Mama Mia Trattoria

Jonathan had been out of town on business for most of the week, so when he got home we went out to eat together. I had picked up a buy-one-entree-get-one-free coupon for Mama Mia Trattoria, so we went there. You may remember that this is another Carlucci restaurant, as was Villa Rosa, which we tried about two weeks ago.

We got there shortly before 9, but since it was open until 10:30, that was no concern. We were seated immediately, and the place was moderately full. No booths, just tables that are a bit close together. The menu was pretty vast, and we were a little taken by surprise that many of the entrees were $14+. I reread the coupon and saw that it covered up to $12 on the free meal - interesting, since we only saw two or three that were under $12. I really wanted a shrimp alfredo dish... but they had very few seafood options (maybe ten total, only half of which were shrimp-related). All of the pasta dishes were either linguine, angel hair, rigatoni, or penne.

I had the salad and Jonathan had the soup. The salad was a plain garden salad, and the dressing I chose (honey mustard) was very thick (but still good). The pasta fazul soup was okay, nothing special. The complimentary bread had a nice bottom, but the top was rather saucy and soggy. It wasn't a bruschetta, but it wasn't anything else, either. Our food came fairly quickly, especially considering the number of patrons in the restaurant. I had the chicken parmigiana over penne... Jonathan had the pasta al forno - with tons of sausage and meatballs cut up in the dish.

While the pasta in both of our meals was absolutely al dente and delicious, mine fell short of my expectations. Jonathan found his to be delightful, but my chicken was over-cooked and the sauce was too overwhelming for the amount of cheese I was given. Neither of us really made a dent in our plates, and most of our food was boxed for home, despite the fact that we were both quite hungry when we arrived. I wouldn't recommend the place, but Jonathan said he'd return. On a final note, we did have amazing service... we were checked on frequently, offered more bread, parmesan cheese, and water, and were generally just treated very friendly.