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    Nola Scala Restaurant

    3.5 (42 reviews)
    Closed 4:00 pm - 10:00 PM

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    Goat Cheese Stuffed Ravioli ($16)
    Robert S.

    Thursday night birthday dinner for me. Reservations through OpenTable. This is a small, quaint Italian restaurant located downtown Taylor Texas. The atmosphere is intimate and I quite enjoyed the ambiance. Although not busy at all, my first impression was positive. My wife and I were seated at a table adjacent to the street window. Since it was my birthday I wanted to splurge for a bottle of wine and ordered a bottle only to be informed they were out of stock. I looked again while the waiter recommended several bottles in the $70-$80 per bottle price range. I switched my order to a bottle of Querceto ($39), a French made red table wine. Absolutely delicious. What a great wine (in my humble opinion). Next it was time for an appetizer and I wanted to try the Prosciutto wrapped Figs. The waiter then informed me they were out of figs. So, needless to say we are not being impressed with two out of two items so far not in stock. I then settled on the Goat Cheese Filled Ravioli ($16). The presentation was good with four pieces topped with an in house marinara. We each tried the ravioli only to be disappointed in the flavor profile. There was very little goat cheese and the ravioli itself was like day old bread: hard, chewy, and just not very good. I will say the in house marinara almost made up for it by being flavorful and plentiful. But no, I expected a much better prepared ravioli. Not good. The restaurant is trying to change up the menu and offer different entrée selections on a rotating basis. My wife had the beef tips ($28) in a yogurt based sauce on top of yellow rice with asparagus. The dish was presented cold. The rice was severely overcooked. The yogurt sauce lacked any discernable flavor profile and the asparagus was unremarkable. This being the signature dish of the evening, it was a real disappointment and entirely forgettable. The highlight of the evening was my dish. I had the Italian sausage with homemade pasta in an in house marinara. The sausage could have been broken into slightly smaller pieces and there was not much pasta but the marinara was spot on. The dish was presented hot and had an excellent flavor profile. The portion was ideal and I found myself thinking this should be the signature dish. We spent $131 with tax and tip. Service was good and not intrusive. The server was knowledgeable and thoughtful. Since we started the service with two "out of stock" acknowledgements and the appetizer was quite frankly bad plus the beef tips were much less than expectations, I can only give 2 stars. Having said that, I would try this establishment once more. I fully support small businesses especially in a small town. I want them to succeed but for over $100 I also expect a better meal.

    Seating area.

    I am loving this new menu. The orange lentil soup was super good. I went ahead and got the Mediterranean pasta for my entree The Bear Monday is a delicious white fish I got the pasta with the marinara sauce It was really good. The service was excellent as usual. Michael tended to all of our needs and went above and beyond to make sure we were satisfied. The raspberry tiramisu was the delicious take on a tiramisu. big fan of the limoncello liqueur.

    Stephani L.

    Enjoyed the food here now twice veryMuch , but, better yet the cozy unique atmosphere and attention to detail in service! Only downside is the lack of variety in the menu. Just would like to see a couple more options for entrees especially for someone who can't have the pasta. But they do what do in the loveliest manner so shrug lol! Heart them!

    Excellent bread!

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    The food is good but definitely overpriced for what you're getting. The staff were very friendly though.

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    Good food. HORRIBLE SERVICE. We waited 30 minutes for our desert. The waiter forgot about it. Very expensive for just tapas. Good for wine.

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    4 years ago

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    4 years ago

    Chef's got skills! Service, ambiance, food all spot on... make a reservation though, it's small and it's going to get popular.

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    5 years ago

    Great food and Kevin made sure that the service was on point! We will definitely be back!

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    Page 1 of 2

    Ask the Community - Nola Scala Restaurant

    Review Highlights - Nola Scala Restaurant

    Italian food is my FAVORITE, so I'm super glad to have one as good as La Scala in Taylor!

    Mentioned in 6 reviews

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    Plowman's Kitchen - Eggs Benedict, solid.

    Plowman's Kitchen

    4.2(365 reviews)
    0.5 mi
    $$

    This medium sized restaurant has just about everything you'd want served all day long. Breakfast,…read morelunch, and dinner? They serve it all day long. It's a cute nostalgic space with old-timey instruments displayed in the corners and has a really unique feel. The wait staff is friendly and funny and very knowledgeable about the menu. Personally, I've had the big thick burger and the pulled pork sandwich. Both are delicious. Others have had the chicken fried steak, the lasagna, and everyone I've gone there with loved it. Great comfort food and delicious pie for dessert. Try it, you'll like it!

    TLDR: Restaurant in an old high school band hall that delivers on nostalgic vibes but falls short…read moreon food. The fried green tomatoes are great here but for me, almost everything else was a disappointment. Not as kid-friendly as you'd expect. It pains me to leave such a low rating (and I rarely do) but this was one of the most disappointing restaurant experiences I've had in a while. And it didn't have to be that way so hopefully my review can grab someone's attention. This place has so much potential because it's in such a cool location -- the band hall of an old high school (fun decor and cool nostalgic vibes). I had really high hopes for this restaurant but it let me down. Here's what went wrong. THE FOOD: First and foremost, the food was disappointing... except for their vegetable appetizers. The fried green tomatoes were fantastic. Nailed it in terms of texture and flavor. My husband and I were both surprised by how good they were. Their Brussels sprouts appetizer was really good as well. After that, it was all downhill. I had the Mom's Meatloaf with two sides: Cowboy Caviar and green beans. The meatloaf wasn't bad but it wasn't exactly a loaf -- it was like meatballs connected together? I didn't taste the bacon in the tomato sauce and the portion felt tiny -- same size as the sides. The sides were a real letdown. The green beans tasted like they came straight from a Jolly Green Giant can. The Cowboy Caviar (which I usually love) was so bland. It was like they just poured beans and corn and pepper and onion in and that's it. I didn't taste any seasoning. Cowboy Caviar needs to have that zing (many simple recipes use Italian salad dressing). Moving onto my husband's dish which was probably the worst part. His tomato soup tasted like marinara sauce but we were hoping the filet mignon would deliver. It was simply not good. It wasn't as tender as filet mignon needs to be -- it was chewy. It did seem to be cooked as requested (medium rare) but it didn't taste good and seemed flavorless -- almost as if the meat was poor quality. Now, I know that filet mignon is a much more mild tasting cut and less flavorful than a ribeye for instance, but still, something felt very off with this steak. Neither of us enjoyed it and that's a bummer (especially at that price point). KIDS: Usually restaurants like this one are more kid-friendly so I was a bit surprised. Our kids are 3.5YO and 2YO. They brought a booster for my youngest. It had no straps at all (which I'm not even complaining about because those straps are broken at literally every restaurant). We were in a booth so it worked okay mostly. What I'm unhappy about is the lack of coloring options and kids menus. We were not brought any crayons and coloring paper upon seating so we inquired. The waitress said she'd look and ended up coming back with crayons and some paper placemats to doodle on? I respect the ingenuity but I was confused. They have crayons on hand but they don't offer them to the kids? What's the deal with that? They didn't have a kids menu printed anywhere and the waitress just told us the offerings out loud. So is there an official kids menu or not? I'd like to be able to see the prices as well. Also a bit perplexing. We went ahead and ordered one grilled cheese for the kids to share and I'm glad because it was big but also not very good. The bread was too dense so it was more of a bread sandwich. My kids weren't that into it. Almost forgot -- the fries that came with the grilled cheese were actually very good (got to give credit where it's due). TIME: Our food took forever. It wasn't a fun wait -- the kids were getting super restless. The waitress stopped by a couple times to tell us that "our food is just around the corner." Even though it ended up being untrue -- I appreciate her checking in.

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    Plowman's Kitchen - Bar area

    Bar area

    Plowman's Kitchen - Chicken Fried Steak, meh.

    Chicken Fried Steak, meh.

    Plowman's Kitchen - Damn good breakfast sausage

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    Damn good breakfast sausage

    Davis Grocery and Bar-B-Q - 3 Meat Combo. Brisket, Sausage, Ribs.

    Davis Grocery and Bar-B-Q

    4.2(123 reviews)
    0.5 mi
    $$

    This place is almost on the outskirts of Taylor, surrounded by grain silos and some residential…read morehomes near the tracks. It's as if they're trying to keep this place a secret from the tourists. It also doesn't help that their parking lot has only five spaces, but there is some street parking. Inside it looks like someone tried to repurpose their garage into a makeshift restaurant and grocery store. All the sides are served out of several crockpots and the meat is stored in a dutch oven. The sides were nothing special, the beans were average and the potato salad could've come from Walmart. The corn and green beans were clearly out of a can. I got the two meat plate for $20. I decided on chicken and ribs (brisket is $2 more). The chicken was fairly moist and the ribs were decent, but the barbecue sauce they ladled over it was overly sweet with no tang. I was going to get the three meat plate until I saw the brisket sitting in the Dutch oven. At least when they ran my credit card, the tip screen was not there waiting for me. Glad I stopped in, but it's not a place I would come back to. If you're a tourist, there are better places to check out. Informative photos included.

    James Davis is preaching smoked meats and sides! It was all righteous and spot on. We walked in…read moreafter the lunch rush and had the place to ourselves. What treat! Def will return the best kept secret in Taylor.

    Photos
    Davis Grocery and Bar-B-Q - Inside

    Inside

    Davis Grocery and Bar-B-Q - Chicken and ribs

    Chicken and ribs

    Davis Grocery and Bar-B-Q - Family men, Believers, bros

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    Family men, Believers, bros

    Nola Scala Restaurant - italian - Updated September 2026

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