I attended a private event at Coletta's. The party room was nice and offered a more intimate experience. Upon arrival there was not a host/hostess to greet us but that is a minor detail. The food was just OK. The catered food seemed to be a little bland compared to their regular dishes. The atmosphere/decorations were a bit dated. This was my first time at the Appling location. I've been to the East Parkway location many times and one thing that keeps me going back is the customer service and friendliness of the staff. I will have to try this location again without a private event/catered food. read more

As an international traveling food critic and unbeknownst to the staff, the following is what I experienced: - Staff were NOT welcoming nor personable. - Food quality has dropped significantly since my previous experience over eight years ago. The ownership must have changed. +/- Server Karen was doing her best to keep up, but management chose to only provide one waitress to handle a party of 30+. - Fried Ravioli Appetizer was worse than an overcooked & greasy Hot Pocket. - Italian Salad with wealthy, lettuce, and old ingredients. - Chicken Parmesan was so overcooked it was charred, dried out, and tough. The marinara sauce is terrible. The absolute worst meal I've had in a very long time. +/- Hamburger seemed to be the only thing that was palatable, but that was overcooked as well. Apparently, their Chef knows no other temperature for his/her dishes. - Terribly sad that the hamburgers is the best thing at any Italian restaurant! - This is clearly NOT an authentic Italian restaurant as it was before! It is now a pretend Italian restaurant within its final stages of its demise. If you are in the area DO NOT waste your time dining here!!! read more

We have friends from out of town and they wanted the BBQ pizza from Coletta's they've heard so much about. We ordered the large BBQ pizza and a medium cheese, and boy were we horribly disappointed and embarrassed. The meat on the BBQ was old, and extremely dry with a nasty sauce of some kind on top, and the crust was soggy and not even cooked. The cheese wasn't any better. Again, the crust was raw and soggy with an extreme amount of grease on top. We soaked up the grease with paper towels hoping it would help, but nope it didn't. Between the three adults we couldn't eat more than three slices total. The remainder went in the trash. You'd expect better from a place that's been around as long as Coletta's has, but with food like this I'd think they're in jeopardy of surviving. read more

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It took over 45 minutes to get a to go order. The place was dead. The pasta was way overcooked, almost melted in your mouth, not in a good way. Sauce wasn't anything to special either. I ordered a cannoli & it was so soggy to the point it was falling a part. No crunch. I called back up there to let them know. The girl just said sorry, thanks for letting me know. Won't be back, save your money & drive to Little Italy in Bartlett! read more

Coletta's Italian Restaurant - Cannoli - Italian Near Me - Memphis, Tennessee

5-29-26 We ordered two pizza takeout for lunch. The quality of the pizzas was not as good like they use to be. The pizzas were bland and not presenting to eat. read more

Everything was just fine. I had one of the largest and best burger in the city. The service also very warm and right on point. Will visit them again and try their evening menu. There with a group of about 50 happy people and no one were unhappy. Well done Collette's. read more

Some of the most disgusting food I've had. This place should be shut down. I wouldn't let a dog eat this. Bathroom area smells. Everything is dirty. Hair on the napkins. Just a disgusting place. read more

This review is in reference to my experience for a wedding rehearsal dinner we hosted at this location. We had a great experience there. Had to rent out the larger room to accommodate about 60-65 people. We had ordered for the menu the lasagna, chicken Alfredo, steamed vegetable medley, green beans and salad. Got the knot bread and mini desserts too. Also got the "formal package" wit which included linens and silverware which helped make the occasion a little more elegant. Even one of the Coletta family members came by to see if things were going well. Our hostesses of the evening kept the food coming when needed and saw to our needs well. I believe their names were Tiffany and Tabitha. They are to be commended. We certainly based on this experience would highly recommend this restaurant for high numbers gathering. read more

I just have no words but, "No thank you" But I will say I absolutely loved the atmosphere and the people. The food, not so much

I really wanted to like this more. First, ordering on their website was super easy but wished there was a text when ready. Next, my order was wrong, wanted no Canadian bacon add anchovy and add onion and mushroom. Still had Canadian bacon, mushrooms were there but no anchovy and no onion. The wings were a little better than okay. I did do light sauce due to some stomach issues with strong tomato sauce but didn't taste any of it. Can't blame them on that since this was my first time ordering from them. Service was super awesome and I would try them again. Might like to eat there instead of taking it home. read more

Placed an order for pick up. Arrived before stated pick up time. Inside restaurant is very outdated and dirty. Had the smell of old cleaning solution. Brick floor in entrance could use a good pressure wash. Employees were nice. Food came out on time. 5 minute drive home. Food review - the party platter.... mozzarella sticks and fried ravioli were hard and rubbery with no taste at all, the meat on the mini BBQ pizzas has an odd taste. Also had 2 medium pizzas.....crust is thick and hard like frozen, premade but worse. For the cost ($67 for party platter and 2 medium pizzas) and bad food, we will not order from here again. read more

This was the worst lunch ever. The restaurant has an infestation of Flies and Gnats. We've been swinging and swatting ever since we walked in the door. The walls and the ceilings need to be cleaned also. The Health Inspector needs to pay them a visit! read more

So bad! We went here because we heard the bbq pizza was good, my stepdad took 2 bites of it and said it was the worst thing he'd ever had. Couldn't finish it. Multiple things went wrong w the server. My mom didn't eat her food because it smelled horrible. Chicken Alfredo was disgusting, no flavor- how do you mess this up truly? Drinks spilled.... Just one of those experiences you do not want to spend your money on. Do not recommend. My advice is to hire a new chef or close this place down. read more

The marinated chicken is always so tender and tasty . Ask for extra marinade and mix it with the Alfredo pasta, it's so amazing!! Had excellence service with Jeremy. The restaurant was clean but a little on the cold side. read more

Coletta's Italian Restaurant - Marinated Chicken Lunch Special with Alfredo penne. - Italian Near Me - Memphis, Tennessee

Amazing food & Service! Beautiful inside. If you In area you need to go to this restaurant- you will love it. I am very picky and loved everything. Bread amazing, Toasted Ravioli Amazing, BBQ pizza amazing ordered medium so much food. Never had a pizza like this and it was so delicious. We got BBQ and meat sauce on side Prices were good Great place to go to Highly recommend read more

Coletta's Italian Restaurant - Amazing BBQ pizza. Carlotta's Italian Restaurant - Italian Near Me - Memphis, Tennessee

Went based on reputation. Had excellent service. Decore was old school Italian and inviting. Yeast rolls were excellent. Good salad. Chicken Parm was disappointing. Crust was soggy and flavorless. Chicken was overcooked and tough. It also had a weird texture. No cheese on it? What they call Meat Sauce has the texture of Hotdog Chili and had the color of a Mexican Mole'. The Meat Sauce also seemed overcooked and scalded. Apply almost the same comments to the Eggplant Parm. This restaurant may have been a Memphis mainstay in the past, but its probably time for them to say goodby. We won't be back. So sad. read more

Appling road location... the only good thing was the thought of it being completely gutted from top to bottom. This place if filthy! you can't walk on the floors without slipping they're so greasy. mop buckets in the dining area. decor falling apart, dusty and from the 1980's. the brick floor is black with grease and dirt. the servers are unkempt and uniforms faded. it reeks of dirty mop water and mold in the whole place. the Ravioli had been sitting out so long it was crunchy and the meat inside had rotted. even the water tasted dirty. The front door lady behind plexiglass was coughing and hacking. The lighting is so bright it will give you migraines. Dishes in racks on seats in the dining room.The bread that we've all come to love tasted weird. Some was gooey and tasted spoiled. We could not get one decent thing from this place. The original owners (who we knew) would be appalled at what it's become. No one cares about this once beautiful establishment! It's the worst place we've ever been too and will NEVER go back. Gut it and start over. Fire whomever manages this place because they're taking the money and not doing anything in return. COLETTA'S, PLEASE JUST WALK AROUND YOUR FILTHY SPACES!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU???? CAN YOU NOT SEE THE FILTH??? CAN YOU NOT TASTE THE FILTH??? YOU SHOUKD BE SHUT DOWN!!! IF THE DINING ROOM IS THIS BAD, CAN YOU IMAGINE THE KITCHEN??? I had to come home and take a hot shower after leaving and I still couldn't get that mop bucket smell off of me!!!! Health department needs to shut this place down!!!! read more

1st and last time here. 1 bartender on a Sat night. Awful. No one else helping pick-up the slack. read more

Coletta's has been our favorite since before we were married (52 yrs ago). We were regulars at the Summer Ave. location. We have continued to be loyal patrons at the Appling Rd location even though it has gotten run down and the food has been disappointing numerous times. Today we went in for lunch. The salad was wilted and had several brown pieces in it and the tomato was mushy. The ravioli was rather dry and there wasn't much meat in it. The whole experience was not good. The waitress did not return to offer us more tea, which I needed. We kept watching for her and only after we had finished and had been sitting waiting for our ticket, did another girl go find her. She didn't apologize for forgetting us. We won't be in any hurry to return. read more

Ordered take out, via the website. Arrived at the time suggested, go in and they say one meal got cancelled because they don't have Italian sausage, and I was sent a message. I was not sent any message about this, I double checked. So now we had to pick something else and wait another 1/2 hour in the parking lot, which is in need of severe repair. Get the food home, I had the Chicken Parm sandwich, severely overcooked, dry. Isn't even cooked in the sauce, sauce is on the side. So weird and dry. Also got the sampler appetizer, seemed like it was pre-made packaged frozen food, definitely not fresh. So bad, will not be back. read more

So decided to come here after a few months and thankfully they replaced the ceiling tiles that had mildew. But now, no homemade bread and no bbq pizza. This is ridiculous. read more

This place is huge with a couple of rooms for private dining events. Plenty of parking and seating. The decor is getting old but the place still has a cozy feel to it. We had a party of 25 in a back room with only one waitress. She did a pretty good job serving everyone. The wings are very good. I also had the garlic bread with cheese. The canneloni was good but need to be microwaved. Entrees are huge and you will need to take food home. I may return. read more

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I went to Coletta's for my friend graduation celebration on June 1st, 2024. The first thing I noticed was the outside of the building. The building look a little rough outside, and probably need a paint job and cleaning. Also when I got inside the restaurant there were some kind of strange smell that lasted a little bit, but noticeable. Our waitress that serve everyone was nice and very patient while we waited for everyone to get to the restaurant. I was starring at the beautiful water fountain while I waited. Our waitress bought out some bread. The bread was very delicious to get ready for the rest of my meal. I also tried one of the guests fried ravioli and Italian spinach. Definitely wasn't a fan of both items. For my main dish I decided to get the Coletta Burger and Fries. The fries definitely needed more seasoning to pop out. The Coletta Burger was ok, it was hard to hold it sometimes because how big it was. I ended up using a fork and knife to help myself attempt to eat the burger. I'm not sure if the mushrooms and onions go well with the meat sauce on the burger. read more

Coletta's Italian Restaurant - Bread - Italian Near Me - Memphis, Tennessee

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Visiting Colettas? What type of service and dining experience are you going to have? Check out a couple of recent reviews. Nov 5, 2023 horrible service ....need better servers . Begging them to bring us bread but would never bring. Dec 3, 2023 My Italian marinated chicken and spaghetti was abysmal. Absolutely abysmal. The flavoring was alright but the chicken itself was horribly dry. Jan 10, 2023 For a place that is "liked" by so many, it is an utter trash hole. This is my second time trying it because I thought they may have had an off night. Nope. It's the same trash. Did they give up? I've honestly had better Italian food out of the frozen food isle of Kroger. On Yelp, Coletta's has a 2 and a half start rating. Lets go for it. So how did visit go this week? We called the establishment to set up a reservation for 06-27-24, at 1900 with a party of ten. Several of us arrived early and were told that the tables will be ready shortly an were directed to the bar to wait. First off, I did not get the name of the young man that was managing the bar that night. While he was greatly my junior, he had an excellent working knowledge and respectful of the classical cocktails and the house specialty drinks. He served us with finesse. Shortly, we were called into the dining room by the hostess. Yes, the building is getting on in years, yet is well worth looking around. The fountain adds a quiet restful touch to the dining room, yet it seems so few take a minute to appreciate it. Once you are at your table, glance around the room, you imagine yourself sitting on a terrace in Italy. Let your mind go a few minutes, relax. Eric. our waiter efficiently handed out menus and took our drink orders and brought fresh rolls with butter for the table. Rolls, not Italian bread, fresh out of the oven rolls. Once he took our orders, while I didn't time anything, the orders started coming out of the kitchen in a reasonable time. Realize that I'm with a group of ten other people, and none of us mentioned a problem with any of the meals that were brought out. As I've been out with this group before, often some faults are found and spoken about - to the rest of us, and not necessarily reported to the staff as a problem. The meals were definitely 4 star. As for the service, Eric did an excellent job - attentive, not overbearing and appeared at the right times, and did not annoy any of us. Thanks to Eric and the unnamed bar tender, this visit deserves a 5 start review. There were other parties being served, however, it wasn't a busy night. The establishment was clean, the men's room was clean. Its an older building that is starting to show its age, yet it is well worth visiting. The 5 Star Review Rating: In contrast to my review, I have recieved comments from friends, neighbors that have visited Coletta's over the past several months and have had problems with the staff and / or food. One must be aware that many establishments sometimes have problems in either front of the house or back of the house and sometimes both. We selected the restaraunt because they can handle large groups. Yet, we knew there might be problems. The visit to restaraunt for the group went smoothly and there were no problems. read more

I ordered from DoorDash and order toasted ravioli. This is a picture of what I got. Attached picture below. I also ordered chicken parmesan. And got a literal rubber piece of meat threw it all away. I used to go here all the time and order from here all the time I'm not sure what happened. read more

Coletta's Italian Restaurant - A supposed toasted ravioli. It is a dried piece of bread with lukewarm meat inside. Will never go back to this place ever again - Italian Near Me - Memphis, Tennessee

I came here with a client, who raved about this establishment. I can say that it is an iconic part of the Memphis restaurant scene and I believe it is the oldest continuously open restaurant in Memphis. This long history unfortunately did not improve the quality of the meal. I ordered the veal parmigiana and when I asked if they can make the sauce spicier, I was told they only had one kind of sauce, a meat sauce. I asked if they could bring some crushed red pepper flakes, which they brought out packages of instead of the traditional shaker. The bread they brought out was more akin to a dinner roll than the beautiful Italian bread that should be served with this kind of meal. Being in Memphis, there is an Elvis history attached to it and it brings flocks of the Elvis faithful from all over the world to dine here. I will also say that the ambience here is terrific. But you can eat ambiance. I am glad that I tried here. However, I cannot see myself returning. read more

Coletta's Italian Restaurant - Veal parmigiana - Italian Near Me - Memphis, Tennessee

As of December 2023~ Food was decent Service was good. Mediocre The environment was nice, relaxing. All the servers and workers were nice. Expect for one guy that wasn't a server. We asked him to take a picture of our family and the first thing he asked was where was our server... kinda weird and rude. read more

My family and I had an amazing time here! This was my second time visiting. It was at least a 5 year gap since I have gone. We pick a pizza spot each year and this was on my husband and I'd radar. We ordered 2 large pizzas, one was a meat lovers and the other half barbecue half pepperoni. The barbecue pizza was really good. They had way more meat than most restaurants have. It was seasoned well. The meat lovers was a hit as well. It was so much left even with a party of 5. With my order, I also had a pitcher of Sangria. It was a lot and it was only $9.99! I couldn't finish that either. Our order took a little longer than others, so they gave us a choice for a complimentary appetizer. We chose the fried ravioli. I personally did not like those (not enough flavor), but overall experience...awesome. They have friendly staff, the environment is very family friendly, the food is great, and the price points are pretty good! read more

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The servers are really nice refill your drinks and ask how the food is. I love the walls and in the middle there's a cool fountain.

Disappointed. Server asked to close out before dessert. Food burnt. Parking lot needs attention. read more

Now I had a great night. Party room vibes. For a good friends daughter gender reveal. She is an adult now and was my student in preschool. Love goes a long way here. And Coletta's is a staple in our families. Favorite place for Italian food. They treat us right here. read more

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I had heard high reviews in the past and didn't look at yelp and tried to trust the word of mouth. I have felt such high disappointment. Like incredibly so, my fiance and I went in to try the food out as a test to see if the restaurant food was good and to consider if it was potentially good enough to have as wedding catering. Let's just say I was massively, massively disappointed and they are struck off the list completely and I'm most certainly never returning. My fiance got the lasagne and I got the Italian chicken with spaghetti. The bread was rather decent, warm, fresh. That was the only highlight. The lasagne was acceptable but nothing to really write home about. My Italian marinated chicken and spaghetti was abysmal. Absolutely abysmal. The flavoring was alright but the chicken itself was horribly dry. I couldn't feel any moisture in the chicken itself. It was like having shredded straw. Additionally, the spaghetti was awful. I'm not sure how you mess up spaghetti but it was watery and just....noodles. like bland, empty noodles in a red water mix. It was just sad. Our waitress was nice but honestly, don't waste your time, go elsewhere. It was an expensive mistake to have lunch here. For the price to food worth you get? Just don't. Save yourself the pain/hassle read more

My family ordered Lasgana, and it came way to quickly ontop of THAT it was somewhat cold. As for the Dish it was served in a type of dog bowl. as they claim "we've been serving it like that for over 70 years" i checked on what it looked like, and it was a PLATE. 0/10 and also, The toasted ravioli was BURNT to a crisp and the sourdough bread was to hard. As going foward for my family WE DONT RECOMMEND GOING HERE, as how the serve things. Other People have gotten plates, and they making us feel LIKE we are dogs to them, as we are NOT. Poor food service. read more

We have always enjoyed Coletta's in the past, but we ordered a family lasagna to-go tonight, and it was one of the worst lasagnas we have ever had. It was undercooked, and there had to be less than 1/4 pound of meat in the entire pan. The whole thing was just noodles, cheese and sauce. We won't be back read more

We came here for a large group birthday party. Our server was EXCELLENT. He had long dark hair pulled back. He was super attentive and didn't miss a beat. The food came out in an ample time and the portions - omg!!! The shrimp diane was amazing and I'm still eating on it days later lol. I was honestly pleasantly surprised at my experience here. The cauliflower crust pizza I sampled was great too. I would go back if I'm in the mood for a hearty italian feast! read more

Poor food. Expensive for what tasted like breaded unseasoned chicken on SpaghettiOs. The service was fairly good. The scenery could be charming (though I personally don't like the photos on the walls), though the food, which was what I came for, was not good. Bathrooms weren't clean either. I would avoid the place, which is disappointing. Half of the menu items weren't there. How can you have an Italian restaurant without meatballs?! read more

Coletta's Italian Restaurant - Photo of the table and wall scenery. - Italian Near Me - Memphis, Tennessee

Ugh, I hate to write this review. The building itself is looking rough. There was mold on the ceilings and vents as well as our tablecloth. Yuck. The service was ok. The food was pretty good. The rolls were excellent. I enjoyed my Chicken Alfredo. But the marinara of my others guests were so oily, it was glistening. Overall, I'm really sad about this since I've heard it's a Memphis favorite. But I will not be returning unless it gets a good cleaning and update. read more

It pains me to give this review as I've eaten there a number of times and use them a number of time for banquets. This past visit the chef obviously put way too much salt in the sauces. Specifically the Alfredo sauce. Everyone that got anything with Alfredo could not finish their meal because of the salt. in addition to that the hostess was not very friendly, and the bathroom was disgusting. There were bugs and flies, trash all over the place and it stunk. We will not be going back. read more

Having grown up in an immigrant home, I rarely go to an Italian restaurant, as I consistently am disappointed - not getting the quality/tastes that I get at home. Having said that, this chain has historically been rated among the highest in Memphis. This only shows how hard it is to get good Italian meals in Memphis! Between my wife and I, we got several items - Pasta Fagioli (decent taste but too greasy); the Coletta Sampler (Mozzarella sticks and garlic cheese toast - both OK, and toasted ravioli - not good at all and overcooked to boot); side orders of meatballs and Italian sausage. The meatballs were OK. The best comments we had were of the sauces and sausage - both very good. In summary, I'd say if you are looking for something along the Italian 'spectrum', this will be OK, just don't expect great. BTW - masks are required read more

It's been nearly a decade since I've visited Coletta's and nothing has changed. Honestly...nothing! The menu offerings, decor and service have remained mediocre and outdated. We arrived about a half hour before closing, ordered our meal and it was delivered to the table cold. We ordered the Signature option of lasagna, ravioli, and chicken alfredo. EVERYTHING was cold. We sent it back. The waitress explained that the kitchen was closing, and my rebuttal, "So that means the quality diminishes as well?" It was returned to us warm from a 10-minute stay in their oven. Definitely warm, but the presentation was sloppy. It was so glopped on the plate that the watery pasta sauce spilled across my cell phone when the waitress set it before me. She apologized, I accepted and wiped it clean. Turning to the food my partner and I looked at our plates and raised the knowing eyebrow to each other. He bit into the lasagna and me the ravioli while our son frowned at the watery spaghetti as he dosed it with salt, pepper, and cheese to give it some flavor. And he was correct. All of the items we tasted lacked flavor. I've had frozen Marie Calendar meals that had more flavor. The lasagna was layers of doughy pasta glued together with watery sauce and a sprinkling of minced meat. No ricotta cheese. Barely any mozzarella. Definitely no flavor. That ravioli was the same. It appeared to have been frozen, not fresh. How can you tell? The pasta thickens on the edges when frost-bitten. The contents were so minced and flavorless that I begged for a can of Chef Boyardee. At that point, I didn't bother to try the Chicken Alfredo. Instead, I took it home as punishment for my dog, who was a bad boy that morning. Which reminded me that his leave behind was about as crude as what I'd just been served. I know this seems harsh and flippant, but to be expected to pay nearly $80 for a meal that was a step below a frozen dinner and lost to a time gone by, I can't help but be cruel. There are other Italian places in Memphis. I've been to nearly all of them, adding and removing them from my list. Instead of moving Coletta's to the bottom of the list, I'm removing it altogether and I recommend you do the same. I appreciate local, family-owned businesses. Coletta's has been around since 1923...100 years! That's great, but please, please, please bring the food offerings into the 21st Century. While the old saying, don't change something if it isn't broken...that isn't the case here. read more