Basta Pasta

I was recently here twice for large celebrations. Once with 14 people and again with 20. Service was a little slow, but with a group you can expect that. The presentation of some of the food is pretty unassuming, but tastes great. They were very accommodating for both groups. We called ahead only one day in advance for the group of 20 on a Friday night and had no problems.

What’s the fuss about this place? It’s a touch above Olive Garden. Barely. Close your eyes and eat the salad and bread sticks — both are clones. Even the salad bowl looked familiar! What stuck in my craw? This:
GAMBERONI E CAPESANTE LUCIANO
Jumbo shrimp, scallops, roasted peppers, white wine butter with linguini 14
Sounds good, right? Here’s the reality: Two (decidedly not jumbo) shrimp and three scallops. Thin pieces of roasted pepper (I thought they were pimentos). A plop of gummy pasta with something stuck to them. Not sauce, just an oddly undefinable flavor. A ripoff at $ 14. And no thanks, you can keep the leftovers.
One and done.

Stopped for a business lunch with a friend. Many of the lunch choices have grilled onions, peppers, and lots of hot spice or seafood added to the pasta. I have trouble eating spicy, and I don’t care for seafood, so I usually go for spaghetti with meatballs. Spaghetti Vitello, was the only spaghetti with meatballs on the menu so I ordered that.
The salad was delicious, served in a large tossing bowl and was all you could eat. We actually got a second bowl of salad. It was delicious. The bread sticks were there, but nothing to rave about. The spaghetti was filled with pepperoncini and way to spicy for me. My tummy was on fire after just a couple of bites. I tried to pick out the pepperoncini, but they had done their duty and spiced up the entire dish. The meatballs were moist, juicy and delicious. Unfortunately, I could not eat them because my tummy was on fire from the few bites of pasta.
I pushed my dish aside, as I could not eat it. I told the server, Julia M. who was training another server this particular day, and she only offered a to go box. She did not ask if I would like something else, no apologies, just asked if we wanted dessert. That is not what I would have expected.
My $ 12 lunch meal was basically a nice salad. The atmosphere was nice, great place for a business lunch, but the food was not for me. Because I was not asked if she could get me something else, I will not be returning. It should have been offered and was not. She did do a good job keeping our water glasses filled and our check was brought in a timely manner and settled quickly. Two lunches, water to drink, for the price of $ 27.56 + $ 6 tip = $ 33.56 for one edible meal was just to pricey for me. We will not be back.

My cousin recommended this place so I tried it! Lucky me! The pasta was perfect the seafood was fresh and sauces were perfectly seasoned. My husband had seafood over pasta. We also tried calamari yum! The breads are fresh. all the food is made fresh daily using organic local farms. this place is small friendly with great service .i have great pictures but this space won’t allow me to show them sorry

I had the catch of the day which was the Monk fish. Cooked perfectly, tasted fresh and served with grits, Gouda and BACON. YUM.
I had the opportunity to meet Melissa who quickly resolved the slight issue we had with service in the beginning.
If you haven’t been, try this place-​the prices are decent (the highest entrée was around $ 25), the drinks are tasty, the food is delicious and the service is good.
Will I be back? Definitely!

I have not eaten here in a while. Tonight I had the mix of cream of crab and Maryland crab soup with Caesar salad.
The wait was 20 mins thats not bad for carryout.
I loved the big portions. the greeting and feeling welcome was a plus. And the great menu ideas to mix and match was cool.
Maybe next time I’ll dine in for good olé memory sake.

Met a friend here for lunch. Wait service was friendly and attentive and made good menu suggestions. I had the blackened Ahi Tuna Wrap which came with homemade waffle potato chips and a pickle. My friend had the buffalo chicken salad. Both were absolutely delicious. We also started with a cup of crab and a cup of cream of crab soup. Both were wonderful as well. I don’t end up I the Timonium area often, but the food here is definitely worth going out of my way for!

My wife and I visited recently and had great meals. My wife ordered veal marsala and I had chicken Chesapeake. Both were excellent. Along with the house salad and bread sticks we were totally satisfied. The waitress was very generous with the freshly grated cheese and very efficient serving.

It looks bad, smells bad and the 3 – 4 times I’ve tried Italian dishes they’ve been awful. Never had a good drink or decent service either. However, once a week (Tuesday?) they have a special crab cake dinner. That’s worth going for, otherwise I’d say stay away.

Basta Pasta definitely seems to be the place where all the Senior Citizens in Timonium go to eat, talk, hang, sleep or do whatever. I had to stay in Timonum on business for 2 weeks, so I took it upon myself to go on a quest to find the best crabcakes in the region. Never in a million years would I think that one of the best I’ve had came from a place called Basta Pasta. That’s all I’ve tried and probably all I’d get if I went back.

You can always count on Basta Pasta for great Italian food. I’ve been here many times and I’ve never had a bad meal. The outside doesn’t look like much but the inside is really nice. It’s a nice intimate setting perfect for a date but also great for a group gathering. The salad and breadsticks that come with every meal are delicious. I typically get the lasagna for dinner. It is exceptionally good. Some of the best lasagna I’ve had. For lunch I recently tried the chicken pesto panini. It was surprisingly really good. Fresh chicken, tasty pesto sauce, w/​tasty fries for only $ 9 (w/​tax). I’ve recommended this place to many people. I’ll always continue to come here.

Seated immediately, our server was «GREAT», the food was great, would eat there again.

The restaurant staff and the bar staff are equally amazing. Food never disappoints and the location is great. So convenient and easy access with tons of parking. Really a great spot. Whether it be a weekend lunch or drinks after work, this place is great. Friendly atmosphere and good food. Perfect combination.

My guy and I ate at the other location first and didn’t like the table or the noise level. The layout of the Timonium location is much nicer. There are several rooms and comfortable seating. This makes for a more intimate dining experience. Our dinners were fresh, tasty, and not overpriced. Good Italian classics and modern adaptations. We will go back. I had chicken and broccoli Alfredo and my guy had Mushroom Cappalini. We left happy.

If you want filling, this place is it. My friend randomly found it next to a gas station. Its one of those places that if you are a local you know about it but if not, you wonder how anyone learns about it. But the place was busy. It was more like a mom and pop feel. The salad was delish and the bread was flavorful. We shared a pitcher of a red sangria for a really good deal. My sis got a birthday cheese cake which I anialiated (she doesn’t like cheesecake and I’m sure i ate more than my other friends who split it with me– i was greedy *hangs head in shame*- but it was soo good! I want to try the pasta next time (I was trying to be cute with the seafood salad).

I have been back with the parents and done carry out as well. There could be worse things in life than waiting at the bar for your meal. The chicken saltimbocca is good, love this dish; the veal counterpart tastes the snake but the veal is pretty disappointing– especially for the increased cost. The shrimp dish that has pine nuts in it is very very good– and light which was a pleasant surprise.
I’m still not in love with the place, but they are consistent, if nothing else. And meals to go are ready on time.

I am honestly shocked at the positive reviews as our experience was awful and we will not go back.
My husband, two good friends and I went to the restaurant several weeks ago for dinner. 2 of our entrees were horrible, 1 was fair and the other was good. The service was terrible.
Our server was Sharon (I know that only because her name was on our check; she didn’t bother to tell us). Our experience was she was very grumpy. it took her quite some time to come and ask us for our drink order. When she brought us our drinks, and later our entrees, we found it extremely strange that she reached across the person nearest to her to place the food and drink in front of the intended recipient. Since it was a small table for four, all she had to do was walk several feet to the other side of the table to place the food in front of the recipient. Her style of delivering food and drinks was something none of us had ever seen.
I ordered ravioli. It was obviously frozen as opposed to fresh and the sauce was flavorless and a disgusting color. One of our dinner companions ordered pasta with pesto sauce. He ate it but the next morning, contacted us to let us know he had become violently ill a few hours after dinner. My husband ordered Chicken Francaise and said it was «ok»…nothing great. Our fourth dinner partner had the soft shell crab special and liked it a (although we found it odd to have soft shell crab in an Italian Restaurant).
We had to track down Sharon several times to ask for drink refills. She was not attentive at all. Had the restaurant been very busy, we would have understood but it was 8 p.m. and not busy.
At the end of the meal, all four of us agreed that while it wasn’t Sharon’s fault that the majority of our food was so bad, her service did not deserve our customary 20% tip. We left her a tip of 12% on a bill of $ 100. What was interesting was after she collected our payment, she came back a few minutes later as we were standing up to leave and asked if our meals had been ok. We believe felt Sharon felt short-​changed on the tip. We politely told her it had not been a good experience and left it at that.
Absolutely will not go back. There are much better Italian options in the York Road corridor.

The chef is amazing. Great shrimp fra diavlo, veal saltimbuca, veal Marsala, chicken parm and gluten free options!
Server Herb was great :)
Wednesday night is ½ price bottles of wine too.

Food is good. If I have one complaint is it that they always put us in the back room which is a long walk and usually for bigger parties. From now on I’m going to ask for a front room.
Love the calamari, salad and breadsticks. Better than Olive Garden.

ok, so this isn’t Mario Batali’s kitchen or the overly fru-​fru Cinghiale’s downtown (bleh), but its certainly 10,000 steps above olive garden, olive grove, olive tree, olive branch, olive mama’s, and every other iteration of the ‘unlimited bread-​sticks and salad’ restaurants now feeding America’s big bellied over-​eaters.
For starters, the location is primo. there’s parking out back and its right of 83 North. The restaurant is definitely large as well with plenty of rooms for diners to gorge in. The food is consistent, fairly priced and the marinara sauce is worth the trip alone. My recommendation is definitely the Seafood Pasta… incredibly large chunks of crab meat, shrimp, and scallops served over a bed of linguine and drenched in the best marinara sauce this side of the Atlantic. The Marsala is beyond excellent and the chicken Parmesan is a heart attack you want to have. The steak and egg burger lunch special is dynamite as well.
There are only some minor issues with Basta Pasta worth addressing. For one thing, the workers here can sometimes be a bit too stuffy and serious for my liking. Secondly, the pizza recipe could definitely use a revamp. Its a bit under-​cooked, thick and wilted for my taste. Also, I haven’t ventured to far away from my signature dishes here because some of the other dishes I’ve seen around me don’t look as appeasing. Also, the portions are a bit uneven here with some dishes looking like they can barely feed one person and others being big enough to feed a family. So yes, one point deducted for inconsistent appearances of dishes.
However, despite these minor issues, Basta Pasta is a reliable mainstay. Despite the cheesy name, the restaurant is authentic Italian (owned and operated). It definitely serves high quality Italian cuisine in a cozy environment. Now I can’t say I love the interior (it’s a bit damp and dark) but it does somehow work for the comfort food being dished out of the kitchen. Plus, the place has a good crowd from families to older folks, kids, etc… Honestly, its the best casual Italian food you’ll find between here and New Jersey IMO. So yes, do yourself a favor and skip the «Olive» restaurants all around town… Basta Pasta is WAY better.