MidiCi - Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in East Providence

Went there on Saturday July 13th 2024. We arrived about 3:00 pm in the afternoon and place was pretty empty. We decided to give it a try anyways and were happy with our decision. The environment was nice and open and we enjoyed the oversized chairs we were seated at.

For appetizers we ordered 2 orders of chicken wings, 1 was wood smoked spicy chicken wings and the other order was wood smoked pesto wings. Both were crispy and delicious with a nice smoked flavor to them. The spicy order had a mild kick to it and was not overly spicy I found. We also ordered some meatballs which were very good. Nice beefy flavor to them with not much filler ingredients it seemed. The marinara sauce it came in was very tasty as well.

For an entree I ordered the Osso Bucco (Braised Pork Shank). It was braised in a house made Chianti sauce which was nice. The pork was very flavorful and tender. There were a few sliced carrots and onions in the sauce. Wish there were more carrots as they were delicious. It came over a bed of risotto which I did find a little on the gummy side. This is a common issue with risotto when not prepared correctly and ith enough care and time. When I ordered it the waiter did tell me it would take about 20 minutes to come out which I did not mind. It gave us time to digest our appetizers.

My companion ordered the Wood Fired Mare Al Forno. This consisted of Wood fired fresh baked shrimp and scallops. Simply topped with seasoned bread crumbs with a delicate garlic, lemon and butter sauce. Served with a side of pasta. My friend said it was good but could've been a little spicier for his taste. This isn't a negative as he likes everything spicy to the extreme. It came on a platter with casserole of 2 scallops and 5 shrimp. The rest of the plate was filled with a ziti type past with tomato and cheese. My friend said it was nicely cooked pasta with a nice light flavor to it. Definitely not too heavy.

WE did order alcoholic beverages with our meals. The drinks ere prepared with good ingredients but my friend felt his old-fashioned was a little on the light side.

Service was nice since were were some of the only customers. FElt bad to keep watching some of the wait staff pacing up and down the aisle because the business was so slow at that time. It definitely detracted from my meal and wish the person kept themselves occupied doing something else.

All in all it's a nice restaurant inside, service was decent and food was pretty good and tasty during our visit. We would definitely consider revisiting although maybe order some...

TL;DR: I didn't really enjoy the pizza or the wait but that doesn't mean you won't. Chicken wings were out of this world though.

Let me preface by saying we were ordering for five people as takeout for a birthday celebration. We got two pizzas, one calzone, and a gluten free pizza along with a dozen original spicy wings. I'll take this one piece at a time.

The two pizzas were "New York" cheese and cheese/bacon. They were definitely not anything resembling a NY pizza. They were kind of a bastardization of their Neapolitan but all the toppings were centered on the middle of the pie leaving a massive thin ring of just flour tasting dough around the outside. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be but it wasn't my thing.

The calzone was sausage for a filling and I have to say the filling was okay if a little too greasy and not very spicy. The one surprise was how thick the dough was around the center fold meaning it wasn't quite as well cooked as it could have been. Gluey and undercooked dough does not make for the greatest eating experience.

The gluten free pizza was good where there were toppings. Where it was bare crust with no sauce or toppings, it was a completely inedible piece of "dough". It was so hard, we couldn't bite through it so we gave it to the dog and, I'm not exaggerating when I say, she ate it like a rawhide. I can't recommend their GF, sorry.

The wings were incredible and not just because the rest had issues. We got original spicy. They were meaty, spicy, amazingly seasoned, and had the bits of peppers, onions, and other nuggets of deliciousness used to flavour them. I would pay more than they charged for these and they were not cheap.

Lastly, I want to focus on the staff and service. Everyone was very friendly and offered genuinely good service. Unfortunately, for a reason that wasn't explained to me, it took half an hour longer for me to get it than was quoted when I ordered it. 45 minutes instead of 15 - and I was picking up, not delivery. That said, they were nice and apologetic about the delay. The atmosphere in the restaurant was really nice with music playing and a pretty tree in the dining room which made the wait not so bad.

See you...

I deleted my first attempt at a review, thinking parts of it were a bit unfair, so here’s my more balanced version.

It took us many months to check this place out, partly because of the exhaustive (and exhausting) mission statement on their corporate website, and partially because of the awkward non-Italian name. (“Dimmi” might be closer to their original intention, still a ham-handed attempt at restaurant naming, but I digress.) Funny, the little things that make you distrust a restaurant’s ability to concentrate on good food.

Recently we went for lunch. Before we were even fully inside the door, the staff was shouting “ciao!” and other greetings. When we realized the place was empty and the greeting was meant for us, we were both a little creeped out. (Yes, it’s like the greeting at a sushi bar, but without the centuries-old Japanese tradition.) We asked to see menus before being seated, and the young woman who provided them really wanted us to sit down to read them. A man (matching the description of the owner from user reviews) came over and offered a first-time-at-our-restaurant orientation, which we did our best to divert so we could let the menus (and their food) do the talking.

The in-your-face approach was very offputting. We wanted to have lunch with each other, not all the restaurant staff vying for our love. We ended up going elsewhere.

Later, over a quieter lunch, I discussed this experience with my companion—an Italian-born and -trained chef. The high pressure hospitality didn’t fly with him, either. That approach, he said, would kill them right out of the gate in Italy.

I hope Mi Dici will channel their aggressiveness into enthusiastic, excellent service. No one will miss all the tail wagging. Maybe then I’ll get past the daunting barrier to ordering and...