Merchant's Pasta House

See Gone, But Not Forgotten

Merchant's Pasta House was an Italian restaurant in Culver-Merchants. It opened at the end of January 2013, replacing Luna Piena Bistro, and rebranded itself as Porcini Bar & Bistro in January 2015..

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2013-03-03 10:06:58   My wife & I have dined there many times. This is our first review. We have always been very satisfied with the service and food. Very authentic Italian, always freshly prepared and delicious. Prepared by chefs from Italy. Naples and abruzzi backgrounds and very concerned about pleasing the dining patron. Wonderful and plentiful pasta and chicken dishes. great wines. Delicious appetizers and soups. Family style salad is a great way to share with fellow diners. Homemade Italian bread. Fresh extra virgin olive oil for diping. Owners, who are the chefs, with charming italian accents. You will think you are in Italy. A wonderful dining experience. Try the Tortalini Basciola and the gnocci bolognese. Gnoccis are very light and soft. —mary&charlie

2014-11-15 01:05:12   Won't be back. Good food, terrible pretty much everything else. We were seated by the door on a cold night so were cold the whole time. (There were other tables available in the back, so why seat people by the door if not necessary?) The host nicely gave us our menus and explained the soup and wine specials, then walked away. Which we felt — the floor shook the table every time anyone walked by. And a lot of servers did indeed walk by. Yet none stopped at our table— not for an entire 15 minutes after we'd been seated. (A busboy did bring us bread with butter packets, though, and, after we flagged him down and asked for water, he brought that, too.) It seemed all the other tables around us were getting served, but everyone kept walking right by us. We were going to give them 5 more minutes and then walk out. But finally, the host and apparent server appearred and apologized, saying there had been a mishap. Ok, I was ready to forgive and start afresh. The server explained the specials (which were slightly different than what the host had explained) and we said we were ready to order. He took our orders but seemed painstaking in doing so, having to write things down exactly as we spoke them. It was another 10 minutes before he re-appearred at our table— with salads. Still no trace of the wine we had ordered. It was a nearly a half-hour after being seated before we received our wine (the house special, at that), which should have been THE easiest thing to procure. (So I guess they do everything out of order? Bread immediately, but you have to ask for your empty water glasses to be filled with water. The salad course before the alcoholic beverage.) The main course came out in a not-unreasonable (relatively speaking) length of time. And it was piping hot and delicious, and in a large portion. The chef even came out to ask how it was, and we told him it was fantastic, because it was. But sadly, the service continued to suck. It wasn't until nearly 15 minutes after we put our forks down (and had turned to our heads to gaze hintingly at the staff, many of whom were hovering around the bar) before anyone came to our table. And it wasn't our server or the host or the cook who came; it was someone else, making this the 4th person who had visited our table that evening. He boxed our food and asked if we wanted dessert or coffee; we said no thanks and we asked for the check. He brought the boxes but no check to be seen. Finally "our" server re-appearred and also asked if we wanted dessert or coffee; we said no, we had to get going. Eight minutes later he brings us the check. At least it was correct; that is a plus. It is a shame they can't get their service together because the food was darn good, portions were generous and prices reasonable. But the awful service and the other little things (loud and terrible music which sounded like children's cartoons, the cold, the shaking floors) were just so poor as to make a 2nd visit not worth the aggravation. Kudos to the chef, though. Hope he finds a better place to work where his skills will be rewarded. —ajh