Pasta Mia

Great pasta and a signature place in DC. Sad to see it closing it’s doors this week…

After walking by this restaurant so many times, we finally bit the bullet and stopped in. Somehow, we got a table immediately at 7p on a Saturday. Though we waited a bit for our food, we both found our dishes to be flavorful and enjoyed them. Dishes are huge — so expect to have left overs. House wine in the carafe is ok, and won’t give you a horrible headache the next morning. Our party of two was in and out in approximately an hour and a half, which isn’t horrible considering people spend that time just waiting in line. Sad to hear this place is going, and I’m going to try and squeeze in one last visit before they close. FYI — Cash ONLY.

Where to begin. We were seated immediately when the restaurant opened. To our surprise, all the other patrons were slowly offered water and menus. After requesting water at least 3 times and waiting 30 minutes, the waitress finally came to our table, without water but carrying menus, to inform us that our meals should take about 1 hour to come to our table. As my sister and I stared at each other, she wrangled the menus out of our hand and said you obviously don’t want to eat here. Just because we didn’t immediately respond to the 1 hour wait! This restaurant is obviously over rated and has poor service.

Perhaps good food? I don’t know yet, but I’ve been waiting for an hour and a half and an still waiting. Seriously thinking of just getting up and leaving. I wasn’t going to bother writing this because I know they’re supposedly closing (again), but this is horrible. One very slow waiter and one chef for the whole restaurant. And it’s not like they didn’t know they were going to have this many customers. In fact, half the tables in the restaurant are empty — the service is slow because they’re entirely understaffed — by a LOT. They have a couple staff to help clean up, and they look entirely miserable/​overworked. Do you have any other employees? Everyone in the restaurant is just sitting around, with no service. Maybe this would be ok if you could order a few drinks but again… good luck getting service for that. Entirely not worth it, but I’ve waited so long i can’t quit now. But now my evening plans are wrecked and I’m starving and there’s no end, our food, in sight. Don’t bother with this place, it’s not worth it.
You might walk by this place and see an ~8 person line and think «oh, that’s not too bad.» Erroneous, that’s a 1.5 hour wait, between waiting in line and waiting at the table for someone to take your order.

Friends wanted to try this because it may be closing soon. The food was pretty good, although the pastas with cream sauces I think were more enjoyable than red sauces. I had the tortellini rosa. However we waited about 3 hours for a table of five (those with party of two went much faster). I don’t think it was worth it for that but if you can get in it is a tasty meal that is worth the price. Huge portions. There is one cook and one person taking orders, a husband and wife.

The food here is unbelievable. Absolutely worth waiting for an hour and a half. Nothing else matters when you eat the best Italian food in DC.

Pasta Mia is a neighborhood favorite for a reason. It’s the Italian Nonna you always wanted, serving you enormous plates of food and awesome tiramisu for a reasonable price. It certainly has its quirks: CASH ONLY, service like a restaurant in Italy (it’s not speedy), and you might have to wait for table if you don’t get there early.
They serve freshly sliced prosciutto di Parma and mozzarella. They have all the classic combinations of pastas with sauces ($ 17 – 20) and the servings are huge. (my wife and I split a plate and still took some home). A liter of their house wine goes for $ 17 or so. Desserts are $ 5.

I went her during their «we’ll close… SIKE» time frame. It was a week night that they were finally open. they tend to just put up signs if they don’t feel like opening, so I suggest you call to make sure. We got the carbonara and classic clam sauce with a carafe of wine. The portions are BEYOND and service was sweet. There was plenty of bits of prosciutto in the carbonara. I wish there was more clams in my dish since they were soo tiny, but the pasta sauce still made it all better. The sauce was light and not creamy or heavy, so I didn’t feel like I ate the world when I left. It’s really great for lunch with left over dinner and left over lunch again. Just good, simple Italian food and affordable wine.

A bit down hill on food and service over the years. Food was cold, slow and covered in ladles of sauce. Pasta Mia has lost its original flavor, home made authenticity and story. Sauce is sloppy and oily. Overly expensive. So sad.

Been coming here for years! Great food, 1 person makes all of the food so be patient it is well worth it.

Pasta Mia– when you’re here, you’re family. While waiting for your table you will notice how intimate and charming the restaurant is. You must arrive early as there will be a wait (and you’re seated once all of your table has arrived so make sure to only invite your punctual friends).
Once you’re ready to order, you will be greeted and given advice and recommendations on the menu. It truly felt like such a personal and comforting experience.
ALSO:
Only cash is accepted but there is an ATM close by.

Pasta so good you’ll think you’re Nonna made it or you’re back in Italy! The house red wine is excellent and reasonably priced as well.
The portions are huge, which means you’ll be eating a great lunch the next day.
The tiramisu is the best I’ve ever had and all of the entrée’s are superb.

probably the best mom and pop pasta place in DC!
they open at 6:30 pm and sometimes have a line so I would advise to get there early. there is street parking around (it is Adams Morgan so depending on the night and time, you may or may not find street parking quick). It is cash only so make sure you get cash beforehand.
I’ve tried the gnocchi pesto and the red sauce with fresh mozzarella. I honestly liked both. The portions are huge here! it will be your dinner that night, lunch and dinner the next day.
The house wine is good and you must get the tiramisu – so good!
Definitely a place you must try!

The highlights of this spot are the tiramisu, the house wine in carafes and the flavors of the food. Those things are all awesome. Portions were huge, too. I had the fusilli with eggplant.
I also don’t mind that its cash only and no reservations, I knew that going in, so no prob!
However, saying that their slow service is ‘part of its charm’ is ridiculous. In no way is it charming to have to wait for 25 minutes for water. Or when trying to get a waitress’s attention, receiving a upraised hand and her quickly passing by. It’s also not ‘old-​school Italian’. I was never treated that way in Italy or by my old Italian relatives.
Bypassing how long it took to dine there and wait for every little thing, I wasn’t a huge fan of their tomato sauce. It tasted great but was so loose, it was either that I got a chunk of tomato or it was like water. Also made it not pleasant to heat up which kind of negated the fact that the portions were huge.

This is some of the best pasta I’ve ever had. Definitely the go to spot for Italian in DC. Wait is a pain so plan to wait a while. And it’s cash only.
They have cheap house wine and huge portions — definitely enough to take home for a second meal.

Pasta Mia is lowbrow Italian food at highbrow prices. The portions are generous, but the food is heavy and greasy. Like many Italian restaurants, they serve bread with olive oil, but the olive oil was mediocre.
I don’t have a problem with lowbrow Italian restaurants that offers you a big plate of greasy, cheesy pasta and not much else. The problem is that entrees cost $ 17 to $ 20. At those prices, I expect something more sophisticated.

This is a no frills place. The servers are curt and the service is slow. We had to flag them down to ask for water and bread. The servers are older women, so they also move slowly. I wanted to order the porcini mushroom pasta, and the server said «no porcini». No other explanation. I assume she means that they ran out. However, I think that’s sort of what they’re going for. Don’t come here if you’re particular about service and want doting waitstaff.
That being said, the portions are very generous. Everything is good. Solid? Yes. Fantastic? Not quite. This is more old school, home-​cooked Italian food, rather than the fancier, new fangled creative dishes.
I ended up with the spinach ravioli with the bolognese sauce. They were very generous with the bolognese sauce. I’m not quite the biggest fan of meat sauces and I think there is an option for pesto sauce (that’s what my friend told me), but that wasn’t offered to me. At least I don’t think it was, but it’s hard to tell given how curt our server was… The ravioli was good, and it also lasted me 2.5 meals.

This is definitely a 5-​star place. First warning: do NOT come here if you are trying to get in, get out, and get on with your life. Part of its charm is that they don’t accept reservations. This leads to extremely long lines and sometimes getting stuck waiting in the cold outside until the inside wait area clears up a bit. It’s still worth it! Let me tell you why:
Each dish is massive. Absolutely huge. In normal life, two or three people could eat off of this much food, but they have a pesky $ 16 minimum per person. At first, I thought this was a disadvantage. I learned that it’s nothing more than opportunity. Now you don’t have to worry about agreeing with your dining partners on what to order — you have to order your own anyway! I would personally recommend the spinach and cheese ravioli with red meat sauce. We didn’t order the caprese salad, but our table neighbors did and we probably freaked them out by gawking over how delicious it looked.
Bathrooms are in the back of the restaurant, down some never-​ending steps… you’ll find it eventually. One point of clarification — they only accept cash and check. I think the worst thing that could happen to you is waiting through the super long line and finding that you don’t have cash. At that point, send your dining partner dashing to a nearby ATM!
I heard some rumors that Pasta Mia is closing soon, so I’d highly recommend that you high-​step your way over there. You’ll be glad you did.

I’ve been walking past this place for years, and finally convinced a buddy to try it with me. It did NOT disappoint — the food was delicious!
We arrived around 6 on a Tuesday having heard the horror stories about getting seated if you aren’t in the first «wave», but found a COMPLETELY EMPTY restaurant. Unilocal says it doesn’t open until 6:30… but apparently it does! So, we walked right in and were seated — even had our pick of which table we wanted! They were prompt about getting us water, taking our order, and bringing the wine. Getting the main dishes did take a long while, but we happily drank and munched on our complimentary bread during the wait. We also started with a meatball appetizer, which came out quickly — I’d recommend getting this as the meatball were delicious and plentiful!
I got the Fusilli Sausage (spicy tomato sauce), and it was fantastic. The noodles were cooked just perfectly, the sauce has a nice, interesting spice to it, and the sausage was thickly sliced and zesty. I couldn’t have been more pleased with my meal. My friend got the seafood ravioli — the bite I had was great… but I don’t think my stomach could have taken all that richness and cream sauce as my main dish.
I actually can’t wait to go back — there are so many tempting dishes on the menu that I’d like to try out a few more before picking a favorite! Don’t forget to bring cash and go on a weekday, and you’ll love it too!

I want to like Pasta Mia. Really, I do. I don’t mind the ornery signs and the so-​so service. I don’t mind that they don’t usually let you share dishes and that they are completely against substitutions. Those things would fade into the background if I came into the restaurant and had my socks blown off by some rockin’ Italian food.
I grew up in an Italian family – we ate meatballs and lasagne for Christmas dinner. So I’m pretty skeptical when it comes to eating it at a restaurant. The pasta is always overcooked (and the water not salted), the sauce lacking in flavor and watery.
If the experience at Pasta Mia was the same, but the food was astounding, I wouldn’t care how many times they slammed down my plate, told me that I couldn’t order an appetizer before I ordered my meal, or took forever to make a fairly simple dish. But it isn’t. It’s the same as all other Italian food, they’re just jerks about it.
The fettuccine was overcooked and under-​salted. The sauce was bland. The bread was the bad kind of hard, not the good kind. The caesar salad was bland with a watery dressing. Yeah, I have enough food to last me for three meals, but if it’s so boring that I give it to a homeless guy on my way to the bus, what does it matter?