Pasta E Basta

The portion of the pasta was really huge, and it’s not even that expensive. I ordered a Gnocchi with Blue Cheese Shitake sauce. The flavor of the sauce was really strong, but I still like it a lot.

You can go two ways here — cafeteria style for fast and casual or upstairs for the sit down experience. Service is super friendly and attentive. The selection is pretty decent as well and very suitable for vegetarians. Portions are generous.
Downsides: the free bread was cracker-​like… The pesto sauce was unique in the not-​good way. It tasted like ground lawn clippings; as if the fresh grime from the edge of the lawn mower was heated up and slathered over the pasta. Give this place a shot, but avoid the pesto — until they promise to update the recipe?

There are very few restaurants that stand out in my memory as being bad to the point of inedible. I came here about six months ago (yes, I’m behind on my reviews) during my interview at the local college. I had flown in from the West Coast that day and was looking to find something to eat next to the Lord Jeff before collapsing into bed in anticipation of the grueling interview process in the coming days. I ordered the minestrone soup and a pasta I can’t remember. It was terrible; all of it! Terrible to the point that I couldn’t eat it, and that says something. I really wanted to, at minimum, shove something down to keep up my energy for the next day. Knowing there was no way I could eat more than a few bites, I told the waitress I’d rather box it up to go. I just didn’t want to deal with it and she looked so sad, so I told her everything was fine and I just remembered I had to meet someone or something. A more needy gentleman than myself inherited the food outside and I hightailed it back to the hotel to eat candy bars in my room. Maybe I got the wrong dishes or maybe the food was off that night. I’ve since talked to my colleagues and some of them say it is fine, so I guess it depends. But I’m not taking the chance.

What an amazing North End– caliber restaurant in humble Amherst? The pasta is perfectly cooked with loads of deliciously prepared fresh made sauce. My favorite is by far the Alfredo, but the pesto is beyond compare. The bread and olive oil is so tasty you could easily fill up on it and ruin your appetite so be careful. The bread for subs can be on the dry side. Otherwise, your meal will be absolutely amazing!

My boyfriend and I have visited this restaurant before and had some very good food. Tonight we decided to try it again. After our experience, we won’t be returning.
While the food was good, what happened halfway through the meal was an irreconcilable event. My boyfriend said he chewed something hard and spit it out. Turns out it was GLASS! Never have I ever seen glass in the food at a restaurant. The manager said they had broken a wine glass earlier that day. Why didn’t the chef dump out all the food??? That’s what should have been done. I was very worried about my food and stopped eating as well. My boyfriends food was comped but I believe our whole meal should have been given the circumstances. May have been an isolated event, however there are plenty other good restaurants in Amherst that we will be going to.

Love their chicken marsala! Portion sizes are huge, so you have enough leftovers for a full meal the next day. Their focaccia bread is out of this world! And, their prices — very reasonable.

So after 2 days of stomach issues the family decided to take a chance late and have some dinner. The staff we great, seated us immediately. The place was nice 3 floors, old building but very well kept.
Food was really good and wish we felt well enough to finish it all. I would return.
Lots of good stuff on the menu

Place Was terrible, cold food followed by a night in the bathroom if you know what I mean

Pleasantly surprised. Fantastic prices, good food and a very date-​friendly atmosphere. Not the best Italian in the world, but you won’t be disappointed.

So incredibly disappointing! To say the least!
The Penne Bolagnese had no sauce, it was just greasy, overcooked (not al dente) pasta.
The vegetable lasagna had a few chunks of green and yellow zucchini, too much cheese and was also greasy.
The pizza had virtually no sauce.
One person in our group liked his penne with meatballs which actually had sauce.
So the food is mostly terrible, but that’s not the worst of it.
The person at the pizza oven moved a pizza in the oven and then placed the wooden paddle thing and stood it on its side between the 2 counters… ON THE FLOOR!
But wait… there’s more! A waiter dropped the piece of foil that’s goes on top of the bread to keep it warm and he picked it up, turned the foil over and put it back on the bread.
So no, we will not come back, feeling the after effects of eating greasy, overcooked, just terrible food made in an obviously dirty environment.

This place is as good as it gets. The owner really cares for this place, super friendly. He made some suggestions on what to get, we ended up choosing the Crazy Alfredo. The bread they provide was delicious, I completely forgot how good it was, will definitely. Will definitely make it a point to come back sooner than every 3 years lol.

The pasta comes SWIMMING in sauce. Ick.
The bread is ok, the portion sizes aren’t ridiculous, but the food tastes like something you could do at home with a can of sauce, a box of pasta, a pot of boiling water and if you were inclined, old seafood.
Nothing special, especially for the price. I’m not coming here again unless I have to.

When I can’t be bothered to spend the 8 minutes to boil noodles in water and put sauce on them, I come this place.

I’m a frequent pasta e Basta customer– always with my boyfriend. The food is incredible and the wait staff is amazing. Always smiling with delicious food in hand. The only down point is that they don’t take reservations and on busy nights like valentines day it can be really hard to get in and they wait is long but if you do wait it out, the food, Huge portion sizes and lovely wait staff are totally worth it.

Just to be clear up front — I’ve only been here twice both times in the downstairs part. That being said, I haven’t been particularly impressed with the pasta dishes I’ve gotten. The «carbonara» isn’t really carbonara (but in all fairness, the menu lists it as bacon and cream, which real carbonara isn’t — and this is common at many pasta places). Too much garlic, and I really like a lot of garlic so that’s saying something. I also got a make-​your-​own with pesto cream which was better but still average at best. My wife’s pesto gnocchi was just completely covered in chopped basil which sort of resembled a pesto. It was almost inedible. Other dishes people have gotten with me have been OK to good according to them. So, maybe I’m picky and comparing it to some of the really good pasta places I’ve encountered in my lifetime.
I wonder if it’s just that the cooks downstairs are just throwing things together while the cooks upstairs are more seasoned (pun intended)? I mean, a lot of people like this this place — of course, it’s really the only game in town. I’ll probably keep going back when I get coupons to see if I can find something I like.

Pretty decent Italian for Western Mass!
Atmosphere is cozy, good for groups or even date night. I usually go with the chicken beneciano (you really can’t go wrong with the white wine sauce!) or the crazy alfredo for all you meat lovers out there.
Calamari as an app isn’t too bad either and you really can’t go wrong with tiramisu for dessert.
I’ve always seen the service as pretty friendly and efficient. Definitely give them props for dealing with such a condensed college area.
Lastly, the bread is SO GOOD, especially if it comes out fresh. I swear their oil is ridiculously addictive because every time I go I request like three bread baskets. But perhaps thats just me.

Best pasta in western mass! There one of the few places that serves whole wheat pasta. I luv the tomato vodka cream sauce and pesto cream sauce. They also have a full bar with a menu of good cocktails. I was a little confused when i enter i didn’t realize that the dining room was upstairs

Great place for some good, cheap Italian food.
We came on a Friday night and it wasn’t too crowded so there was no wait. For those unfamiliar, this place is 3 floors high, the first being cafeteria-​style and the second and third being an actual sit-​down place.
Being tourists, we asked the waitress for suggestions: we asked her to recommend some of the lighter options because we had just had some heavier Italian the other night. She said the crazy Alfredo was the most popular, but was the heaviest. She recommended some of the white wine pastas, especially the seafood ones, and started us off with some bread and amazing olive oil (it’s got a garlicky flavor) that’s got some red and green bits (sorry, have no idea what they are ;)).
We ordered:
— A mushroom appetizer (I think it’s a special): a really nice mushroom, mozzarella, and pesto dish baked on some lovely focaccia bread. The mushrooms are especially juicy, ($ 4.95)
— Chicken Verdicio: a large dish with a generous helping of linguine. Nice and lemony, with juicy mushrooms tasty artichokes. I was a little hesitant before ordering it but didn’t regret it in the end! ($ 13.50)
— Frutta di Marre: the highlight of the meal that I had been waiting for, and it didn’t disappoint! Linguine with a lot of big clams, juicy mussels, shrimp and octopus. Light, not too salty and had a beautiful color ($ 16.50).
— Salad: it was just a simple add on to the Frutta di Marre that I ordered because I haven’t had many vegetables lately, but I’d like to point out that my parents said the cherry tomatoes were very fresh ($ 1.50).
— White Zinfandel (or the ‘white zin’): A glass of pink wine that’s on the sweeter side. Not great, but not bad ($ 5.00)
The bill came out to be ~$ 45 and given how stuffed we were (we also came out with plenty of leftovers) it was pretty cheap for delicious, filling meal. I had my qualms at first because this town seems to be surrounded by farms and cornfields, but I had a lovely time here and might come again if I’m ever in town. Try it! :)

My wife is a pasta nut and my daughter is one as well, Pasta E Basta seemed like a clear winner. I like the two level format so you can choose between table service and ordering at the counter. It’s the same menu either way, but you can save on tipping if you want to keep your costs down.
We opted for the counter. My daughter had fettuccine alfredo, my wife the Caesar salad with shrimp and I went with the eggplant parmesan sandwich. The alfredo was quite good, nice and creamy, not too garlicky. My wife’s salad was so so. She liked the addition of the grilled veggies, but the dressing wasn’t fabulous and the croutons weren’t crunchy. My sandwich was flavorless. A note to chefs everywhere: salt is NOT optional. Once something is cooked, a sprinkling of salt from a shaker isn’t going to make up for a lack of salt in every component of the dish.
I guess if you stuck to pasta, if the alfredo was any indicator, this would be good choice at a good price. Otherwise, not so much.

I kinda like this place. you don’t needa tip! It’s like fast food pasta, except with good quality! You can order from traditional pasta menu or you can create your own pasta. I ordered the angel hair with garlic wine cream sauce with chicken, broccoli, basil and sun dried tomato. The tomato was kinda funky, but i dont like tomatoes that much anyways. It was kinda sour. It’s very self serve, like burger king… But they give you good quality and quantity of pasta. You get your own utensils.water.and you put all that away at the dish area after you are finished.
It’s a nice place to hang with friends. you can push tables together. The art on the wall is entertaining. You can watch them cook. The bread they give you is mighty fine. with the yummy olive oil. I think it’s olive oil with all those seasoning in it. It might just be a place i frequent more often when I need food! Delicious. good price. An order of pasta for around 12+ fed me and my friend.