Mama Mia's Italian Eatery — Restaurant in Niagara Falls

Linda should invest in greater customer service skills and learn about the art of hospitality and humbleness. Staunchly parading the fact that her husband and family are ''Italian, have been to Italy and know Italian cuisine'' does not make this establishment the augmented representation of ''Authentic'' Italian cuisine- or Italian cookery at all. She's all smiles when it comes to praise, but if you have criticism to bear, she becomes defensive, condescending and ignorant. Continue reading for a clear story:

After being the occasional customer to Mama Mia's for several years, tonight was definitely the curtain call for my family. We were served by Cooper- who was courteous and friendly. No problem there. My problem is with the attitude with the management and their response to our criticism after our sub-par dining experience. Our party ordered a Canadian and Margarita Pizza, in addition to Calamari.

The Calamari was cooked fine, though, for $16.99+tax (08-03-2022), the portion size was lacking. A handful of Calamari, estimated at most a $5 food cost portion, was less than worth the price we paid. In previous years, they served a much more generous portion. If it's not broken, why fix it?

The Pizzas were the primary point of disappointment. In a moderate oven, a pizza should take no longer than 15 to 20 minutes to cook. I speak from experience, and so would many other home cooks and professionals. Ours took 45 minutes to arrive at the table. Even during a dinner rush, this is an unusual delay;

THE CANADIAN: The Bacon was minced in a food mill and placed on the pizza, resulting in burnt shards of meat; our server told us that this was their method; Linda later attested, according that if they had placed large pieces and full strips on the pizza, it would result in a pool of grease, adding that the method has been tested ''by our chefs for several years'' -which is fine, though, a somewhat eccentric excuse. If one were to visit Montréal City, or even go to Naples in Italy, you will find a plethora of pizzaiolo's whose pizzas contain plenty of bacon or ham (i.e capricciosa).

THE MARGHERITA: A true Margherita, according to Neapolitan legend, or as supposedly presented to Queen Margherita di Savoia is, in fact, made with mozzarella, or any other cow's milk-made cheese, such as fior di latte, in addition to basil and tomatoes. What arrived on our table pailed in comparison to a true Margherita. The pizza was bare, with hardly any cheese- it was mostly marinara. The basil was, perhaps, a chiffonade of two leaves, for there was little to be found.

The owner, who came to our table, was quick to make a defense of her kitchen and make a stand of our criticism, offering zero patience. While I, personally, did not say ''this is not a Margherita'', Linda felt it necessary to first assume that I knew nothing about the pizza itself, saying ''a traditional (margherita) is not made with mozzarella, but in fact fior di latte; also, again, we don't use mozzarella''- this is fine, however, if she had good manners, she would not cut me off. Furthermore, Pizza Margherita is, in fact, made with any cow's milk cheese, such as those already mentioned. When we spoke about the bacon, she was quick to shrug it off. By all means, she was negative and condescending in her tonality. The final blow was when she had to use her family's nationality: ''My husband's Italian and have been to Italy. We're aware of how to cook Italian food''- This, by far, is a very arrogant answer. Clearly, this states that arrogance is blinding her hospitality. A successful restaurant requires more than good food. Good service. Good customer relations.

I will close by saying this:

Rome was not built in a day, though, it collapsed in one.

Summarily, I will say that a once-decent establishment is being blinded by commercial success. Greatness is not achieved by self-proclaim. It is an awarded moniker by public regard. No matter how proud you are, your arrogance will haunt you when you consume...

This is a tough review for me to write. Mama Mia's has always been a fave date night spot for my wife and I when we are looking for a good Italian meal in Niagara Falls. Their fresh pasta is so delicious and I'm a huge fan of their Chicken Parmesan that is nice an thin but the size of the plate! Unfortunately we had a poor experience recently. We visited a couple weeks ago for our anniversary. A couple days previous I had used the "contact us" option on their website to ask about reservations and never received a reply. I called the day of our visit to inquire if we needed reservations and the girl that answered the phone was pleasant but somewhat short with me. They explained they were not taking reservations and there would be lots of seating available. When we arrived we were given the option of indoor or patio seating. Due to the current pandemic and how busy that area is we opted for outdoor seating. We were seated along the fence on the front patio. Normally I wouldn't complain about this spot since I'm a people watcher but it felt like the crowds of people walking by were practically on top of you. And the homeless guy walking by swearing and spitting every 2 seconds was not enjoyable. You could also taste the exhaust in the air from the cars going by. Our server was great. Super pleasant and attentive. She was friendly and personable and did a great job. The food was delicious and we were absolutely stuffed when we left. The real horrible part happened after we got home that night. Both of us became pretty sick through the night and for a couple days we were both in pretty rough shape and glad to have 2 bathrooms in the house because we spent more time there in the 2 days than anything else. Although I hate to place blame, we were pretty sure we had food poisoning. All the signs were there and the only place we had eaten together with any similar foods was at Mama Mia's. It really sucks when one of your faves makes you sick. It's hard to say if we will return again. But I know if we do it won't be anytime soon. I never thought I'd be posting a negative review of Mama Mia's, but those few days were some of the sickest I've been in a very long time. It could have just been a fluke or a one off situation, and I truly hope it was.

TLDR: One of my fave restaurants. Server was great. Patio seating was OK but crowds on the side walk sucked. Food was delicious but pretty sure gave us...

We showed up for dinner Sunday night, there were only four other people in the restaurant, all of whom were sitting together.

Our waitress was very pleasant and friendly. She was telling us that the Chef is fairly new so I was hopeful that recent mediocre to bad reviews might be a thing of the past. I was happy that it appeared they were trying to get back to their roots with good tasting authentic Italian food.

I’ve been coming to this restaurant since I was a kid when my Dad and I would come spend the day in Niagara Falls. I have eaten here a hundred more times since those days.

I was very sad to see they gave up their other location which was small, quaint, and so charming. For some reason, it had never bothered me to be seated so close to other diners that no conversation was ever truly private. I also miss the dark and crammed decor.

But all those things didn’t mean anything when I knew that the meal would be inevitably memorable!

The new location across the street from the racing attraction and ferris wheel is sadly none of these things. The location feels 100 times larger. The tables are far apart and the decor is laking that authentic Italian feeling I used to love. The large windows overlooking the street are great though!

We ordered the Chicken Rosé pasta and the hamburger. Both were quite delicious. The pasta came super steaming hot which was awesome. The rosé sauce was very tasty and the pasta was cooked to my expectations. The fries were absolutely awesome… they were gone in no time.

We enjoyed the basket of crusty Italian bread - the bread was...