This is the front of Classico Italian – Pizza and Pasta. It’s located in a small strip center in the Loudon area. The location is right as this restaurant is right next to Tellico Village, a 3,600 home development, (still expanding), along the west side of Tellico Lake in Loudon County.
Since it was the Valentine’s Day Eve…the restaurant was very busy. This is the room that’s normally used for special events, area club meetings, etc. The good news is that the old battleship gray main dining area has been repainted and the whole place looks much better than it did when Classico’s management first took over the building…
Note the singer in the background… She was actually very good, especially when she sang the old standards.
All entrees are served with a tossed salad, garlic knot rolls and pasta. The salad was OK…average but OK. The garlic knots were gone before we could take a photo. They were good, with lots of parmesan cheese on top. Most of the diners at our table really liked them. My better half and I would have preferred it if they’d had more garlic on them…
The only real problem was that we asked for more garlic knots. Our waitress kept telling us that they were in the oven…and then that someone else beat her to them. Our waitress was embarrassed but we never saw any more garlic knots...
I didn’t feel like a salad, so I ordered the soup...I didn't write down the name but it appeared to be Italian Wedding Soup. I’ve eaten a lot of good Italian soup…in Chicago, New York and on The Hill in St. Louis. This didn’t compare. It wasn’t very good… I had my wife taste it, as well as another couple at the table. The most positive comment it received was that it was “beige”…bland…
Two members of our group ordered the Stromboli…containing ham, sausage, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. ($7.70) It was huge, it looks good and you get a lot for your money! On a scale of 1 to 10, one diner gave it a 7…pretty good, and the other diner rated it a 5…just OK.
One of the ladies with our group ordered the Eggplant Special. I didn’t get the price of this entrée. She liked it and scored it an 8 out of 10 points…
Another of the ladies in our group ordered the Eggplant Parmesan. ($9.95) The eggplant must have been pretty good as she also rated her eggplant entrée as 8 out of 10!
One of the guys in our party ordered the Veal Parmesan. ($11.95) He used to work in the restaurant business…as a vendor for some really good restaurants on the west coast. He refused to give his entrée a rating…stating that he would never eat here again…Ouch! He felt that the marinara sauce came directly out of a can…and that calling it bland would be kind…
My wife ordered the Veal Marsala. ($14.95) The menu describes it as sauteed veal with mushrooms, garlic and Marsala butter sauce on a bed of linquini. There were lots of mushrooms, enough veal and the noodles were cooked correctly. However, she felt that it lacked character…no pizzazz. It was OK…and she gave it 5 points out of 10.
I ordered the Romano Chicken. ($15.95) It was described as Romano and Asiago-encrusted chicken breasts with Alfredo sauce on a bed of Linguini. The Alfredo sauce was a little ‘soupy’ the chicken was fine…although the plural of chicken breast was incorrectly used. It lacked any real definitive Romano/Asiago flavor…but there was plenty of it and I was certainly full when I finished it. I scored it 5 out of 10.
Another of the ladies ordered the most basic of Italian entrees…Spaghetti Marinara. ($8.95) She gave it a 1 ½ out of 10! The marinara sauce didn’t deserve to be given that label… There was no flavor…little or no spices added. She said that she wouldn’t have eaten it except for the fact that she was starving… I tasted it myself and, whether it was or not, it tasted like Hunt’s Tomato Sauce…
So… Our ratings for the food at Classico Italian Pizza & Pasta ranged from “0” to “8” on a scale of 10. There were two 8’s, a 7, three 5’s, a 1 ½ and one “0”, for an average rating of 4.9.
When paying at the register, the hostess didn’t ask anyone how their dinner was. (Our waitress did though…) There was no parmesan on the table. Apparently, silverware was in short supply. I had a salad fork and a dirty steak knife wrapped with my paper napkin when I sat down at the table. For the most part, the entrees came out from the kitchen 2 at a time…maybe because each couple had a separate check. We had people with their food waiting to eat just to be polite. The worst part was that the last Stromboli arrived a good 15 minutes after the rest of us gave up and started eating.
Interestingly enough, the previous evening Classico Italian had catered food for an open house for a new local business. From what we understood, the food was late…30 to 40 minutes late…and then instead of it being delivered, the business owner had to have it picked up. But, I do have to say that my wife and I thought that the Pepperoni Pizza was pretty darn good. I also liked the chicken tenders…
We would go back for the pizza… Classico Italian Pizza & Pasta is located at 318 Lakeside Plaza in Loudon Tennessee. Phone: 865-458-9316. I wasn’t able to find a website or Facebook listing for this restaurant.
Just click on any photo to enlarge it…
Thanks for stopping by for a visit!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
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