Smoky Mountain Pizza & Pasta - (2 1/2 out of 5)

Hmmm. Until now I've posted about new, exciting restaurants or places that I know & love. It was trickier for me to think about Smoky Mountain Pizza & Pasta, I don't mentally put it in the same category. Snobby? Well, maybe.

But the point is, this place was PACKED! Lots of folks eat there, so here's my take.

I arrived for a lunch meeting at noon. I had to put our name on a list--about a 10 minute wait was the guess. I was greeted right away though and waited in a reasonably comfortable spot for our table. It turned out to be 20 minutes and then we had to ask again, but the staff quickly cleared a just-vacated table and we were on our way. Service was friendly and timely. When I asked for suggestions from their large menu, our knowledgeable server offered several--nice. The menu is just what the name suggests--pizzas, pastas, salads and sandwiches. There are lunch specials available, and they do work hard to get diners in and out at a reasonable pace for a "work" lunch.

I had a primo personal pizza (you can choose your own pizza from many options) and a side salad. I chose the Margherita pizza with tomatoes and fresh basil per our server's suggestion. As for the salad, you have all the regular choices for a salad dressing along with some better than average options. The raspberry vinaigrette that I had was tasty, perhaps a bit too sweet. But it was good with my salad. The salad was iceberg lettuce (bland) with fresh pieces of mushrooms and tomatoes. Thankfully it had feta cheese that gave it a nice flavor and needed kick.

The pizza was not bad. It's a medium crust--not a big chewy crust, but not the paper thin crust either. There was plenty of fresh basil, very flavorful. The sauce was ok, tomatoe-y and some decent flavor.

My companions (thanks for joining me Dave & Kim!) also had a primo pizza with salad, and angel hair pasta with salad. Kim said the angel hair was good, but I didn't quiz her...we were there to work after all. Our intention was to sit on the patio and enjoy the sunshine, but unfortunately the spring weather turned a bit cold and windy and the patio was closed.

So, there it is. This post is a bit bland and that's about what I thought about the restaurant. Food was decent. Service was good. The place was clean and sitting outside would probably boost the pleasure factor up a notch. It is, by the way, a great place to bring the kids or obviously to enjoy a lunch with co-workers. Arrive before noon!