Nope, it's not your imagination! Those chefs have a few tricks up their sleeves.
Here’s Why Pasta Always Tastes Better at Restaurants
Published on Apr. 28, 2025
Even if you make a stellar spaghetti, you have to admit there’s something extra special about restaurant pasta. Part of it is the comfort factor—a big bowl of carbs always feels like a warm hug, and they somehow always taste even better when someone else has made them for you. But there are other factors at play too. Pasta is about a lot more than just boiling water, throwing in some pasta and calling it a day. As a professional food writer, I use a bunch of tiny tricks every time I make pasta at home, and they make a world of difference.
Still, there’s a certain magic that makes pasta taste better at a restaurant, so I reached out to some chefs to find out why. Read on for all the delicious details to make a better bowl of pasta pronto!
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Why does pasta taste better at restaurants?
“A professional chef’s touch and experience will show up in the final dish in many ways,” says Andrew Ashmore, executive chef of Antico Posto in Oakbrook, Illinois. Here are some of them, along with a few other reasons that pasta tastes so good:
Chefs do this a lot
Think about how many customers are in a restaurant on any given night and how many of them order pasta dishes. Suffice to say, your chef is getting an awful lot of practice. Plus, says Massimo Vicidomini, a chef with RPM Italian in Washington, D.C., the people who make your pasta at restaurants are professionals who “care deeply about the quality of every single pasta and work on it day in, day out, trying to improve every time.”
Years of repetition and dedication lead to a level of mastery you can’t replicate with a single recipe attempt, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t nail a pasta dish on the first try! The more you make it, the better it will get. “Practice!” says Ashmore. “Find a great recipe from your favorite chef, and make it several times until you get it right.”
They salt the water
Restaurants generously salt their cooking water, which infuses the pasta with flavor from the inside out. It’s a fundamental step that home cooks often overlook. And don’t be stingy with your salt! The water shouldn’t taste as briny as the Dead Sea, but should be noticeably salty. Though exact measurements aren’t necessary, about 1 tablespoon of salt per gallon of water should do the trick.
They undercook the pasta
If you wait for your pasta to be fully cooked before draining, it will be overcooked by the time it makes it to the table. Chefs understand that pasta continues to cook in the sauce, so they pull it out a little early, ensuring a perfect al dente bite.
“As a rule of thumb, we undercook the pasta because we want to finish the cooking process in the pasta pan so that the pasta and sauce marry in a delicious, more emulsified combination,” says Vicidomini.
The pasta is excellent quality
While supermarket-brand pasta is fine for an easy, affordable at-home dinner, the best pasta restaurants know that quality is key. “Usually, you can purchase higher-quality products through our specialty purveyors than you can purchase at the grocery store,” says Ashmore. “Oftentimes the pasta is made in house, which, if the chef is talented, yields a quality product.”
But that doesn’t mean that fresh is always best! “The quality of pasta matters a lot, but dried is not necessarily inferior—it’s just different,” adds Ashmore. “For dried pasta, look for those brands that extrude the pasta with a bronze die (a perforated metal plate made of bronze).” Why is this a big deal? Pasta made via these metal contraptions are rougher and more porous, which makes it absorb and hold sauce better—making each mouthful that much better. Pasta made this way will often call it out on the box, as well as be less “shiny” than their counterparts.
There’s a lot of everything
Let’s just say that a restaurant’s whole purpose is to make you happy, and what better what to do that than with lots of the good stuff? That might mean more salt, more cheese, more olive oil, more rich meats and more fresh herbs—whatever it takes to keep you coming back for more.
What’s the easiest way to up your pasta game at home?
Even if you don’t have pro skills, there are plenty of things you can do to make better pasta at home. Aside from following the tips above, here’s what else the pros recommend:
Use quality ingredients
Good-quality pasta, olive oil and cheese make a huge difference to the final product. And if you’re making your own pasta from scratch, Ashmore implores you to “purchase the best-quality eggs that have the beautiful orangish yolks. Your pasta will have the best color and flavor as a result of this small investment. The best egg pasta dough uses almost all egg yolks for the liquid and very little water, if any.”
Finish cooking pasta in the sauce
Pull your pasta out a minute or two before it’s fully cooked, and finish it in the sauce. Here’s what Vicidomini recommends: “Undercook the pasta, and finish the cooking process in the sauce. Add a drizzle of olive oil at the end, off the heat, and emulsify. If it needs It, add the cheese only at the end and off the heat, making sure you add it little by little.” This will ensure you get the balance of ingredients just right.
What’s the one thing you should never do with your pasta?
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when making pasta is using a pot that’s too small. And yes, this really matters! Using a too-small pot can cause the water temperature to drop significantly when you add the pasta, which makes it take longer to come back to a rolling boil. The result: mushy pasta that’s clumped together. Use the biggest pot you have—one that can hold at least a gallon of water plus a pound of pasta.
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Sources:
- Andrew Ashmore, executive chef of Antico Posto in Oakbrook, Illinois; interviewed, April 2025
- Massimo Vicidomini, chef at RPM Italian in Washington, D.C.; interviewed, April 2025
