Not so Pellini

I am a pasta lover and as soon as the assignment was given to review anything of my choice I took advantage to eat at a relatively new Italian joint called Pellini. I was driving down Scottsdale Road, mouthwatering, with the expectation of a bowl of excellent fettuccini alfredo. The restaurant is located in a hopping area on the northern end of the Scottsdale Quarter. One would assume that any restaurant in that area should be bouncing with customers, as every restaurant was, except this one. That was the first sign. Not one customer in the building at peak of the dinner hour. The restaurant is set up similar to chipotle with all the pasta toppings and sauces presented in front of the customer. Once I ordered pasta she asked the chef in the back for enough pasta for one, as if they were not expecting any more customers. Once I choose all my toppings and sauces I went to sit outside because the atmosphere was to awkward inside, dead silent and completely empty. As I am eating outside the restaurant a sketchy beat up car pulled up outside and the lady from inside came out and went over to the car and appeared to be having some sort of exchange, possibly a drug deal. As I put the first bite into my mouth I quickly realized that the broccoli was still frozen. The alfredo sauce had next to no flavor and the pasta was extremely over cooked. The pasta was so mushy and slimy it was hard to swallow without gagging. I have never had such bad pasta in my life. I threw the pasta out after about three bites and walked over to chipotle and ate there. The most important aspects of a restaurant similar to Pellini, Chipotle, or any restaurant where the food is in front of the consumers are the atmosphere, the speed, price, and the quality of food. Nothing even qualified as average to me and I am not a picky eater. The service was fast and that is the only thing it’s got going. I paid eight dollars for bland sauce, mushy noodles, and frozen broccoli, eight dollars! That is expensive for a subpar meal. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone, I would even wish this food on my worst enemy. I did however take the time to read numerous other reviews on yelp.com and they were extremely mixed. There was everything from “I wouldn’t feed my dog this food” to “It was truly a unique Italian dining experience. Mi è piaciuto molto.” Maybe I was just there at a time the restaurant was not planning on serving customers at that time or something, I don’t know. When I was there is was nothing short of terrible. The concept is great though. I would love to select my own pasta toppings and sauces. I might go there one more time just to make sure I didn’t get a fluke bad dish. Maybe I was to judgmental because I had the mindset that I was going to evaluate it and I had never been there before so I went in with a critical mind set but either way the food, price, and atmosphere was uncomfortable.