The Italian Underground; The food was tasteless,thoughtless,talentless Here is the breakdown from…read morethe bread basket,appetizer,main course through our departure (the departure is a key moment )
Bread Basket-soggy bland and crust-less French/baguette bread? I assume what was meant to be olive oil but was clear & tasteless like melted crisco and had zero body, definitely NOT olive oil, the bread was the same structureless consistency as cheap sandwich bread, this includes what should have been a crispy crackly crust. Disappointing & Drab.The main course, I will start with my guest's meals and then circle back to my own meal.
Guest #1) Spaghetti w/ meatballs.
The sauce was red, however that is the closest relative that could have had even a distant relationship to spaghetti, the sauce was thin, watery & lacking body, like a watered down can of chef boy-ardee, flavorless & texture-less, something I would expect on a clearance cannof an expiring off-brand can of spaghetti. The restaurant claims the pasta is "house made" I am reaching for an adequate translation here that does NOT impart the vision of making the pasta in the kitchen BY HAND the pasta was as disappointing as the sauce & bread, sad, with neither structure nor context. The meatballs barely held their shape & were strongly reminiscent of the thick soy based paste as a fast food meatless product. A paste that had been shaped then simmered in water to make sure the meatballs would be devoid of flavor or texture. Definitely not as the menu advertised . It is fair to break off for a moment, to say we called our server over to inquire about the thoughtless slop we had been served & were told with as much energy that the food offered,that the meatballs were 100% beef, but he spoke as if he was trying to convince himself. The waiter abruptly told us he would go get his manager and left our table with abrupt & rude suddenness.
My second guest's food was equally uninteresting and lacking.. she had ordered the Chicken Parmigiana, she pushed her plate away from herself after two bites and stated that her pasta was soggy & dissolving without chewing! the breading was too soggy. She offered me a bite of her Chicken Parmigiana and I had to agree that I've had better frozen versions of this dish. My first guest stated," it just doesn't have any flavor!" Before I move onto my meal's description let me say that the "manager that our wait staff had gone to get arrived at our table as I was pushing my plate away. We voiced our concerns. Her appearance was disheveled and un-professional. This member of management?? Was not interested nor accommodating in her general demeanor. She hotly proclaimed that the slurry conceived meatballs were indeed boiled and had come frozen, that they sat in a bath of hot water before being served. At the point where I felt no words would change the quality of our food or service I allowed her to continue to bluster about the food's quality until she also abruptly left our table in an offended huff. I had ordered the Chicken Alfredo. I generally judge cream based sauces by its level of cohesiveness by its ability to coat a spoon and stay coating said spoon when the spoon is removed from the main body of the sauce itself. My spoon came away clear of all but traces of my Alfredo sauce. The chicken was tough and stringy, lodging pieces in my teeth. Our waiter came to our table with to -go boxes. Had we been asked first I myself would have declined taking the served portions home if not good fresh then most likely worse later. The waiter brought the check and we silently paid and prepared to leave,guest number 2 asked about if a tip should be left, I told her that though I never blame waitstaff for food quality I didn't feel that the service we did receive warranted a tip. We left a small tip anyways and I made a silent prayer to the heavens that he would chase us down and demand to know why the tip was so small,he did not. There were three of us at my table that night, all three of us left hungry disappointed and a bit angry. The meal was well over $100.00 with zero beverages and not even I could say one optimistic thing about the entire experience except that at least we didn't have to wait an hour and a half like we did when the establishment was held by the original owners. The departure,
When you leave this embarrassment of a restaurant you must go up a winding wrought iron stair case. I felt so disenchanted by the retched experience that I felt like we were dragging ourselves to some depressing and dank cell , not at all like the actual upstairs and out into open mountain air. At the top of the stairs stood four young couples this is the conversation we overheard from this group as they were reading The Italian Underground's posted menu. It was apparent that at least one of the couples had dined at this restaurant, this was the conversation spoken in a thick European accent,"no I've had that and it's not real it's badly done,