Menu submenu items displayed erratic in sidebar widget nav menu

Hello Kriesi,

Thank you for supporting a great theme!!
We currently have the following quick CSS to adjust the background color on the widget (sidebar menu per screenshot below in private content):

.widget_nav_menu ul:first-child > .current-menu-item > a, .widget_nav_menu ul:first-child > .current_page_item > a {
background-color: #F5F5F5;
}
#top .widget_nav_menu li {
background-color: #F5F5F5;
}

This works great for regular menu items however when you create a submenu item the color changes AND the bullets in front of the submenu items are unaligned.

1- How can I change the background color to match the background for these submenu items?
and
2- How can I change the alignment of the bullets/hypens for these submenu items as shown in the screenshot?
I tried adjusting this CSS but it didnt work correcttly:
#top .content .flex_column .widget_nav_menu li a {
padding: 0.8em px;
}

Thank you!