Mandola's Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Austin

This one star review is a though one go make, and here is why…

We usually LOVE Mandolas. We pretty much opt to dine at this location for every one of our family of sizes birthdays, and other milestones.

The prices are reasonable, the location is nice, clean, casual but not “fast food” atmosphere, and we of course love finishing dinner picking out gelato, espresso and fun baked goods.

Being a large family, and often bringing at least 2 additional guests with us, after having some wine, food, desserts, plus we usually take home a dozen cookies, we are usually looking at around $300 give or take a few, which isn’t bad for a party of 8+.

Unfortunately, last night may have been our last hoorah at Mandolas for a little while.

We arrived around 7:30 with a party of 8.

Our order was pretty basic fare this time, a few of us always get the eggplant Parmesan, the kids always get the spaghetti and meatballs, Chicken Parmesan, Sausage and peppers and a Caprese salad for the keto portion of our group, Peppeoni Pizza and of course, Tiramisu and desserts.

Something was very off with the pasta sauce last night. Not only was it lacking in flavor (definitely wasn’t any or enough salt), but it just didn’t taste the same.

Very watery and bland.

While that’s not the end of the world, it is a pretty important element of the meal. The Caprese salad was just okay this time, usually it’s very good. Very small amount of basil, no seasoning of any kind, very mushy bordering on rotten tomatoes. Not what we’ve come to know and love from Mandolas and this is an item we always order.

The real bummer though is the absolute hell that every single one of us, 8 members of our party and 1 meal to go that we purchased for my mom who couldn’t make it, are enduring today.

The most severe case of food poisoning I’ve ever encountered has ensued, and the all but 1 member of the party aren’t feeling so hot, either.

5 people who ate with us do not live in our home and we have not seen them in over a month, so there is no possibility that we’ve passed a button to each other.

My husband woke up around 3:00 AM VIOLENTLY sick to his stomach (TMI but coming out both ends).

He doesn’t usually eat much in the way of carbs and has sausage and peppers, some of the Caprese, but did sneak 3-4 bites of my eggplant Parmesan.

I was hoping that the reason he was so sick was isolated to the sausage but a few hours later, my stomach began cramping and I’ve been doubled over in GI distress ever since now going on 11 hours later.

Both of my kids had to stay home from school today and the worst part about this is, last night was an early birthday celebration for my son who turned 17 today, so he is spending his special day laid out with SEVERE food poisoning.

I called to check in with the other members of our party to ask if they were feeling fine, hoping maybe our home had just been hit with a bug, but unfortunately all but one member of our party is experiencing cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting as well.

The one who feels fine, my son’s girlfriend who we only met for the first time last night, was the only member of our party to opt for a pizza.

I’m assuming the same sauce is used, so either she has an iron gut, it hasn’t hit her yet, or, she got lucky and it wasn’t enough to make her ill. She ate two slices and didn’t seem to be very fond of it and picked at it.

Only other thing I can think of if it is not the sauce that caused the absolute mayhem that is brewing in our intestines is possibly the noodles since everyone else had pasta, though my husband only had 3-4 bites of my dish, and his stomach is torn up.

At any rate, I cannot in good faith recommend Mandolas when it severely poisoned 8 out of NINE people, and completely ruined my son’s 17th birthday.

If a manager happens to read this, I hope that you are checking the kitchen for potential cross contamination issues, and I truly hope this is a one off incident but I can only guess there are a whole lot of diners aside from us not feeling so well today. Very...

First time to visit Mandola's Italian Kitchen off of William Cannon. Met a friend there for dinner after work on a Friday. First, when you get there, you notice the restarant is charming...lots of people sitting at their tables talking with their family and friends...also, you get a nostalgic feeling of an old world setting with refrigerated cases showcasing meats, beverages and desserts. The servers were all very busy of course. You walk up to a counter where each person individually orders their food and beverages of choice. The young man who took our order was very helpful. I was able to switch out regular spaghetti for angel hair pasta for my entree. We paid for our orders, took a designated table number and walked to one of the rooms in the back and was able to get a table right away. This is a family restaurant, crowded with families...and "untethered" kids who were literally screaming and throwing tantrums. It didn't take long for our food and beverages to arrive at our table. The spaghetti, spaghetti sauce and meatballs were very good and flavorful but barely warm... The Italian sausage I ordered with my pasta dish unfortunately was also barely warm and lacked flavor. I had ordered a small side salad with house dressing. It tasted fresh, and the salad dressing was good, but I would suggest getting the dressing on the side. As I mentioned above, conversation was not easy during our meal. What was strikingly apparent was the loud noise the waiters were making with THROWING ceramic dishes into dish pans when busting the tables. When they saw us jump from the sudden crashing noises they just smiled and offered a barely audible apology. All in all, I give Mandola's Italian Kitchen a 3 out of 5. There were some aspects of the food and service that I really liked and some that weren't quite so good. I just caught them at one of their busiest times. I plan to come back at a time when the restaurant isn't quite so busy if that's possible. I love Italian food...I want to enjoy what they have to offer in off-peak times because I truly believe they will do a better job. Thank you for...

Update: this is a place I used to like to take my grandchildren. I've gotten very tired of ordering spaghetti and meatball ( kids) specifically telling them that I appreciate being able to see some sauce on the spaghetti. However this has no effect on what comes out to the table; as the spaghetti served barely has any sauce coating it. This is also the third time that I've had pizza that's just barely edible. The kids threw their gelato away with it only partially gone. They wouldn't even finish their cookies that I bought separately .... and when I took a bite of them to see what was going on, I didn't blame them for throwing them out. I knew from previous visits not to purchase the cake, as they are dry, with saccharin sweet icing and definitely not worth the cost. So now I have to find another place to take them because we won't be returning.

Nice place to take kids. The kids meal comes with a cup for some gelato after the meal. Gelato looks as good as it tastes, but only tried one flavor so far. Been to this location 2 times with varied results. The pizza was excellent the first time and mediocre the second visit: slightly burned, little cheese. On the kids pasta, they serve it with very little red sauce; this happened both times. Love the bread basket and olive oil they bring to the table; nice, helpful servers! Had the caprese salad; didn't like their mozzarella much; it was very bland and texture was off, but acceptable. Will not order it again; will try a green salad. Very noisy in the seating area, but it was just people enjoying themselves in a pleasant seating area. Both times we took home $5. slices of the gorgeous looking cakes from the bakery. I only tried the Italian cream cake; it was okay only, with achingly sweet icing and it didn't taste all that fresh. The other types we took home were the chocolate and chocolate caramel; didn't get complaints from my daughter, but my husband's complaints mirrored mine ( too sweet and...