Tempo Di Pasta

The portions are generous, and there is ample meat in the pasta, which does feel «home-​made,» but alas the bar has been set quite high for pasta trucks in DC thanks to Basil Thyme: Tempo de Pasta has a nice, clean truck and a very friendly, hard-​working crew, but the quality of the sauces is compromised by an apparent canned-​tomato-​sauce flavor, less exciting pasta texture in the dishes, and an unappealing vinaigrette on dull iceberg lettuce in the salad, in contrast for example with Basil Thyme’s sublime menu, which this truck seems to have sought to copy dish-​for-​dish (ravioli, lasagna, various sauce options, a crab/​lobster stuffing option, a small salad included with each order) but have not yet matched in refinement. I would put three stars but two says «meh» and three says «A-​OK» so, 2.5 stars.

One of the best food trucks operating in DC right now — the food is fresh, the pasta is well-​cooked, and the sauces are excellent. The portions are huge on all of their dishes, and all come with a side salad and roll for $ 10-​$ 12. And the staff is very friendly — they want to hear feedback, and encourage you to reach out to them, and they’ll make recommendation if you’re stuck deciding. The woman who generally takes the orders reminds me of my aunts — a warm, friendly Italian lady who just wants to feed you. I’ve been there weekly over the last month, and the food is consistently good.
Get the rigatoni with sausage, or if you’re in the mood for ravioli, the mushroom.

By food truck standards, this is an easy 5 stars. Ordered the lobster and crab ravioli, comes with a salad and bread for $ 12. Home made vodka sauce was really nice and it was a very large portion. I will try other menu items, but for the preparation and quality from a food truck, these guys are legit.
Bonus seemed like the crew on board was very excited about their food and seemed like they genuinely cared for their food.

This food truck is the best! The pasta is so fresh and cooked al dente. The sauces are flavorful, and you get an entrée, salad and bread for $ 10, or splurge and get the special (lobster ravioli) for $ 12 you won’t be disappointed. I Love, love, love this food truck. I visit it anytime it is parked near my office in NoMA.

This is one of the best food trucks in DC. I ordered the lasagna and it tasted better than most Italian restaurants in DC. The ingredients were fresh, and not over-​salted. I am very happy to see a food truck like this in DC. This is a breath of fresh air.

Truck was parked in front of my training facility on my last day of training and I wish it had been here all week. Everything on the menu sounded delicious but I was skeptical about the pasta being mushy. I was pleasantly surprised, the pasta was al dente, cooked perfect. Ordered the Milanese Chicken w/​Fettuccine. Presentation was appetizing. Everything tastes fresh and home made. A corner small piece of the chicken was very salty but not the entire piece. Fresh and hot and very tasty. The best part was the price. For $ 10 I got a large entrée, w/​a side garden salad w/​balsamic dressing and a roll. Outstanding value!

By food truck standards Tempo Di Pasta is A+ !! The truck is clean, the owners are friendly and so nice but most importantly the food is good and the ingredients are Fresh!
With so many pasta options to choose from such as Lasagna Bolognese, Rigatoni with Sausage or Chicken Milanese plus so much more. It was a tough decision but I went with Chicken Pesto and was not disappointed. You know when a food truck uses REAL chicken and the pasta is tender, cooked perfectly al dente… You know your meal it’s off to a great start!
Besides the food the price is awesome for the value and quality of food you receive.
For $ 10 you get:
— Your Choice of Pasta
— Side Garden Salad w/​balsamic vinaigrette
— Italian Bread Roll
Plus you can add on a bottled water ($ 1) or Italian soda ($ 2)
Such a great value because the pasta portions are not skimpy at all. Enough to save some for a snack or dinner.
Tempo Di Pasta considers themselves a Gourmet Italian Food Truck and they have definitely lived up to their name. Delicious!
*Tip: You can change your pasta type to anything you like (penne, linguine, rigatoni, etc)

I come here about once a week, coming from an Italian family; I enjoy it quite bit. The pesto is probably my favorite. The customer service is great and friendly. I would highly recommend it.

One of the best lunches I’ve had in a long time!
I should have taken a picture, but got so excited when I opened my food container that I dove right in! For $ 10 I got a nice size piece of lasagna, a salad and a piece of bread. Can’t beat that!!! A well balanced meal from a food truck for $ 10!!! If you went to the Lobster truck you’d be paying $ 15 for just a lobster roll and be hungry 2 hours later.
I got the Lasagna and my friend wanted the Chicken Milanese, but it was sold out so she opted for the Chicken Pesto Pasta instead. We both loved our meals! I definitely want to come back and try the Milanese since it seems like it’s a big hit. This definitely is not your chain Italian food, real authentic and fresh. It may take a little time to get your food, but that’s because it’s made to order right there and I can appreciate that!
Now on to the service, the lady who takes the money and gives you your food is a real gem! Like seriously! She was so sweet, she talked to every customer with a smile on her face and seemed to genuinely care about the customer and their experience. You don’t find good customer service like that much anymore and especially not on a food truck.
I’ll definitely be going back to try all of the other dishes except for maybe the mushroom ravioli because I’m not much of a mushoom fan, but seeing that their ravioli is made from scratch I definitely want to try the beef!
Tempo Di Pasta gets an A+ in my book!

My first experience at this truck was a good one. The owners were very friendly and seemed genuinely interested in hearing back about whether I enjoyed the food. I also thought the price was fair for the amount of food you get. A full serving of pasta with a good side salad and a roll for $ 10 is a better deal than many other food trucks. I really enjoyed the mushroom ravioli with fontina sauce and look forward to trying their other dishes soon! The only thing I can think of to improve upon would be to offer a slightly higher quality bread, perhaps a slice of some good focaccia.

As good as it gets for some comfort food on a Friday! I’m always wary of Italian restaurants and food trucks, hoping to avoid the «Olive Gardens,» but this is the real deal — delicious Italian food that tastes very fresh. I got the Rigatoni with Red Pepper Sauce and the vibrant colors and dollop of ricotta cheese on top were mouth watering. The only (and I mean only) criticism I had is that I would have liked the pasta/​sauce to pack a little more of a punch. Next time I will be adding a few red pepper flakes to give it a kick.
The salad and bread were great. I appreciate food trucks that add a little extra to their salad instead of giving you a pile of iceberg. This one had some mixed greens, shredded carrots and tomatoes with a nice balsamic vinaigrette. The bread was pretty standard, but perfect for sopping up my extra sauce. Great value — a FULL meal for $ 10!
One element of this food truck that cannot go unmentioned is the customer service. Both the woman taking orders and the man preparing the food were incredibly kind and attentive, offering suggestions and seeming genuinely interested in hearing feedback about your meal. You could tell this is their usual demeanor (and not just a Friday special), as they greeted everyone so pleasantly — and there were a ton of repeat customers.
I’m so glad to see that this new food truck is a regular at 20^th and L! It’s great that they give their location over Twitter, too. Can’t wait to try the rest of their menu.

this was a new find in NoMa… super fresh, and super tasty. Great customer service too. I’m so happy to find this truck.

Tempo Di Pasta is my fav Italian food truck! After the 1^st time having Chicken Milanese with the fontina sauce I just knew I had to go back. And the owners are so sweet and nice! They ask what you have the taste for and its on from there. Its so good I brought my coworker out today and demanded he try. ;) which he too now agrees .its pretty awesome!

Tempo Di Pasta is great! I make sure to stop by every time they are in Dupont. The ingredients are fresh, the food is delicious. I have been a loyal customer the past couple of weeks and it is so heartwarming that I am now a familiar face and «regular customer» to the crew. They are so kind and sweet and I will always go back. I have tried the Chicken Milanese which is fantastic and today I tried the Lasagna and it is amazing!!! I had no complaints about the salad dressing when it was balsamic vinegar or even about the new vinaigrette they’re using now, but that is just me. I’m very picky about outside Italian food since I have in-​laws who are from Italy but this is actually the real deal, authentic and good. I am happy that you keep customers posted via Twitter on your location and specials, it is very helpful. I tweeted about the food and even got an immediate response back! Tempo Di Pasta is one of the few true italian spots with great food and great customer service! Thank you!!! See you soon!

This is a new food truck, and I’m warning you to stay away. Below is the text of the letter I wrote the owner, or whoever maintains their email address:
Hi,
I was at your food truck last Friday at the Van Ness location. I was very excited to see the menu, some real great sounding Italian dishes, and a pretty decent price.
However my friend and I were disappointed with the food.
I got the wild mushroom ravioli. The mushrooms themselves were fine, but the rest of the meal was poor. The ravioli were mushy and just barely lukewarm (I ate it right away after walking back to my office). The yellow sauce I got was very bland, didn’t taste much garlic and definitely no spices.
My Friend got some kind of pasta (I think it was ziti) with the red sauce. He thought it was extremely bland. He also noted that it was cold. He was also disappointed with the salad, according to him the dressing was pure balsamic vinegar, and he was definitely right.
Finally the bread… two slices of untoasted wonderbread in a plastic baggie. What were you thinking? If you’re going to serve something, it shouldn’t suck! To me it seems like you’re treating customers like suckers — luring them in with fancy fine dining menus and the promise of salad and bread all for 10 bucks… and then serving them slop, figuring they don’t know the difference.
I know something about food… a food truck cannot come close to preparing 10 different entrees from scratch on short order. Instead, as we figured out after the fact, you’ve got stuff pre-​prepared and reheated. Nothing necessarily wrong with that… except you guys couldn’t even get that right. This is Italian food, not rocket science… keep two pots of sauce going on the stove, pre-​blanch two or three kinds of pasta and fry them to order, and grill some meat as needed.
The incredibly sad thing is that this particular location could use a good truck. You have a huge captive audience with pretty terrible restaurants nearby. You could literally serve spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread at $ 10 a plate, and as long as it was damn good, you’d have a huge number of customers. Instead you’ve shot yourselves in the foot… word is out that your truck sucks. I noticed a distinct lack of people around your truck when it showed up earlier this week.
My guess is that you’re really a catering business with pretensions of fine dining. The difference between catering and food truck is that food truck customers aren’t a captive audience, and they’re sober.
Just a friendly note,
Ash