Mamma Rosa Restaurant — Restaurant in Kelowna

Update July 9, 2022. We were back in town for the first time in 4 years and absolutely couldn't wait to go back to this restaurant. Well what a huge disappointment that turned out to be. If I had not been there and seen it myself I would never have believed this story. They now have a sign on the door that say please limit your stay to 1.5 hours. That should have been more than enough warning that the old home style, welcoming atmosphere was gone. Did not heed the clue.

The pizza we ordered as an appetizer was very good, the Bison Carpatio was barely average and the Ceasar salad was poor. Party of four, we order one lasagna bolognese to split between two, one veal pescatore gluten free and one ravioli. Ravioli showed up 6 or 7 minutes before the rest, restaurant is less than a third full. When the veal showed up it turned out to be pasta pescatore, waitress claims to have misheard. Says the veal isn't gluten free in any event, despite the menu being clearly marked that it is. Lie number 1. We ask her about that, says she will check and come right back. Doesn't return so we flag her down. Says they are out of the gluten free veal, only have non gluten friendly. Lie number 2, they coat their veal in house, or at least they used to.

We then ask for a large serving spoon or utensil to serve the lasagna for the two that are sharing. We are told by the girl that brings the food out that all their large spoons are dirty and they have nothing else that will do the job. Un flipping believable. We make do and it really wasn't a big deal because two bites of the lasagna was more than enough. It sucked real bad. The ravioli was edible but far from good. The piscatore pasta was about the same mediocre quality as the ravioli, but at least the seafood component was not over cooked. Everything except the pizza was flat in flavour. Tasted like a Swanson frozen dinner or it came out of a can.

In an attempt to make up somewhat the waitress offered us a free dessert. She brings out a plate of dessert, supposedly home made, but the different offerings are all one one plate, individually wrapped in Saran wrap. Most unappealing collection of food you can imagine. We declined.

I know it has been 4 years and that Covid happened but how the heck does a restaurant that won best Italian eatery in Kelowna for 23 years straight turn into this hovel of poor food, atrocious service and bald face lying and uncaring staff.

So all in, totally wasted 220 bucks for food Chef Boyardee would be ashamed of. I would not go back here again if they paid me too. On top of that I was tremendously embarrassed in front of friends who we had raved to about this place being a must try.

Morning after update

So, to top it all off, the two that actually ate their entrees, the piscatore pasta and the ravioli, were both very ill overnight from the food. Despite throwing it up last night, both still have headaches and stomach issues this morning. Makes a guy strangely happy the lasagna was so bad from the get go that we passed on eating it.

P.S. just read through a bunch of the recent reviews. Pretty consistently bad. Wish I had read these before we went, could have saved 220 bucks. Amazing how far this place has fallen. It has to have been sold somewhere along the way.

June 2018 Five Stars, would have given more if I could. Great old style Italian food with absolutely excellent service. The veal picata was the best I have had in years. Pasta was fresh and sauces home made. The glutin free pasta was the best my companion had ever had anywhere. Well...

I regret ever coming here. Given the steep prices and mostly high reviews of this place, I expected good Italian food from this restaurant; and I was very disappointed. First of all, don't call me out for the terribly cropped photo I'm posting... We took cute photos of ourselves and the food, and for this review I did not want our faces in here.

The ambiance was pretty cozy and the server was mostly nice. We were recommended the carbonara, so we ordered that. We also ordered this creamy lobster pasta dish.

The carbonara did not taste like carbonara. Let me clarify what carbonara is supposed to be, especially in a restaurant that claims to be authentically Italian: eggs and cheeses and black pepper and pork fat properly mixed together and served as a sauce to pasta, topped with the pan-fried pork. Many details missing, but that's the basic idea. This restaurant didn't have the proper taste of carbonara and didn't even have black pepper in their pasta. I was both confused and frustrated, because I had to pay $27 for something that just tasted like store-bought cream mixed into pasta, topped with bacon. For the creamy lobster pasta dish (I believe it was $32), it was not very good given the fact that the creamy cheese flavour was overwhelming any lobster flavour. We told the server about it and asked, open-endedly, if there was anything we could do about this dish that we weren't satisfied with (we wanted to be given options). We wanted to focus on returning this particular dish because it was quite expensive. Another server returned saying we could order another dish but we'd still have to pay for that other lobster pasta that they left in the kitchen because it was "half eaten." We only had three spoonfuls. What an abomination. After an extremely infuriating discussion with this server, she allowed us a refund on the lobster pasta. Then to try to salvage our dinner, we ordered the anchovy pasta. It was okay. Basic seafood flavour.

Overall, okay ambience, questionable service, not the best food at all. I'd recommend that they review their own food and service. I tried my best to look for the good in this experience, but I unfortunately regret the time and money I spent in this restaurant. I am sure whoever runs this restaurant is a decent person, but I have to say I disliked my experience here so much. I hope my comments are taken into consideration to improve...

had a horrific experience. I went for dinner with my mother and grandmother for my birthday. My mother ordered a pasta dish with shrimp and a cream sauce. When it came she tasted it and it was not enjoyable. The sauce tasted like a cheep cheese imitation and the shrimp were off. She of course returned it and asked for a different item instead which was 5$ cheaper. By the time the food came she was feeling so sick she couldn't eat it so she got it boxed and asked for our bill. When it came we were surprised that the bill wasn't changed to the lesser priced item. When I asked about the discrepancy I was told the waitress wasn't allowed to change it and I asked for the manager. When the manager came out he came storming out, got 3 inches from my face and started screaming at me in front of everybody there. He was rude and extremely disrespectful. He informed me I was basically stupid and didn't know anything about good food and I was lucky he didn't charge me for the original meal and the replacement meal. He then crumpled my bill and threw it at the waitress before storming away. I won't be going back and I urge others not to unless you want bad...