The Pasta Factory

The Pasta Factory
1020 East Broadway (corner of Broadway and Hitt - downtown)
10/24/07

Oldboy: 4 stars
What we've often considered one of the best Italian restaurants in Columbia. However, on this particular occasion we were somewhat disappointed. Moderately priced, I got an appetizer, entree and desert for around $20 - $25. The amount of food is good, as leftovers were enough for a decent meal the next day. The service was decent, my water glass was usually kept filled, though we ended up waiting a bit near the end of dinner for the bill. My favorite part of the decor are the old belt-driven ceiling fans. We were never offered or received bread with our meal, which would have been nice to have to sop up sauce. The fried zucchini sticks were tasty, and not too greasy. I got the Straw & Hay Fettuccine for an entree, which was rather disappointing, in fact, it tasted better warmed up the next day. The sauce seemed to end up at the bottom of the bowl rather than coating the pasta, and it wasn't until I was scraping the sauce into the take-home container that I really tasted the parmesan in the Alfredo sauce. The prosciutto was somewhat bland as well, it needed a sharper, saltier taste to stand out. Walkabout's tortellini was also a bit tasteless, and I found it difficult to determine if they were stuffed with cheese or meat. The cheesecake was fairly decent, creamy and smooth with a good flavor. Hopefully, we just had an unusual bad day, as this place is usually pretty good.