MoliPazzo — Restaurant in White House

This was the second time my family decided to eat here. The first time we were told there was no available seating (a group of teens came in right behind us and were seated right away.) and after asking about a wait we were finally just told they couldn’t serve us. That was probably a year ago or more. So. We came back and tried again tonight. We were the only ones there and then a couple came in behind us. No one else. I won’t go into the lack of attentive service or the fact that if you go to Italian restaurants the tradition is to play Italian music and there was random rock/pop playing loudly. Let’s talk about the food and the price. This is not Italian food. It’s not even good food. It was horrible. My experience in Italian food comes from my full-blooded Italian aunt and her relatives, years of practicing Italian cooking and eating at authentic Italian restaurants (From Texas to New York). Meatballs are not suppose to taste like dish water and have a soggy texture, y’all. Bolognese is suppose to be rich, hearty, meaty and a slight creaminess.... not old, cheap and like it was heated from a frozen dinner. The pasta is not fresh. I don’t care what these people advertise on their windows, menu or elsewhere. It is NOT fresh. It is from a box. The lasagna is NOT lasagna. Also, it’s strange but if you order stuffed mushrooms you’ll get garlic knots instead. The “house”salad is a salad mix, some goat cheese from a carton, sunflower seeds and Craisins with a vinaigrette. (You can buy all of this at Kroger.) Honestly it was the best thing we ate here. Moving on... I don’t know how these people charge these prices for this kind of fake Italian food and sleep at night. The whole thing made me angry because it is so wrong to treat customers this way. We paid $60 for 2 main courses and 2 very small appetizers. My meal alone was $20. TWENTY. What. In. The. World. People, go elsewhere. These people should not be in business. It’s wrong. It’s cheap and it’s gross and their wait staff isn’t great either! Please...

We were at first a little reluctant to try this place because of the mixed reviews but decided we wouldn’t know for sure unless we tried it ourselves. Long story short: if you want good pasta drive down to Hendersonville and have Carraba’s. Or go to Olive Garden in Madison. My husband is currently lying down because his stomach is bothering him after his meal. Here’s a list of the issues we had:

1. The menu on Google isn’t up to date so the items we tried to order didn’t exist anymore. My husband was able to order a similar item and I ordered a different pasta dish entirely. He ended up ordering the ribbon bolognese and I ordered the shrimp scampi. We both ordered Caesar Salad. We got it to go.
2. The Caesar salad surprisingly didn’t taste like much. The lettuce was limp and wilted like it had been sitting in the dressing for ages. We were surprised to find capers in it as well. The dressing itself lacked flavor, though I thought I tasted some mustard in it. Also, the single crouton that came with it didn’t have flavor until the tail end of chewing on it and I’m pretty sure that’s just because it was toasted.
3. The ribbon noodles clumped together and were stuck to each other in the Bolognese. My husband noted the noodles weren’t boiled in salted water and lacked flavor and were more like egg noodles, which he wouldn’t have chosen for this dish. The noodles should’ve been tossed in the Bolognese sauce to prevent the noodles from clumping together. The Bolognese sauce was very salty and the meat didn’t taste like anything. My husband didn’t bother finishing his plate.
4. My shrimp scampi was too lemony and too salty. It would be better with maybe some mushrooms and scallions in it to make it more than just noodles sitting in lemony salty soup with some sun dried tomatoes added as an after thought.
5. The bread had more of a cake texture than bread. It also...

This place is so overrated. Price is way too high to reflect value and especially quality. Better pasta at Fazolis and that’s sad. Pasta is not cooked al dente here - noodles are mushy - way too overcooked. Sauce is lacking in seasoning and flavor. Presentation tries to emulate fine dining yet fails to deliver. Menu is too condensed - also - trying to emulate a fine dining experience yet it fails all the way around. Caesar salad could have been recommendable but the dressing was barely drizzled on - so not only was it not accurately tossed in dressing to coat the romaine but lightly drizzled. Again - flavor was disappointing. Place was cold and inviting (figuratively and literally) - not a place I’d revisit on a cold winter day/night. Service was what you can expect in White House - it’s a younger crowd with lack of training in giving the all out customer experience. Service was meeting basic needs and not going above and beyond in any way. However, gentleman host at the door was superb. Very polite and well mannered. A great first point of contact for an establishment. The rest of the time staff seemed (as usual there) more interested in gathering behind bar to talk to one another than to be attentive to tables and to work. Overall, food taste was very bland and as usual there, just mushy pasta and tasteless entrees sold at a high price. Tried to swing in to avoid going into town for Italian but next time will make do with Tavern 76 or All Seasons - not known for Italian but pasta there is at least cooked correctly and bursting with flavor.

Won’t be back. Won’t recommend to anyone else coming in town or who lives here.

Owners need to take more interest in their own establishment and recipes and not be so hands...