Onesta means Honest in Italian, it is honestly FLAVORLESS, CANNED and FROZEN ITALIAN...
Summary, in case you don't want to read the long version:
I felt like I was on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares where the owner cuts corners and uses cheap ingredients thinking no one will notice then gets pissed when he gets caught. Save yourself the time, go to Kroger and pick up some Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, it will be just as disgusting as Mama Onesta's, but it will only cost $1.50.
The whole story:
Made a reservation and arrived about 30 mins early thinking it would be busy but the place was pretty empty. The wait staff brought water and told us that they were waiting for fresh bread to come out of the oven. We were very happy to hear that only to be disappointed when the rolls showed up, cold and covered with flavorless chunks of jarred garlic. We ordered wine and a sangria along with a plate of mussels as an appetizer. All were good and served promptly. My wife ordered the Tortellini Aurora with grilled chicken (for an up charge). She got these tiny, dime size, flavorless, green and white, obviously frozen or dried tortellini smothered in an equally flavorless tomato sauce with bits of parsley sprinkled around the dish A'la 1985. The grilled chicken breast was just that, an unseasoned charred piece of flavorless chicken cut into 5 pieces and set on top of the dish. My wife hated it, I tried it, it was gross. I ordered the Shrimp fra Diavlo. The shrimp was cooked properly and was not too bad, but the sauce was the same sauce that was on my wife's dish with a healthy dose of red pepper flakes mixed in to make it "fra Diavlo". It was served over spaghetti that was overcooked and mushy and my plate was also decorated with parsley flakes. The owner came over to our table and we told him that we were not happy with the food and he offered to replace both of our dishes with something else and gave us a one free Sangria while we waited. Against our better judgment (we should have left at this point), we each picked something very simple from the menu. My wife chose Fettuccine Alfredo and I asked for a baked penne (Baked Ziti) dish. The owner talked me out of the baked penne and said I should try the sausage and peppers. I obliged and after a 30 minute wait, our replacement dishes arrived. The Fettuccine was dried out and had some jarred Alfredo sauce dumped on it with more of the parsley flakes thrown around the plate for garnish. My wife tried it and said it was ok, but was definitely not restaurant quality. The sausage and peppers on the other hand was disgusting. Thinly sliced sausage tossed in overcooked penne pasta with canned red peppers cut about the size of pimentos dumped in and the juice from the canned peppers as the sauce. I took two bites and stopped. The owner came over to check on us and we told him that the dishes were awful and he offered to comp up the entire meal by saying, "don't worry about it, I won't charge you for anything...". We sat there for about 5 minutes as my wife chatted about the food with another customer that was obviously not enjoying her meal either. We left the waitress a tip since none of this was her fault and got up to leave. Seconds after leaving we turn around to see the owner chasing us down the street screaming that we had not paid for the wine or mussels. I explained that we thought he said he was taking care of everything. He said that he is a business man and that he told us he would take care of the entree's only. I went back into the restaurant to pay where he proceeded to yell at me in front of other customers saying among other things that I was the worst customer he had ever had in his restaurant. I was never rude nor did I raise my voice or ask for anything beyond what he offered. Yet he completely lost his cool and berated me in front of his customers with his obviously embarrassed staff looking on. I did sign the check with a couple of choice words, but that was well after he screamed at me. Not sure how this place is getting good reviews or staying in business. read more