Nearly Famous Deli & Pasta House — Restaurant in Springfield

A little bit about this place. First when you hear deli, you think ok, maybe $6-10 a plate right? I mean delis are typically fairly cheap. Well you walk in and it is set up in a typical deli format, the staff was very friendly. However, the pasta at dinner is 19 fricken dollars a plate for most of the options. Wasn’t expecting that from a “deli” now if I had gone to somewhere more upscale, sure I would’ve expected that, but for somewhere that calls themselves a deli.... HELL NO. I decided to try to overlook that, I got one of the cheaper options (Spinach Lasagna) at $10.99. It did come with a small salad, which was nice, the salad was good, not spectacular, but good. When I got the Spinach lasagna, it came about a 3” maybe 4” square. The spinach was not evenly spread out in it at all. One half was basically pure (canned) spinach, and the other half was lasagna. The noodles were not cooked correctly, it was a little tough, and tasted like they needed to be cooked more. There was not enough sauce either. I didn’t say anything while I was there, but I was left disappointed. Then when I got the bill they charged a $1.25 service fee for using a debit card to pay. As I left I did see there was a small sign on the door that mentioned the fee, but it just added to the saltiness. I mean it’s the 21st century, and at the prices they charge, they could easily cover the fees for using cards. If I had gotten one of their $19 pastas, that would’ve set me over the top. Seriously who the heck charges that much for mediocre food and then adds insult by charging people extra to use a card to pay. I am only giving this place 2 stars because the salad was good, and the staff...

We love going to Nearly Famous Deli. It has the feel of the "big city" without too much of the attitude of the big city. Their Reuben is the best in Springfield.

However, the last time we went I saw something that really irritated me.

A woman came in and was waiting to be seated, as the sign instructed. The hostess who was also the cashier was pretty busy casheiring. This customer must have waited 5 minutes even though there were clearly plenty of places for her to sit. Two ladies came in after her and promptly seated themselves. I said something to the waiter about the waiting woman and got my head bit off.

He informed me that it "was her job" pointing to the very busy cashier, to seat people.

It bothers me that he thinks his only job is to wait on people and not to help out an otherwise busy person. It angered me that he snapped when I just simply told him that the woman had been waiting for a while. And it infuriated me when he waited on the ladies who seated themselves BEFORE he deigned to seat the waiting woman.

Ninety-nine percent of the time we love NFD, this time we were deeply disappointed. It won't stop us from going there, but I won't want to be seated in his section if I can help it.

(PS I have been waitstaff. I know it is a hard and often thankless job, but I never snapped at a customer, even when they...

Good service. The croutons on the salad were very tasty. Unfortunately, this is where the compliments end. I ordered the spinach lasagna and my wife had the tortellini marinara.

The lasagna noodles were dried out, spinach was terrible and the sauce was very burnt. Epic failure on the lasagna. The tortellini tasted like it had been frozen in a bag which was also topped with the burnt marinara sauce. Epic failure on this dish as well. Portion sizes on both dishes were extremely small. The picture of the tortellini is how much was left on the table. When asked if we wanted a box to take the leftovers, we respectfully declined. We decided to order lemon bars as a much needed pallet cleanser and wouldn't you know it, they were equally terrible! I can best describe them as tasting like crunchy butter with a hint of lemon topped with powdered sugar. How do you mess up a lemon bar? The lemon bars were also very small in portion size. I've included a standard sugar packet in the picture for scale.

It's pretty bad when the croutons on the salad are the best part of the meal. Normally, I always give resturants a second chance to redeem themselves. However, this time I don't feel I can bring...