Having said that, I had never eaten a spag bol there until recently and what a mistake that was!
Dont get me wrong - I love spag bol LOVE IT! - I cook it at home every week, I order it in lots of restaurants all over the south of England and even sometimes buy the microwave ready meal one from M&S which actually tastes half decent considering its a ready meal an' all.
I know that spag bog can differ from place to place, and I would have forgiven slightly over or undercooked, or even a slightly bland taste but this one was just about as bad as a spag bol can get - I mean absolutely everything was wrong with it:
1. Baked- It looked more like a pasta bake. parmesan cheese had completely melted all over the pasta by the time it arrived in front of me. Well, I assume it was parmesan since I didnt actually see it go on.
2. Too Hot - I peirced the cheese layer to find that the pasta inside was 'microwave' hot- a lot like the kind of steamy heat you get when you over microwave something and you have to let it cool down for a few minutes so you dont burn your tongue.
3. No taste - Obviously it tasted of something, but 'no taste' for me, means that it lacked any of the usual zing you get from a well cooked sauce. Since I might have burned my tongue on the first mouthful, I let my friend try the pasta too, 'thats very bland' she agreed.(believe me, thats the first time she has EVER agreed with me!)
4. 'al squishy' - nowhere near 'al dente' and a bit stuck together by the heat and melted cheese. like you get in a pasta bake straight out of the oven. eesh!
So, given that this was just about as bad a pasta as it could be, the Italian half of me complained and sent this dish back from whence it came. (the english half of me was a bit embarrassed of course) The replacement arrived 15 minutes later, frustratingly with the same problems as the first, except this time the pasta was cooked 'al dente'. Still looked like a pasta bake, had no taste and was much to hot to eat straight away. This pasta wasn't even as good as the M&S ready meal FFS!
So I sent that back too.
Good job the starter was excellent otherwise I wouldnt have eaten! ( stop whining! ). The waitress was very helpful, attractive and polite as usual too... oh and attractive.
Maybe Jamie is just spreading himself a little too thin, making a little too much money and doesnt have time to make sure all his restaruants are up to the job. sigh!
whatever!
