Reviews for Taste of Italy in Carthage, MO
New to area so out finding the great eating establishments and watering holes... Fast & friendly service by Mindy (sp?), Thank... you! WARNING: Service is FAST. If you want a leisurely, slowly enjoy your food, let them know, lol. This might be different whenit's busy. Got my drink (Pepsi products. No alcohol service but BYOB is ok) and bread & sauce right away. Oil & vinegar werealready on the table sooo AWESOME!!! Soup showed up almost immediately with appetizer of generously buttered garlic bread righton it's heels. I had the Tour of Italy which I didn't see on the lunch menu so I guess I ordered dinner... oh well now I guessI have to have breakfast at dinner?? ???? You get big portions of food!! Lightly breaded chicken parmigiana, succulentfettuccine alfredo and lasagna all delicately seasoned and so delicious!!! As this is located adjacent to the Precious MomentsChapel, the atmosphere is more like a warehouse office and could use some work. They play some nice, relaxing music of FrankSinatra, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, etc but I was told they have a piano player on Friday & Saturday nights Lots ofplaces to check out here in the Carthage, MO area but I will DEFINITELY return here again... maybe when they have pianoplaying. I recommend checking Taste of Italy out!!! What are you waiting for??? GO!!! Read more
Absolutely amazing Italian food! Highly recommend. Everything I tried was delicious! Alecs is a wonderful chef and took time to... come greet us and see how we were. Our waitress had a great personality and was attentive. Also, I enjoyed the piano playing.Very nice atmosphere. Read more
If I could give more than 5 stars I would. This is by far, the best food I've ever had hands down. There's just no comparison.... We have never had a bad dish from this place and the "Taste of Italy" is by far my favorite. I have tried several appetizers andthe calamari is just spot on. The bread is brought out fresh and hot and it is just wonderful. The service is always wonderfuland people extremely polite. Sometimes you may get to experience the live piano playing and it just adds to the atmosphere . Itry to spread the word to anyone who will listen that this is the #1 place to eat in the 4 state area. I don't think I couldever eat at another Italian restaurant again as this one made me a customer for life. Read more
This was my family little family's first time here. We were not disappointed. I've lived in NYC for a couple years and have had... my experience with some fantastic authentic Italian food. This place was some of the best Italian I have ever had. The ChickenForest (Chicken Marsala based) was literally the best Marsala I have had. Nice flavor of mushrooms with a creamy finish withoutthe mushroom flavor lingering heavily. Will definitely be returning! Read more
Taste of Italy is very good. Almost five stars - but I rarely give five star reviews because to get five stars you must be... fantastic - so if I could give four and a half stars I would. A chef friend of mine recommended Taste of Italy and said toorder one of the specials - so I ordered the Lamb Shank special and it was fall apart tender and very very good. The housesalad dressing is like nothing I?ve ever had before - it?s a Italian vinaigrette but has some marinara flavor to it very good aswell. The service was prompt and got our table of 12?s food out without any errors. Well done! Read more
Nice quiet place next to Precious Moments. The chef comes out and talks to everyone. Friendly staff. Even had two baskets of... their bread. Tour of Italy and chicken parmigiana were great. Read more
Great environment and amazing authentic italian food, but the chef Aleks, he's the spirit of this place. Will definitely come... back. Read more
Boy, this is a tough review to write, because overall, the ratings for this restaurant are higher than average and the locals... seem to love this place (two people recommended we visit). We just really disliked most aspects of our visit. Perhaps myhusband and I have a different experience with Italian food (east coast, Baltimore's Little Italy, especially), but this was agreat disappointment. The tomato soup was specifically mentioned as a crowd pleaser and we simply didn't care for it - itseemed to be very heavy in dried herbs. It was just okay for us. The appetizer mozzarella sticks were okay, but nothingspecial. My chicken dish was very disappointing - the chicken was overcooked and the sauce seemed to have the sameover-abundance of dried herbs, while also being a bit thin/watery. My husband also didn't care for his veal parmesan dish. Themeat had no crispy crust on it and he too, didn't care for the sauce. We got lasagna to-go and it seemed to be lacking meat andwas a very thin stack, unlike what we would expect. All of the tomato-based sauces and soup we tried lacked the color we wouldexpect, and the resulting taste lacked a brightness as well. While I typically enjoy a BYOB restaurant, we didn't KNOW it wasBYOB, and therefore didn't come prepared with our own bottle of wine to enjoy with dinner (I didn't see any reference to BYOB onthe FB page or any posted menu). Finally, the decor and ambiance of the restaurant felt like a poorly decorated convention hallspace or a fancy fire hall, at best. We understand that the restaurant may be moving to a new location in the near future, sowe hope this is a short-term limitation. Staff were quite pleasant, but lacked knowledge of the two dishes we inquired about("I don't eat blah blah") and lacked training that would be expected at this price point. We went into this meal reallyexpecting a lot, based on what we read and heard, but left very disappointed. Read more