Bottomless Pasta Bowls Suck

I am not a professional food critic. I know, I know, your mind has just been blown.  However, I do have a great insider tip for you.  If you go to a fancy-pants Italian restaurant, do not order the bottomless pasta bowl.  It is going to look appealing.  It is going to sound like a great deal.  Do not do it, though.  Recently, I made this mistake.  I will not say what the restaurant was because I would like to go back and give them a fair shake by ordering something from the menu before rendering a judgement on their food.  Their bottomless pasta bowl though?  It kind of sucks.  

It is a place I had been wanting to try for a while and I have had several people recommend it, so I was excited to finally eat there.  I knew they had a never ending option on the menu and for some reason, I was set on trying it.  When it comes to Italian in KC, my family and I have experienced two extreme ends of the spectrum.  The whole family agrees that as of now, Cascone’s is the place to beat.  I was interested to see where this highly recommended compared to the reigning champ.  So, why I chose to do the bottomless pasta bowl, instead of ordering something from the menu, I do not know.  Actually, I do know.  It is because “all you can eat” always sounds like a good idea to me.  I like a lot of food.  It is rarely the correct choice, though.  

The first major issue with bottomless pasta bowls at a nice Italian restaurant is that the chef is making it ahead of time and for a lot of people.  It just is not going to have the care and attention that a single plate does.  In this case, this led to some of the pasta being a little under-cooked.  This can destroy a pasta dish.  It can also lead to pasta that has been sitting for a while. I do not know for sure that this is what happened, but the sauce on the ravioli dish had a little film on it, presumably from being exposed to the air for too long.  Mind you, they were not the worst pasta dishes I have had, but I cannot imagine they were the same quality as when you order from the menu.

A second issue with bottomless pasta bowls is that it is just too much dang food.  And I write that as someone who can eat a lot of food.  Now, I was at least smart enough to not order any appetizers.  Obviously appetizers are a bad idea when you are paying for all you can eat.  I really like appetizers, though, so I was forgoing something I like just to be able to stick more pasta in my belly.  Then, the pasta came.  They brought three different types on one plate.  Again, they were not bad.  In fact, one of the three, I really liked.  It was a bolognese pasta and really quite good.  So, naturally, I ordered another helping.  At this point, I really did not need any more food.  Actually, that point had passed a short while before.  I wanted my money’s worth, though.  The second helping of the bolognese, unsurprisingly, was not nearly as good.  It is possible it came from a different batch.  It is also possible, though, that I simply was not hungry anymore.  This is an inherent problem with any never ending dish.  As I stuff more food in my face, in a bid to get my money’s worth, the food actually starts to taste less and less good, thereby diminishing the enjoyment I get out of it.  So, I actually get less for my money as I eat more.  

Now, there is a time and a place for an “all you can eat” meal.  It has to be about variety, though, and not quantity.  A good brunch buffet is still one of my favorite things in this world.  A pizza buffet allows me to try several different types of pizzas without having to order more than I need.  A fancy Italian restaurant, though, is not the place for that.  If, by some stroke of extreme bad fortune I end up at an Olive Garden (like say my family is feeling particularly mean and convince me to go) then sure, I will go with the never ending pasta bowl.  It’s all going to taste about the same anyway.  Not at a fancy place, though and that takes me to my second bit of advice, this time for restaurants.  If you are a fancy-pants Italian restaurant, do not have a bottomless pasta bowl.  Just don’t do it.  It is not going to show your food in the best light.  It will make you seem like an overpriced Olive Garden.  

All this said, I will definitely be going back to this unnamed restaurant.  I do not believe the bottomless pasta bowl was a true representation of what they do there.  Both the salad and dessert were quite good and the spread that came with the dinner bread was quite delicious.  Once I have given them a better shot, I will do a full write up of the experience.  For now, though, I thought it was important to get this PSA out there.