Taste of Italy

"We took our grandkids to Precious Moments and heard Taste of Italy was nearby. It's actually attached to the building in the parking lot. We received great customer service. The food was great, and the facility was clean. The food portions were generous. We all enjoyed our dining experience."

"TL;DR: Don't come here. Food is tasteless. You can get better ambience in an airplane hanger. Owner seems to have some questional ideals. We found ourselves in Carthage on March 8th, 2024 to get our wedding license. We had heard a lot of good things about this place and the reviews looked fine. I wish I had read the negative reviews, not because their content but due to the owners response - that would have stopped me from coming in the first place. The location is strange - attached to precious moments. We can look past that. You walk in - what is this place? Was it a warehouse? A meeting hall? It's huge, total empty space with 30 feet tall ceilings with seating, some decor here and there on the walls. Lights are flickering in several places. It was empty when we came in, so we were the first to be seated. We were seated directly under a flickering light. The server was extremely kind the entire time - she did wonderful. I requested to move because of the light, no big deal, thankfully. Seats were fine, table cloths were cheap plastic. The menus are well designed and pretty - printed on nice paper. The server was wonderful - kind and quick to requests. This, however, concludes all of the nice things I have to say about this place. The bread was delivered with marina sauce. It looked chunky and was off colored - I genuinely thought it was an alla panna (vodka sauce). I tried it... My God - it tasted like vomit. Thankfully the bread was palletable, but I couldn't believe how bad the marina sauce was. I initially ordered spaghetti and meat balls, but after we received our appetizer - mozeralla sticks - it came with another serving of Mariana sauce. The sauce was broken. It was entirely separated - I had to explicitly ask to make sure it was mariana because you can't tell by looking at it. I endeavored and tried the separated vomit sauce in hope the first was a fluke - nope! Still vomit sauce. Just separated this time. Mozeralla sticks were fine, I guess. They use a sweet garnish - not quite sure what - which gives the breading a funnel cake-esque taste. After this, I decided that there was no way I was taking a chance on the tomato / red sauce - we hadn't got our food yet - I requested Alfredo instead. The salads were fine. Lettuce was fresh. The Caesars sauce was strangely sweet, but it was fine. Got the Alfredo... Man. I can't emphasize this enough... There was no flavor. It was like I was eating a noodle and water soup. The sauce was extremely thin, the noodles were NOT al dente as the owner claims in his responses, they were soft. It's hard to call the dish gross because it literally did not have any flavor. Just the starch from the noodles. At this point, I had looked at the negative reviews and saw the owners very snarky remarks - implying his customers didn't know "authentic Italian" and how they "should go to Olive garden." It was clear that taking criticism wasn't this guys strong suit, so I decided to foot the bill and move on. Even if offered to be remade, I wouldn't have wanted anything from there. It's really unfortunate because the majority of the reviews for this place are stellar. I'm not sure if we caught a bad day, but the owners responses to criticism is unacceptable regardless. If you're planning to make a trip for this place, I highly recommend you make the trek to Pittsburg and go to Napoli's instead - a whole in the wall that doesn't make you feel like you're visiting a liminal space, extremely good _authentic_ Italian, and stellar service. Or, as the owner recommends, maybe go to Olive Garden. Even their food is better than this place. Edit: in response to the owners "you are mad you didn't get what you wanted": Yes. I am mad I did not get decent food. :) I paid for my meal and tipped your server!"

"Such a neat little hole in the wall. Great food, warm reception and service. We had a perfect valentines day dinner! The food was obviously made with passion! Thank you."

"I'm giving it only four stars because of the fluorescent bulbs they use inside. Very cold looking and not warm at all but a lot of tables were full and this was on a Sunday when the Chiefs were playing. I also had to wait about five minutes to get acknowledged after I walked in to pick up my take out order but not a huge deal. Still, some of the best New York style pizza I have ever had, and I am from NY. I've been wanting to try them since moving to Carthage and they did not disappoint. Fresh toppings, great crust (which is what makes it for me). I'm really surprised that they are making such great pies. I also tried the Caprese appetizer which was also very good (I think for the price that some bread should be included). Everything was packaged nicely as well."

"We LOVE eating here! The tomato basil soup and homemade tomato vinegarette dressing are delicious. My husband always orders Spaghetti Works. I usually order seafood or Mama's Ravioli, but ordered Spinach Torolini tonight. It didn't disappoint!"