Purple Garlic Italian Cafe

I met a college friend for lunch yesterday; It was his first visit and my 5th visit.
The food is excellent because they start with fresh ingredients, is always flavorful and is hearty.
I ordered garlic cheese bread to share during lunch.
He had the grilled Italian sausage plate and I had the chicken spinach walnut Gorgonzola cheese pasta.
I brought half of mine home because it was such a large serving.
The staff are friendly and attentive as well as accommodating.
We sat and chatted for 2 hours but also ordered the mud cake which I highly recommend too.
It’s large enough to share as well.
My friend loved the food also and said he would definitely visit again as would I.

We didn’t have a great experience at Purple Garlic Italian Cafe.
We stopped in to a semi-empty cafe on the Saturday before Christmas and were seated right away in a corner table near a partitioned room.
Walking to our table from the front door, we had to duck under oddly situated cafe umbrellas.
If you’re under 5’7”, you’ll probably avoid having to duck your head.
I just don’t understand the reason for them inside. I counted 7 staff members in the FOH, and was confused as to why so many employees were milling about.
As the evening progressed, the dining room became packed.
However, all that staff doesn’t help if the kitchen can’t keep up, which is what we experienced as the meal progressed. We ordered the Pinot Grigio and the house red and they were nothing to fawn over.
Our garden salads were pitiful: one red onion ring, chopped tomatoes, and one crouton.
It was a stingy, measly salad and the garlic dressing was bland, as was the rest of the meal.
There was a blotch of something red under a few leaves of salad, which we had to ask about.
For some reason they dress the salad with paprika.
I don’t understand that choice but choosing to serve a bland garlic dressing. Our calamari was on the verge of being too rubbery and the breading fell off progressively as we attempted to pitch our forks in them to retrieve them.
They were glaringly bland, we couldn’t detect a hint of seasoning. Our entrees took 20 minutes to arrive after the server removed our starter dishes.
Warm bread was brought out but we had to wait so long it was room temperature by the time we received our entrees.
Thankfully the bread was decent. When the entrees finally arrived, I took two bites of my Chicken Marsala before I sent it back.
The gravy tasted like brown gravy powder mix with no trace of Marsala wine.
The chicken was completely unseasoned, like they breaded and fried it.
The angel hair pasta was completely overdone, breaking a part as I attempted to gather it with my fork.
It was a disaster from start to finish.
My husband remarked that his pesto dish was “Edible.
You can’t really mess up jarred pesto.” Our server was sweet when I gave her my feedback and she’s the only reason for any stars.
We were really disappointed because we saw all of the great reviews and our visit didn’t reflect that.

Great experience! Our waitress, Joan, was so kind.
We had the spaghetti and meatballs, fettuccine alfredo, sauted spinach, ordered a pizza to go.
To compliment my fettuccine I paired it with a glass of "The Champion".
Food was excellent! Sauted spinach was perfectly seasoned and the entire meal only cost $82....not bad at all.
Oh...also had the spinach and artichoke dip for an appetizer! Highly recommended and definitely going back!!