Last night, I got a taste for spaghetti; not the nasty shit out of a can nor the kind I try to make at home, but something good. One of the places I always went to for spaghetti had closed down a few months ago because the restaurant owner had not paid his taxes, so I had to go somewhere else.

There is a small mom-and-pop Italian restaurant in town that has always served excellent food at a reasonable price. So, I decided to go there and get an order to go, along with some garlic knots.

When I got the food home, I was pleased to see that I'd gotten a generous helping, but the smell was "off" to me the moment I opened the container. When I took a bite, I discovered that it didn't taste right, either.

There was no taste of garlic or oregano whatsoever, but there was a pervasive CHEESY taste. And I don't mean parmesan flakes sprinkled over it, either. I mean the gagging, cloying taste of strong cheese -- it tasted like "cheeseburger spaghetti". Now, for a cheeseburger to taste like a cheeseburger is fine, but I don't want my spaghetti to taste like a McDonald's DoubleCheeseburger. I just wanted a standard plate of spaghetti, that's all. Was that too much to ask for?

I took a few more bites, but the taste nauseated me, so I pushed it away as inedible. Even the cats turned their noses up at it. They ate the meatballs, but wouldn't touch the pasta part.

The garlic knots were also substandard. It's pretty hard to fuck up garlic rolls, but they managed to do so. They were cold and wet, but just barely edible.

I was both pissed off and sad about this. I was pissed off to waste my money in this way, and sad, to see a once-excellent restaurant to have gone so far downhill. Regretfully, I will no longer patronize this restaurant.

Have any of you experienced a favorite restaurant go to pot like this? 

tags: bad food  restaurant  rant  

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