I went back to Whole in the Wall today by request of a reader. Prior to going back I had a pretty sour taste in my mouth. I had been there 4 times within the past two years and have always had extremely slow service and mediocre food. But I have always wanted to like this place… It’s a mom and pop restaurant with a great earthy feel to it. Almost everything in the dining room made out of wood and they have fantastic piano right smack in the middle of the floor.
As I said the service has always been super slow even when the restaurant is completely empty. This time was no exception, so be prepared to take your time at the whole in the wall. The first time I ate here I had the blue fish which was a bit oily. I remember it kind of swimming in a pool of yellow oil atop a shallow crock pot. The second time I ate there I had the ‘mid-east platter’ which includes falafel balls, babaghanoush, salad and pita. This dish was decent but also kind of bland. Whenever I eat vegetarian food I want some spice or strong flavor to come out of the dish to make up for the lack of fat. I expected the falafels to have more flavor and the babaghanoush to be a bit more bitter and creamy. The third time I dined at the Whole in the Wall I had a roasted red pepper pesto pasta dish. Again, I was not too thrilled. The red pesto sauce was quite bland and the rigatoni pasta was undercooked. Don’t get me wrong, I like my pasta ‘al dente’ but this was just chewy.
My meal today was by far the best I have had so far. I started off with a cream of mushroom soup which was excellent. It was a perfect temperature, consistency and included nice whole button mushrooms in the otherwise pureed soup. Fantastic! I asked the waitress for a recommendation for dinner and she suggested the spinach pesto pasta. .. Sounds good to me… BTW the Whole in the Wall prides themselves on their many varieties of pesto which they ship and sell to restaurants around the country. The pasta came with a little salad and their signature garlic bread ball. The bread was really great. It was rich buttery and crumbly. Excellent! The pasta was cooked fine this time but again the pesto was a bit bland. I was definitely craving some basil or garlic in this dish, neither of which were present. I am all for doing variations on classic dishes like pesto but I think it is essential to keep some parts of the dish traditional. I mean, if you are going to serve a garlic ball on the side of your pasta dish you might as well throw some garlic into the pasta. But overall it was a pretty good meal. The soup was $3.25 and the pesto with garlic ball and salad was 13.95. I would say the place is fairly priced. The menu ranges from about $8-$18. I would have to give the Whole in the Wall 3 stars out of 5 stars for slow service and decent food. This is the kind of place where the sides and small dishes are way better then the entrées.
Whole in the Wall
