Pasta Bar - Review - East Austin - Austin - The Infatuation
"In 2022, Los Angeles’ popular Pasta Bar opened a fancy tasting menu at the bottom of an East Austin apartment complex. We hated it. The experience seemed designed for TikTok-ready theatrics that could justify its $200 price tag and monthlong waitlist. There were too many blowtorches and unnecessary tableside flourishes, and only a third of the courses featured any pasta. It was purely style over substance. Fast-forward a couple of years, and securing a reservation no longer requires a sacrifice to the gods of flour and eggs. The blowtorches are gone, and—save for a few palate-cleansing salads and crudos—nearly every course has pasta in some form. Now, Pasta Bar is a creative fine dining meal that’s (mostly) worth the money. photo credit: Nicolai McCrary Broken into three parts in three different rooms, this progressive dinner feels more immersive than other tasting menus in town. It starts with a welcome cocktail served with canapes in a foyer facing East 6th Street where you can watch people drunkenly stumble out of Shangri-La. But the majority of the meal takes place in a room behind that, at a long bar wrapped around an open kitchen. Over the course of about two hours, you’ll experience a parade of small plates that sound like they were thought up by Willy Wonka himself, had he chosen a life of pasta over candy. Many of them feature sauces poured tableside—but instead of existing only to feed your camera, most have a purpose. One melts a bed of dehydrated green curry, and there's a hot, pho-inspired broth that will simultaneously fog your glasses and punch your nose with aromatics when it hits the bowl. Finally, you’ll get wheeled into a third room for desserts, a digestif, and the opportunity to let your food settle before you roll yourself onto the street. photo credit: Nicolai McCrary photo credit: Nicolai McCrary photo credit: Nicolai McCrary photo credit: Nicolai McCrary photo credit: Nicolai McCrary A meal at Pasta Bar is still expensive—doubly so if you opt for one of the wine pairings priced between $150 and $250. Some courses work better than others, and at times it feels like pasta elements are shoehorned into a dish so the restaurant's name will make sense. A reservation isn’t a golden ticket, even if some of the dishes are inventive enough to feel like it. The highs are high, and the lows aren’t that low—but only you and your budget can decide if that’s a trade-off you’re willing to accept. Food Rundown photo credit: Nicolai McCrary Tasting Menu There’s no à-la-carte option, so a meal at Pasta Bar means you’re buckling in for about 10 courses in the main dining room, plus a round of canapes and an additional round of desserts at the end. There’s no real underlying theme to the dishes—you’ll find Italian, French, Vietnamese, and Thai influences—other than being loosely based around pasta. Despite feeling like a journey to EPCOT, nothing is wildly out of place. photo credit: Nicolai McCrary Wine Pairing The pairing consists of a small pour with nearly each of the menu’s 10 courses. The wines are excellent. They all come from volcanic soils, faraway valleys, and regions that sound like they were battle sites in Lord of the Rings. The biggest problem is that you don’t have enough time to properly savor them because of how rapidly they’re served. Don’t be surprised to find four or five half-empty glasses piling up by the time you’re halfway through the meal." - Nicolai McCrary
