Mazzara's Vinoteca — Restaurant in Huntsville

Short version: Excellent food, excellent staff, confusing atmosphere.

Long version: I'm not from here, so feel free to call me a Yankee if you're a native or use this review as a guide if you are from up North. We came to Mazarra's for our second wedding anniversary.

Overall the food was excellent. We had the baked Rotolo and olives as appetizers, the pumpkin agnolotti and Rigatoni and Guanciali entrées, and the tiramisu for desert as well as the homemade onion and rosemary focaccia.

As a native New Englander, I have found it difficult to find an upscale restaurant with food that matches its price here in Huntsville. With the exception of the uninspired focaccia, the food was fantastic. I tried everything we ordered, and all of the flavors were well matched, the quality outstanding and the care and preparation evident. Things I often took for granted that became obvious were missing with our dining experiences in Huntsville. Overall, the food gets a 9.5/10.

The waitstaff and hostesses were friendly and attentive and get an easy 10/10.

Atmosphere. For me this was a let down. We came at 4:30 on a Friday evening. What started out as a a quiet meal soon turned into more of a pub setting. Clearly there are restrictions to having a restaurant in a historic home. Packing ~10 tables into a large sitting room made it difficult to carry on a conversation in regular speaking voices after the room reached capacity. Also, there was a TV in our dining room playing what looked like silent 1930s films. I'm not sure if i missed some historical significance, but it definitely felt out of place.

Finally, it is certainly possible that I'm not the intended clientele, but to me Mazarra's feels a bit confused on its mission. The $100+ check for two (happily paid because of the food) and table settings says upscale and fine dining. The wine flights and half of the other clientele say otherwise. I don't think its particularly unreasonable to have a dress code for a restaurant of this caliber. The ambiance is clearly changed when other tables are getting wine drunk in tshirts and athletic clothing. I feel like this is unlikely to change since it seems like the wine flights (and the clientele they cater towards) are a significant portion of their revenue.

Regardless of the downside, we will be back, maybe on a weekday when we might have a...

Had a good leisurely meal— European style, not rushed. Enjoyed fabulous wine. Marinated olives and the special PEI Mussels to start The olives came first but with no offer of bread. Due to the oil content bread is needed to balance out the flavor. We ordered bread which came with the mussels. The foccacia included with the mussels was more like thin crispy toast. A good crusty Italian bread was definitely missing The rosemary focaccia we ordered was more like a small square dense cake in texture with a toast solid crust. The missing “Crusty Italian” bread is a staple for an authentic Italian experience.

The Mussels were described as including some beef which we didn’t take seriously on menu and assumed it would be some sort of chopped dried thin chopped beef to add flavor. What we got was a bowl of beautiful mussels buried in what looked like a large quantity of ground beef ! Had we know we would have requested no beef topping! We dug the mussels out and they were very good on their own.

We followed with the Ceasar which was creatively done— a grilled slab of ceasar covered with tomatoes, cucumbers, whole white anchovies and a baked Parmesan cracker. We requested no cucumber— and enjoyed the unique salad. The anchovies we not overpowering at all !

For the Entree we shared the mushroom risotto and linguini with clams. Would order both again. But ask them to hold the salt in the risotto. Salt can always be added tableside but impossible to take away. The texture and technique of the risotto and mushroom variety used were excellent. The pasta linguini was perfect.

We didn’t do dessert. Our server was excellent and after learning we were on a girls night out — brought complimentary champagne. Atmosphere was perfect for long quiet conversations over wine. All in all we had a great time and would go again!!! We walked away having enjoyed the evening.

I hope they improve bread offering as this is the one thing missing ! We travel to Italy frequently and always have crusty earthy bread with olives and oil on the table! Mazzara’s is worth a visit and they have potential to be a 5*...

Do yourself a favor and make reservations! We didn’t know we needed to do so and almost missed out on trying this wonderful gem. The front porch is first come first served and a table opened for us about the time we were about to go elsewhere.

We enjoyed the Italian wine flight, Caesar salad, lemon ricotta ravioli, shrimp scampi over pasta, and the cannoli trio (chocolate, pistachio, & vanilla) which was a special for the evening and was too good thus not getting a photo of it.

The service was good. The owner (or manger) would come behind servers outside to ensure we were taken care of - bravo sir! One negative to being outside would be; be warned or be swarmed by if you don’t bring some spray. They don’t gravitate to me or one of my sons but they do my wife and and our other son.

The interior of the home, now turned restaurant is magnificently curated and training it’s old charm. They’ve updated it as needed within the correct time period. A craft bar is in likely an old parlor room that also accommodates first come first serve patrons.

The Shrimp Scampi over pasta was exceptional flavor. A simple dish with an wonderful sauce and finish.

The career salad had a unique twist with grabs podano crisps and white anchovies - exceptional house made dressing.

Lemon ricotta ravioli it’s very flavorful pallet while retaining a light crisp finish.

The wine flight sampling was a nice mix of 3 reds and one white wine all of which were very good with the meal.

The non pictured cannolis were a wonderful finish. While they were smaller than I hoped for they didn’t lack in flavor or quality.

Highly recommend. We dined here when it was at the stove house and had meatballs which is still on the menu and lasagna not available the evening we were there.

The dishes aren’t as hearty as some Italian restaurants but what they lack in volume they make up well with quality and...