The Pasta Tree Restaurant & Wine Bar

In my opinion, this is a hidden gem of a restaurant! I’ve ordered out and dined in several times from here and enjoyed a variety of their dishes and their tiramisu. It is a great place for a date night or a more expensive take out option!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The great East side Italian option.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Read before you go!
This was the worst food I’ve had at a restaurant in a LONG time.

This was unfortunately one of my worst Milwaukee restaurant experiences in the 6 years that I have been here. Over the years I have heard of folks going to this “Italian” restaurant. We decided to try it out, there is nothing Italian about this place and the food experience was very upsetting.

The bread they gave us before dinner had more salt than flour in it. The calamari had no flavor and were the worst breading I’ve ever seen. The pasta dishes my party and I got each had their own issues and saltiness was a common denominator. For a place that advertises homemade pasta, this restaurant left a lot to be desired.

Save yourself the trip, try somewhere else!

Service was acceptable, though nothing of grandeur.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 4

It is 7:45, someone answered the door and said they were closing... Google says they close at 9'00 PM. I caught a Lyft only for them to not honor the times listed on Google... I'm a black man btw, and this is becoming a regular coincidence I. Downtown Milwaukee.

Delicious !!! Wonderful wine selections ! Great desserts !!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Angel did a fantastic job taking care of us on our Valentine dinner. And the restaurant has such a relaxing atmosphere. Would recommend!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Angel took amazing care of us, the service, food, and ambiance was lovely. We will be coming back and recommending pasta tree to our friends!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I took my girlfriend here for Valentine's. Perhaps I'm just spoiled since growing up I lived near like six or seven amazing Italian restaurants. But, this was one of the worst and overpowered meals I've had in my life. My vodka sauce came out like warm, which cooled fast. This made the already bland sauce even worst as it became a textural nightmare. Everything in the restaurant was some flavor of broken. The plates were chipped, the chairs were wobbly, and the table was about two seconds from collapsing from its own weight. The cherry on top was that the meal was 91 dollars! The service wasn't bad but my god save your wallet and do not go.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 3

We had a very disappointing experience overall.

We had a 7:15 PM reservation and arrived at 7:00 PM to check in. We were told there would be a short wait, which was fine, so we went to the bar. Unfortunately, we stood there for about 40 minutes and were never acknowledged by the bartender, not even once.

While waiting for our table, the same person asked me for my name three separate times. We were finally seated around 7:50 PM.

After being seated, we ordered drinks right away, but it took another 15+ minutes to get them. At one point, I even asked our waiter if it would be faster to just order wine, and he looked at the bar and said, “Oh, they’re ready.” We received our appetizer before we ever got our drinks.

I ordered the specialty cocktail, the Lavender Rose, and it honestly just tasted like cheap prosecco.

We ordered the chicken parmesan over fettuccine special. It was extremely salty. I couldn’t eat mine, and my husband only ate about half. Shortly after, he had a severe reaction where his throat tightened and food became lodged in his esophagus (he was not choking, but it would not go down), which caused him to vomit multiple times. We paid and left immediately.

To make matters worse, my husband also found a hair in his food. And at one point when our waiter brought food to the table, a chunk fell into my husband’s water. He apologized and said he would bring a new water, but never did.

I did explain all of this to the waiter. He comped one meal and one drink, which was appreciated, but the overall experience was still unacceptable.

Also, the table we were seated at was extremely cramped with almost no walking space. Even the waiter had to awkwardly rotate around the table just to speak with us.

Extremely disappointed. We will not be returning.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Honestly, this place is really good. We try and always sit in the bar area, the bartenders are honest and FAST. Order the manicotti with the meat sauce. Their cocktails are divine. Espresso martini is 10/10- especially the peppermint one. The sugar cookie martini is also a slam dunk. But again, the manicotti.. It’s super, super good. Thank me later. The only pic I have is the plate scraped clean.

Cozy, friendly, great food at reasonable prices. I'd highly recommend eating here.

Don’t come here for stuffy-fine dining. Come here for grandmas cooking and a family atmosphere. It’s a great homey yet elegant environment and the food tastes like an Italian grandmother cooked it—in the best way.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Justice was so knowledgeable and personable.
A true gem to made out experience so amazing!!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

It had been a couple of years since we last visited the Pasta Tree and I'm sorry now that we didn't go back sooner. The food was excellent as was the service!

Edit: My wife and I visited last Saturday to celebrate our anniversary and I wasn't nearly as happy as I have been in the past. Google ratings would seem to suggest that I'm not alone in feeling this way.

The service was just okay - not bad, but not very good either. And they weren't busy. Beyond that, I did think that the food and atmosphere were very good. However, despite the fact that we arrived when they opened, they were out of the dish I wanted and were also out of Chardonnay and Cabernets. So instead of wine, I ordered a Vodka Tonic. Sorry, out of limes also. So, I walked up to the bar and asked for a slice of lemon. The bartender grabbed one with his fingers, but at least placed it on a napkin to hand it to me.

Not sure if we'll be back.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 3

Great little Italian restaurant just down the street from Shank Hall! Perfect for a,pre concert meal!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5