I dropped in on Thursday evening with an old frien...

I dropped in on Thursday evening with an old friend. We were both craving pasta and had been wanting to try this place after seeing it the last time we were in downtown Round Rock.

First of all, the service was excellent. My dining companion has a food allergy and our server went to check with the kitchen about making sure what she ordered was safe. Drinks were kept refilled and our server made sure we had everything we asked for.

The food was good, but not great. The two rolls we got as we sat down were good - and the olive oil and balsamic vinegar made for a great accompaniment to the rolls. We tried the meatball appetizer and weren't blown away by the small meatballs. They weren't bad by any stretch, but there are better meatballs in town. Same with the pasta dishes. My fusilli was very good, but the tomato sauce with mushrooms was just okay. I added chicken to my entree for an extra five dollars, which was the biggest letdown of the meal. I expected a chicken breast or at least some large strips of a chicken breast. What I got were small cubes of grilled chicken that would've fit right in with a fast food restaurant's grilled chicken salad than an Italian restaurant trying to appeal to a more sophisticated crowd.

Palermo isn't bad and the pasta itself is very good. There's just better options for Italian, even in Austin, which doesn't have a huge surplus of great red sauce Italian restaurants.