Pasta Jay’s

Seriously floored by this place. For lunch, food was inexpensive with huge portions. The food all came out PIPING hot and still in the baking dishes. Still bubbling. I ordered the seafood canneloni, garlic knots for an appetizer, and my wife got the mannicoti. All delicious. Plus, the happy hour wine and beer made for a huge, yummy meal for under $ 30. If you like garlic and good prices, don’t skip this place. Underrated.

Fantastic! I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone. We had an excellent dinner, drinks, and service. Everything was top notch, from the dinner to the cleanliness and good music. The eggplant parmigiana is amazing. Give this place a try & im sure you’ll enjoy it.

This Italian eatery at the west end of Pearl Street captures the essence of what I love about buona (GOOD!) Italian food: it’s filled with history, passion, fully-​developed flavors and irreverence for anything pretentious or disingenuous. My Italian half-​sisters would certainly agree that the sauce here is, indeed, the real deal.
You’ll know you are in the right place the instant you see the small crowd of lingering diners waiting for their tables under the heat lamps; you can smell the roasted garlic wafting up the sidewalk. Looks like it is unanimous: this place is worth the wait!
I recall eating here 27 years ago (shhhhh reserve your math skills for later, Ace!) as a very, very young student at CU/​Boulder, and at that time Pasta Jay’s literally saved me from starving. True to this day, you can still count on Pasta Jay’s for very nicely priced yet deliciously fabulous food.
We were lucky to arrive during Happy Hour so that meant draft beers & house wines are $ 3, house made sangria $ 5, Moscow mules $ 5…garlic knots for $ 3, the best tasting mac & cheese $ 5, balsamic glazed brussel sprouts with pancetta, $ 5! YES these are 2016 prices!
Even better news? Happy hour goes ALL DAY Mondays & Tuesdays, Wed — Fri 3 – 6, and nightly from 9 to close! It’s now wonder there is often a line at the curb!
Our lovely server recommended the house specialty — stuffed shells — and WOWZA it was perfection. The tomato sauce is just the right consistency to cling on your fork, while the ricotta and spinach filling in the pasta shells kisses your taste buds with promises of rainbows and butterflies. Yep — I said it: this dish makes you giddy and happy. I’m pretty sure that was just spinach in that filling (and not another famous Colorado herb) but in any case it was so yummy that it made me salivate for more. Mindful not to drool on the cheery red & white checked table cloth, I reached for one of the Boulder famous garlic knots. Yum again. Butter, butter, butter and garlic. Yum — butter! I imagined myself as a garlic knot on a hot summer afternoon in Vernazza, and… well I digress.
The humble macaroni and cheese are elevated to a higher level here. I think if I ordered it with pancetta (+$ 1), I might hurt anyone who threatened to come between me and my fork! Right about now, I laugh at myself! All of this tough talk from my cozy table overlooking the best block of Pearl Street.
In my humble opinion, this restaurant is capo di tutti i capi… the boss of the bosses in the Italian dining world.
Grazie per questa buona sera! Thank you for the lovely, lovely evening! I’ll definitely be back.

I’m not sure why we love this place so much but we do and we always order the homemade tortellones with meat sauce. I mean, even the garlic bread is toasted just right. You can see the chunks of garlic in the sauce, and it bubbles with the cheese on top when it comes out. Yum. I’ve had a few other dishes here and of them all if I had to pick a second to the tortellone, the Steak Bracciole and Jumbo Shells are pretty good.
The only thing is, don’t order the house red — it is Carlo Rossi chianti that is $ 15/​jug (yes, I said per JUG) across the street at Liquor Mart.

Stopped here for lunch while visiting from out of town and the food is amazing!!! The garlic bread is beyond words and the homemade Mariana sauce is so good I could eat it on anything.

I don’t care what people say, pasta Jay’s is awesome! Best dishes in this order are
1. Tortellone Borbolini
2. Cesare salad
3. Tortellone Alfredo
4. Cheese Tortellone with tomato cream sauce
5. Pizza
6. Pasta Fresca
7. Pesto
It’s awesome!

Was in the mood for pasta tonight, and happened to be in Boulder, and so happy I came in. I loved the ambiance right away, it was really inviting. My daughter had Spaghetti, and I had Alfredo. I loved both! Everything came out quick, and the service was great. My daughter literally licked her plate clean. We will definitely be back!

Had the shells and they were awesome! Good thick chunky, but not too chunky, sauce. Great color with just a little bit of olive oil floating. Topped with fresh chopped parsley. Just the right amount of salt. Good mix of cheeses. The highlight was the ground beef that was very subtle. It gave it flavor without yelling at you that this dish has beef. Then to top it off, the whole thing is roasted on the plate until there is a little browning of the cheese.
I have not had Italian food since I moved to Colorado 2.5 years ago and I was afraid to even try to find a place having lived on Long Island. Quite frankly if I want Italian food, this is where I am coming. Done.

We are visiting from California and we live in San Clemente where Sonny’s pizza and pasta is located so we were excited to eat at pasta jays !
We ate there on Friday night the second.
We ha called about forty-​five minutes ahead of time to get on the wait list we had eight people. Well when we arrived they had told us it would be another forty-​five minutes so we of course were very nice and the hosts were just so accommodating they actually worked everything out and had us seated within fifteen minutes of arriving and in the end conclusion we were so thankful for how sweet the hosts were and our food came out fast and was so delicious !
Thanks Pasta Jay’s!

Awesome Pasta I’ve ever had in my life … Really tasty food … I got the ravioli special with green chilly and man it blew my taste buds (in a good way) … A must go place in Boulder …

Terrific food, service, and location. Pearl St Favorite!

Great experience it has a very nice atmosphere that completes the Italian experience. Overall the food was very good for the price you won’t be disappointed.
Tasted 5 different dishes
–The Chicken Alfredo was a bit too creamy and may be overwhelming for most people
–Diavolo was delicious, has a very strong kick to it, highly recommended if your looking for something spicy
–Sausage sandwich was definitely average nothing special but was still satisfying
–Jays Famous Jumbo Shells my overall favorite, just the right amount of food with a unique flavor and texture
–Bruschetta was excellent different approach to a classic appetizers

Taste: 4
Service: 4
Distinctiveness: 4
This is one of my favorite italian places in Boulder. Second only to Il Pastaio.
I ordered the Diavolo with Chicken and absolutely loved it. I am a bug fan of spicy italian dishes, but unfortunately most italian restaurants aren’t really able to give that kick. The Diavolo, however, gave me exactly what I wanted: spice with flavor.
If I were to judge off of this plate alone than this place deserves five stars, but I know not all of their plates are this tasty. The sausage sandwich is very mediocre. The chicken Alfredo was also a bit too rich.
This dishes here are either fantastic or just alright, so be careful with your choice. To be safe you could also just order their most popular dish: Jay’s famous jumbo shells – always an excellent choice.

I would give this place 2 stars for service because the waitress came by a few times and kept giving us a sangria that we didn’t order and kept forgetting the drink we ordered. They also didn’t really come by to check on us and it took forever to take our order.
The food on the other hand was good. We started out with the garlic knot-​chos which were really good. We also ordered the chicken parm, lobster mac n cheese and brisket Mac n cheese. The chicken parm was good but the side of pasta it was served with was bland and cold, so I didn’t eat it. The mac n cheese was so good but it was really rich. The plate could feed more than 1 person easily. If we go back, we will probably order a lighter appetizer and share the Mac n cheese. My only complaint about the Mac n cheese is that there is not a lot of meat with the dish but there is a lot of noodles. The sangria was also good.

Perhaps my memory fails me, but I recall pasta jay being much better quality and rich in flavor when it opened a while back when I was in high school. Maybe, since then, my tastes have changed and I really can’t handle the heaviness of a huge bowl of pasta anymore, but it now seems less like a craving satisfied and more like an drippy and creamy anvil in my stomach…
The dish that is still a-​okay here is the gnochi. They have gnochi that you can get with pesto or marinara sauce. I’m team pesto, but really the gnochi is so fluffy and decadent that either sauce can’t go wrong.
Undecided whether the gnochi is pasta jay’s saving grace though because food in general here is a little on the more expensive side for the net experience of food and service (which was ehhh).

I am so impressed with this pasta joint. It was recommended to me by several people so I was curious to know if it would live up to my expectations. It definitely did. First of all, the portions here are HUGE. I would recommend sharing. We ordered a grande Caesar salad to share and it was more than enough. I tried the chicken pesto tortellini and it was to die for. Super cheesy and delicious. The lobster mac n cheese is fantastic as well. The lobster was fresh and in large chunks in the pasta dish. We also tried the jumbo shells. The Marinara sauce is absolutely incredible with huge flavors and great texture. The shells were filled with cheesy, meaty goodness. This place might have the best garlic bread I’ve ever had. If you haven’t tried pasta jay’s, you definitely should.

So surprised with all the low reviews!
Pasta Jays has been my go-​to for all-​around delicious, gluttonous Italian food. I love their manicotti and ravioli, served fresh out the oven in a cast iron skillet.

Unilocal reviews are very mixed for Pasta Jay — Italian food on the pricey end. Is it worth it? I say, for me and my family, not so much.
For a Friday night, it was 8pm and wait time was 5 min for a party of 5. What attracted us to the restaurant was how packed it was. Upon entering, right away it was not only full but loud! Typical décor included checkered red and white table clothes accompanied by black chairs. Seating was adequate by the front, with open windows and heating lamps overhead just outside.
Dishes ordered were gnocchi soup, mussels, minestrone soup, and garlic knots. Impressions of the food were not being impressed at all. Most of the dishes ordered lacked flavor. Garlic knots were so small and slightly burnt. I usually enjoy Italian food but only when I make it my own way. Overall, decent but not wowed.

This place has been around for years and I went as child, but hadn’t been in a long time Til last night. Jay’s is ALWAYS packed, and I’m not sure I understand why. The Caprese salad was lovely, but nothing about it was super unique. I ordered the Diavolo, which claims its a tomato cream sauce, but when it came to the table it was almost pure red. I asked for a side of alfredo and it was very watery. I asked for another side, added more Alfredo and then it was perfect. I’m not usually a picky orderer, but I was anticipating a different dish (even after discussing it with the server). It was good, and I’m enjoying the leftovers, but not worth the typical wait. I’d choose the Gondolier over Jays anyday. The service was great though, attentive and fast.

Nice place, it’s really busy though, so it’d be best to make a reservation. And even if you do make a reservation, they only seat you until your entire party arrives. That’s at least what happened to us.
As for the food, it was pretty good, very home-​y. I didn’t particularly enjoy my dish, Chicken Cacciatore, but I sampled other people’s dishes and they were tasty. I loved that they give you a big basket of garlic bread with your meal. :)