Tony's Pasta - A Study in Poor Service

i've had many similar experiences...though not at tony's. think i've eaten there once. i thought it was decent, but i think it was on the company, so hard to complain.

going through this kind of stuff sucks. hope they learn from their mistakes.

Frankly I think all the restaurants in the art district are down right awful, my bigger beef is with teh back in cafe as it serves food that is high priced but tastes awful.

The thing i give tonys is atmosphere and cheap food. That's about it. The lobster ravioli is about the only thing that I've had there that I think is worth the price, though last time the pasta wasn't fully cooked thus a little hard here and there.

1. Not taking reservations is a pain, but I'm finding more and more restaurants not doing it because of their desire to have people be turned away because everything is "reserved" and then have no shows.

2. The staff in general there is usually bad. In fact the only good staff i've ever really seen in chattanooga is the high end places, St Johns and Southside.

3. I have had similar problems with their diet coke and last time got wine because i figured it'd be harder to screw that up.

Their sauces are runny, maybe they're using skim milk in order to save our waist lines.

I have had to deal with that phone system before too and was going around and around in circles trying to get a hold of someone. Finally I called an art dealer and told them to transfer me over to a person in the restaurant not a machine, that worked for some reason.

I will say their calamari has improved, still not near Luciano's but nothing I've had has ever come close, even the true italian places I've eaten in St. Louis on the hill and some up in Chicago (cities that have an actual Italian part of the city) have not compared to Luciano's. Best Calamari I've had thus far in my life and probably best I will ever had.

One place in St. louis had them beat on the plate appearance, it was on a bed of fried spinach leaves and had a stronger garlic presence but though it was good, the garlic was a bit overpowering and lacked the suttle flavors Luciano was able to exploit. He had a way of allowing the squid to be the prominant flavor, but in a way that was good, not like some places where the squid is the prominant flavor because its awful calamari.

fart district.

With the exception of one visit out of probably close to 100, I've had nothing but good food and service at Tony's.

Maybe they just hate big groups of opinionated Presbyterians and wanted you to leave. :)

The only bad visit I had was due to -- as you astutely pointed out -- runny, watery sauce on our entrees.

I brought some of my family there a couple weeks ago (five of us in total) and everything was great.

I liked La Dolce Vita a lot, too, but it was always a little sweaty in there, and there were always -- ALWAYS -- flies flying around the dining room.

Tony's bread/cheese/garlic/olive oil mix slays me, the atmosphere is great, and the food is very affordable. I also like their salad dressings. A lot.

Bill, be honest, you only like them 'cause they'll play The California Guitar Trio while you eat.

Um, NO...???

But it would be cool...

(I actually couldn't tell you what music they play in there. As someone whose worked in restaurants for over a decade, I long ago learned to block out the music being piped in over restaurant speakers. I hate Van Morrison. One restaurant played Van Morrison CONSTANTLY. I developed mental ear plugs and still possess them.)

That's "who has" and not "whose."

I think their bread is rock hard and their olive oil "medley' is weak. Carabas and macaroni grill both have far superior bread olive oil combos. It doesn't take much for good bread, and good olive oil. I always have to pour an entire pepper and salt shaker into the olive oil to bring it up to at least bareable. Plus their olive oil isn't the best... its a little too yellowy (greener = better).

hi josiah. i've eaten at tony's 3 times and each experience was pretty dang wonderful. my taste buds were happy and my company was rich. just my experience....
i rewrote my blog entry for today a bit. check it again. ;-)

Holton, you live in Atlanta now.
Your opinion doesn't count.

chris and i have eaten there a lot, and have never had a bad experience. i'm sorry that you guys had a bad one.....oh well.

and thanks for making outside feeds pop up in a new window. much nicer and easier to manage.

I miss La Dolce Vita too. I can't cook but after living with that family I know what Italian food is supposed to taste like. I remember the time Luciano walked in the kitchen and caught me throwing dry pasta in a pot before the water boiled. He had a good laugh. One dish in particular that wasn't on the menu - a collaboration between Luciano and some of his guys in the back - with red curry, I especially miss. So is Luciano going to open a new restaurant? I haven't talked to them lately. Last time I saw him he was talking about a pizza place.

The thing I liked about Tonys was it was local, which I'm all about the local pasta joints. I got Carabas last night for valentines and though the food was far superior to that of Tonys part of me still felt like I was going to Walmart for groceries.

I'm with you Josiah, the food is average at best. And I've always had trouble with the service. Never quite that bad, but the last time I ate there, we waited about 15 minutes before anyone took our drink orders.

I don't like that other restaurant or their fartbucks coffee either. Fart District. So stupid.

I've had some decent food at Tony's before. The food and the service were pretty average all the times I've gone. I do remember a couple of times when the service was incredibly slow though.

The other restaurants in the Art District are even worse. I've never had a good experience at Back Inn Café, and Rembrandt's is quite possibly the worst coffeeshop in town. Really, their coffee is so weak and usually luke warm, and it just plain tastes bad.

Has it always been like this? I seem to remember the food and service being much better years ago. Or have I just grown older and more discerning (read: picky)?

The saga continues: I call today, 'cause, you know, they're supposed to be "less busy". I get some girl who says "I haven't seen anything like that today." To which I say: "well, that may be due to the fact I left it at your place ON SUNDAY!" (I had just mentioned that fact).

I ask her "well, can you please ask the servers or buspersons if they found a scarf left on the windowsill Sunday night?" She responds with "oh, sure, can you call back in like 10 minutes?"

Girl needs to be fired. And then the manager for not training her better.

Look make your own restaurant for cryin out loud. You keep saying you will.... well we're all waiting....

At least Tony's doesn't discriminate against asian people. One time Ken Montgomery and I went to Mom's Italian on Market and sat there, and sat there... and sat there! No one even greeted us. So we finally left... and then I think we went to Tony's.

However, I never left a scarf there...

emily, i heard that Mom's discriminates against people from Seattle...