening.

Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be an isolated incident based on conversations with others on FB. I have researched this chef quite a bit today. If I had known 2 months ago what I know now, this guy would have never received even a cent of my money. Do your research.

We support local businesses. But do not waste...

I say this pretty often when it comes to new resturaunts that pop up in the area, my wife and I are always excited when we see new options in the Spring Hill and Columbia area because the pickin's are slim, as they say, and Mozzarella Bar was no exception.

When they first opened I'll admit we struggled to get a reservation to try them out, which can be frustrating, but is also a good sign, which made us anticipate getting a table there even more.

Our first visit we lucked out and was able to get a table just walking in, it was right at 5 when they open, and we were the only people there, along with our son, which was nice because we do have anxiety going out with a toddler, as we don't want to ruin anyone else's dining experience. That being said, this was when their bread with oil and balsamic dip was complementary, which we were surprised because it was HUGE, enough to serve 4 people. I honestly can't blame them for charging for it as it would take up a ton of space in their oven during a rush and it's honestly also just really good and worth paying for.

The server and bartender we had at the time were very helpful and were also very good with our son. We ordered bruschetta and caprese to start out along with a bottle of wine. We enjoyed both appetizers and would recommend anyone try them. For our entrées I ordered the Straw & Hay and my wife ordered the Alfredo with Chicken. Both were also really good and the serving sizes for all of the dishes were more than we could finish. We would recommend those dishes as well.

Since our first visit we've been several times since, all of the staff has always been knowledgeable and more than accommodating on every visit. We really enjoy working with Drew, Lee, Becca, and Kiley but you honestly can't go wrong with anyone that works there. Now that they have a full bar it only makes this location even more of a mainstay for us as the bartenders are on point and now so are the drinks.

Notable mention to the Calamari as it's our favorite dish there, my wife HATES calamari but the light and crisp flavor of the calamari with the peppers and garlic really set this dish off and never disappoints. If I could give this place more stars I would, the food is great, and the staff is just the icing on the cake as they're...

I've been eating there for the last three months, so I have a pretty good overview of what's there and what the place is about.

First of all, my least favorite food 'out' is Italian. I generally find it boring and uninventive. The opposite is true here. All of the dishes have an individual flair and flavor, and they're fantastic. The pasta is made fresh there, and it's obvious. We've had seven of the dishes thus far.

Pizza in restaurants that serve other Italian food is always bad, right? Not the case here. The pizza is shockingly good. They're all good. I've had them all. Add pepperoni to the Margherita pizza and see how that makes you feel.

The cheese board is great, as is the charcuterie board. The service is impeccable and the hospitality is superb. Yeah, it's busy in there, and it can get noisy. That's part of the reason I love it.

As for the thing about kids, the first time I ate there, I had my kids with me, 9 and 13. No one said boo to us. But then my kids aren't Cretons. They have good personalities and order for themselves, so they don't behave like 'other' kids who can't handle themselves in public. Our first night there, Chef came over introduced himself, and bought the kids a dessert.

The bad reviews here are likely from people who have no experience eating fresh pasta, which is different from pasta in a box that your momma made, or from people who have unruly kids or wives. The food here is great. The service is really nice, and the atmosphere is very big city. As you can tell, I highly...