My wife, a native Coloradan, was surprised that I didn’t eat Doritos with my pizza, it was a very standard thing for her family.
Maybe it’s a Colorado thing.
But that’s how you know it’s good! 
Sorry to pee in your fagioli. Remember, there is no dispute in matters of taste. Remember Campagnola? Now THAT was good grub.
I think you’re confusing “Italian food” with “White Castle”.
Alright, I’ve got one. Evanston. Hecky’s. It’s not good. Every piece of meat I’ve ever had there has been like leather.
“It’s the Sauce!” Because it sure 'aint the meat!
Yes. The kind of small Italian place you WANT to be good, but it just wasn’t. Overcooked, mushy pasta all glued together, thin sour spaghetti sauce ladled over, a shaker jar of “Parmesan” (oh, really?) cheese. Pizza? A big circle of dough with a glob of melted mozzarella sitting in the center, and not quite extending to the edges. There were other things on the menu, and they may have been better, but that’s what we had, spaghets and pizza of poor quality.
If you are in Evanston, why would you go anywhere else other than Tony’s Deli for italian food? Plus the bakery next door is really damn good too.
Yep, in Seattle. (don’t remember what it was called though) The food was OK I guess, but the servers were the most god-damned rude I’ve ever seen.
Because Tony’s & Conca D’Oro are in Edison Park, dear Reverend.
Not close but not far.
Tom Cavallo’s in Utica NY. Not very good food but in college we would eat there every monday, since it was all you can eat spaghetti for $1.50, 0.25/ meatball. I just checked their website and apparently there prices have gone up to $3 all you can eat spaghetti .
So many that I don’t go into Mom and Pop Italian places anymore unless someone specifically recommends the place. Mediocre pasta I can make at home for pennies so why should I go out? There are places that get it right: they have selections other than the basic pizza and pasta dishes, maybe some fresh salads and anti-pasta or an espresso machine… but not many. I’d rather go to OG and get decent food than take a chance of having to down a block of overboiled pasta with the Mom’s secret sauce.
I’ve had bad veal parmesan in small restaurants. I suspected it had been prepared ahead of time and sat for hours.
I’ve been to Pompilio’s, the restaurant in which they filmed a scene for “Rain Man”, twice. It’s in Northern Kentucky near Cincinnati. Both times, the food sucked majorly. I don’t remember what I had the first time, but the second meal, about a year ago, was linguine in white clam sauce, except the “sauce” was a lot closer to the taste of “canned clams in Campbell’s chicken soup”, to the point that I would be surprised if it wasn’t made that way.
Of course, the locals love this stuff. But they love Cincinnati chili, too.
I have noticed that there are a lot of bad “italian” places in the south. I think this is because the locals do not know what good italian food is like. I have an Italian-American friend who moved to Virginia 12 years ago. The local places were all bad, so when an italian guy from NJ moved in and opened a restaurant, he was overjoyed. the new restaurant had fantastic pizza, and homemade pasta and sauces-wonderful. Except the locals didn’t like it! (They preferred Pizza Hut)!
In the end, the guy started making the terrible “italian” food that the locals liked-it was horrible.
If you think the whole “frozen food being microwaved before serving” thing only happens in chain restaurants you are very, very naive.
I was a dishwasher in an family-run Italian place, and this is exactly how ALL the baked pasta dishes were made. The desserts were all out of a box too.
The whole concept of what’s “good” depends on what you’re “used to.” Half the “mom and pop” Italian restaurants I go to are of the blah water-y all-I-can-taste-is-tomato variety. Why wouldn’t I prefer Olive Garden? Just because it’s “non-chain” does not automatically = “better.” There are some things OG does great, there are some things M&Ps do great, there are some things I do best at home.
Same thing in a small town near me. An Italian-American ex-pat from a predominantly Italian suburb of Buffalo opened up an Italian restaurant, and served authentic Buffalo-style pizza and Italian food. (FWIW, in the Buffalo area there are very few chain pizzerias; they can’t compete against the local variety of pizza residents think is the nation’s best.) The place struggled for business. He stopped serving Buffalo-style pizza and started serving a more generic Midwestern-style pizza. and watered down the sauces for the rest of the food. The locals liked it, and business improved.
That reminds me of the movie Big Night.