Bola Pasta

This restaurant has great service, great food and reasonable prices. I love how personal the staff makes you feel when dining here. My wife and I had the spinach and artichoke dip for an appetizer, which I now think is the best in town by far. The chips are homemade, I love that. I also had a homemade blackbean soup that was delicious. One can always tell the difference in store bought and made in house. For my entree, I ordered the chicken marsala, which is a chicken breast sauteed with a marsala wine and mushroom reduction atop a bed of angel hair. My wife had a grilled 14. 0z ribeye with a wild mushroom risotto, that melts in your mouth. For exceptional Italian at a decent price, I highly recommend Bol a Pasta. Being new to the area, Im glad we finally found a place we can both agree on. We will definately be back. Hopefully, we can meet Mr. Frank Grisanti himself, I hear he is at the restaurant often! more

This is my first review, but I had such a strange Italian eating experience tonight, I had to write. We went for our first dinner at Bolla Pasta tonight (we are new to the area). We loved that the restaurant was smoke free. However, I can't say much for the cuisine. I was surprised to learn that the restaurant was started by an Italian family in Memphis. We ordered an appetitzer of mozzarella sticks. We received six very small sticks w/ a strange sauce that we could not identify. Much to my horror, the same sauce arrived on my pasta....yikes! Apparently, this brown sauce with carrots and peppers (?) is considered marinara sauce at this establishment. It looked and tasted somewhat like a mild flavorless salsa, which was not good at all. I have never seen brown marinara sauce with carrots and peppers in it. Never. Chef Boyardee would have been a step up from this stuff. My husband ordered spaghetti w/ meatballs and ravioli. Different sauce, but still brown and tasteless. All I can say is yuck. I have no idea where these sauces are coming from, but they are not from Italy! The salads were pretty good, although plain. The atmosphere was nice and our server was slow, but nice. My husband had 2 glasses of wine, which I should have had as well in order to make that sauce go down. Overall, I would not recommend anything w/ meat or marinara sauce on it at this restaurant. If we go back (which we actually might b/c it's smoke free), I will order the pizza or perhaps one of the other dishes that other reviewers mentioned here. To be fair, we have only gone one time. Maybe it was an off night. Pros: SMOKE FREE, good parking, comfortable booths, nice decor, not very expensive Cons: Mystery Sauce, not good italian, more

do NOT go to this restaurant if you're looking for good quality italian food. this is about as worse as it gets. we were seated promptly, the WAITRESS WAS RUDE enough to interrupt my husband while he was on the phone (talking to a nurse about a sick patient) and ask him what he wanted to drink. we ordered the chicken marsala and a chicken dish with artichoke hearts in a wine sauce...... what we got was DISGUSTING BLAND FOOD that was DRIPPING IN BUTTER. the supposed white wine sauce seemed more like a melted butter sauce. the bread that we got was also dripping in butter, i had to wipe my hands everythig was so greasy. after a very unsatisfying dinner, my husband got sick, severe cramps and trips to the bathroom. it was inevitable. we will NEVER go there again. what a shame, Grisanti sounded like an Italian name. Pros: good location, good parking Cons: horrible food, immature service, weird, cafeteria like ambience more

Bolla Pasta in Cordova is my favorite neighborhood restaurant. The service is fast, the entire restaurant is smoke free, and the food is all good. I have been a customer for many years and have never had a bad meal. Many times I order penne pasta natural with grilled chicken. No meal is complete without their Italian spinach. I often call ahead and get carry out. Although they deliver, I have never used this service. Pros: food, price, service Cons: their ice tea is not good, get water, a sott drink or wine more

Ciò è una povera giustificazione per un ristorante italiano. (Translation: This is a poor excuse for an Italian restaurant.) We went to this restaurant based upon the Citysearch reviews which were glowing. Either these reviews were written by the owners and management of the restaurant or by people who know nothing about good food. Here's the real scoop. The pasta and marinara at Bol a Pasta is barely a step above spaghetti served in a public school cafeteria but, just about as watery and overcooked. As for the tuna with risotto, it was equally disappointing. My wife ordered the tuna rare. It was served beyond well done; she tried to mask its taste with the marinara borrowed from my younger daughter's pasta but, it was still inedible. The risotto was more like rice swimming in butter! The service was friendly and prompt but, otherwise the waitstaff is clueless. We ordered a bottle of Chianti. Our waitress brought the bottle of wine to the table, uncorked it then, shoved the cork back in the bottle as she returned to the bar to bring us wine glasses. (Speaking of wine, the WINE LIST IS LIMITED!!!) I had advised the waitstaff that it was my older daughter's 11th birthday. They were kind enough to provide a slice of choclate dessert but, there was no candle on it. (This definitely no place for a birthday celebration.) There was one bright spot; the tomato, basil and mozzarella salad was tasty (it would be pretty hard to screw this up.) I guess you can't expect much from an Italian restaurant that misspells ""gnocchi"" on its menu. (They spelled it, ""gnoochi."") Needless to say, we won't be returning to this restaurant. more

this is great italian cuisine! we have been several times. the food and service has been terrific. we been there with several parties of eight and i think we have tried almost everything on the menu. no one has been disappointed. the ""fred bread"" is terrific. just outstanding! Pros: food, service, parking more

I can't believe this place wasn't higher up on the list! We ALWAYS rely on Bola Pasta to be our ""constant"". The food is wonderful, service is great, I'd say the only downfall is the waiting area could be a little bigger, so it wouldn't be so packed. Other than that, HIGHLY recommended! more

This is the restaurant my husband and I would own. The food has always been consistant and the service consistantly fine. The wine list includes one of my favorite merlot's, the lasagna is wonderful and the ambience always makes for a fantastic evening. Pros: good value, worthwhile wait, atmosphere!! more

We loved the food and the service was excellent. A friend highly recommended Bolla Pasta and she was right on target. When the ""fat folks"" all gather to talk about food this one got top marks! more