Paolo Lombardi's not so great

My girlfriend and I went on a meetup.com event to Paolo Lombardi's in Wyantskill.  map

The restaurant is very impressive from the outside.  The interior of the restaurant is very impressive as well, though a little cramped.  The main dining room has very large windows and feels very Italian.  The walls were decorared with garland for the holidays. 

Things started off great.  The bread was right out of the oven and absolutely delicious.  It came with butter and olive oil.  The bread was out of this world!  Our salads were also above average.  Oddly, Paolo Lombardi's only has two salad dressings -- house and blue cheese.  I got the house, which was very good.  So far, Paolo Lombardi's made a good impression on me.

I got a simple dish, chicken parm ($15.00), and I was not too impressed with it.  The portion was big which was good.  I was not a big fan of the sauce.  Perhaps I am not the best judge, because I am not a huge fan of Italian food to begin with, but I did not like the taste of the sauce.  The thing that hit me was the pasta.  It was cold and dried out.  There was a little meat sauce poured on it, but that did not mask its coldness and dryness.  I did not see anyone at the table finish their pasta.  Everyone else at the table liked their meals.  Everyone's portions did look very impressive.  However, I did not have the best experience. 

We were a large crowd, so oftentimes, we face slow service.  However, Paolo Lombardi's was overly slow.  The dinner was 2.5 hours from start to finish.  It took us an hour just to get our salads.  Paolo Lombardi's was not especially eager to do separate checks for the table.  They ended up doing separate totals, and that suited us just fine.  One of the waitresses was particularly unpleasant.  She told us that she is retiring this week and is glad to be hanging up her apron.  She said she just doesn't care any more.  Overall, the service was slow and not very friendly. 

Paolo Lombardi's gets a thumbs down from me, but, remember that there were many other people eating there and they seemed to like their meals.  My meal;  however, was average at best.  The bread was excellent though, and the atmosphere was very nice.