Mamma Mia's Trattoria — Restaurant in Florida

Before I recently went to this restaurant with three other people, I had been there half a dozen times. The food was always top notch, the presentation was perfect, and the waiter and staff were exceptional. This time, however, was a complete strikeout. First, because my wife and I are such loyal customers, we received an email regarding a special promotion. My wife called and made a reservation for four people at 6:00, informing the hostess that we'd be using our emailed promotion. However, the hostess neglected to tell us that the promotion was only valid before 6:00. Luckily, we noticed the restriction in the email, called back, and made the reservation for 5:15. We arrived and were promptly seated. When we ordered an appetizer and our entrées, our waitress asked us if we wanted plain bread or garlic bread. We all opted for garlic bread. My and my wife's dinners came with a salad. Our friends ordered a pizza and one cup of soup, which the waitress said was no problem. It turns out that it was a problem, as they only serve bowls of soup. Okay. The "garlic bread" arrived. It consisted of cold garlic on cold toasted bread. I asked the waitress to please replace the garlic bread as it was cold. A couple of minutes later, a new batch was delivered. This time, the toast was hot, but the garlic was stone cold and bunched on one corner of one slice of bread. I told the waitress, "I'm from New Jersey, and if anybody tried to claim that this is garlic bread there, they'd be laughed out of business in a week!" She said that's how they serve it. She brought us their third attempt and claimed, "We get a lot of complaints about the garlic bread." I said, "Now you know why!" Meanwhile, the salads did not arrive before our entrées, but our appetizer and meals did at the same time. The salads finally arrived as my wife and I were eating our entrées. Our friends did not enjoy the pizza, having only eaten one slice each. They took the rest home so as not to bring more attention to our table. My entrée was fine, but my wife's was tasteless. It was our friends' first time there, but it will be the last. Ours, too. One good thing, the gentleman who boxed our leftovers (including the salads) was very professional and had a good...

So I never really do this, but I’m disappointed in this restaurant.

1st issue was New Years Eve. Unfortunately I had a sick family member and we couldn’t go out to dinner. So I called a take out order in at 415pm figuring they would be busy. I was giving a 515pm pick up time. I arrived at 515pm and was told “just a few minutes the kitchen was running behind”. I was ok with that. I get it it’s a holiday, everyone is understaffed I get it, I even was a Chef in my younger days. I get it. What wasn’t ok was having to wait over an hour for my food and didn’t leave the restaurant until 625pm. The food was good, figured it was going to be super hot and ready to go but it definitely was sitting for a little while.

We decided to give this restaurant another shot and dined in on Saturday night 1/22/2022.

It wasn't super busy but starting to fill up. They had a couple of small parties, we were seated next to one. We were greeted by a nice waiter, to took our drink orders right away and appetizer order. Came back with bread and drinks and took our dinner orders.

After about 20 min I asked where the appetizer was he stated they had a couple parties and apologized for running behind. Ok no problem I get it.

2-3 minutes later our main dinner courses arrived from the runner, no appetizer. I was annoyed and waited 5-10 min for the waiter. He arrived with the appetizer and had a puzzled look on why we had our main course. He again apologized and I requested he send back the appetizer and remove it from our bill, which he did.

As I cut into my meal I found a very long black hair inside of it. That was it, I called him over, showed him the hair and he of course apologized and removed the dish. Asked if I wanted something else and I honestly was done with my experience. I thanked him and just asked to have the meal removed I just wanted to leave at this point.

What bothered me the most was not one time did a manager come speak to us. I’m not one who complains or looks for anything free because of mistakes but I think it would’ve been a nice gesture to have a manager address the issue and maybe remove the drinks off the bill. I don’t know just aggravated with the situation.

I don’t think we...

It was an amazing experience overall from the sleek, modern atmosphere to the atentative and on par wait staff followed by the experience of authentic tasting flavorful food. We had a very large party reserved with a fixed menu and did not once feel like we were sitting around waiting. Our glasses were always filled promptly and our plates were never empty for long.

The meal was served as a 3 and a half course meal starting with the fresh Brushetta and Garlic bread followed by Pasta Fagioli Soup and/or house Salads. The bread was crisp and the toppings were brandishing bold flavors. The Soup was hearty and consistent in its flavor, every bite had pasta and beans throughout the dish, the salad was nothing short of fresh and crisp.

Followed with the main course of Chicken Marasala, I also shared Eggplant Parm with someone else in our party. During this course the entrees were served with family style fresh mixed vegetables and Rotini with redsauce. It was one of the best Chicken Marsala that I have had in quite some time, the chicken was very tender and the mushroom marsala had me close to licking the plate. The side veggies were all nice thick cuts and seasoned well, side pasta was good but nothing exciting. I would absolutely order the Egplant Parmersean again, it was tender and fresh.

For dessert I had the Cannoli. Honestly I am a Connoli fanatic and I have had three already this week from three other very good restaurants. And this one had the most crisp shell and a perfectly balanced ricotta mixture filled generously throughout. If I lived closer I would come back for another today.

Overall, It left me and my family with a fully positive impression of this expanding local restuant franchise and It gives me hope that I may one day find a new location closer to home. What touched base with me the most was that all the flavors were authentic. Very heavily reliant on the use of natural ingredients to compliment eachother over simply using seasonings. With that said, I am excited to return for the pizza that they are...