Mama's Italian - Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Stallings

I should start off by saying the pizza we ordered - Grandma’s Pie, with sausage added on to it - was DELICIOUS. The crust was great, the tomato sauce was superb, the melted cheese was yummy, and there was fresh basil and flavorful herbs seasoning it.

Unfortunately, the service was the worst that I can remember ever experiencing. Upon arriving, none of the four people behind the counter/in the kitchen made any attempt to greet us or seat us. After awkwardly wandering further into the restaurant while trying to determine if it was a “seat-yourself” sort of situation, a young girl finally came out from behind the counter and led us to a table with an unamused expression on her face. We later realized they likely did not want us to stay and dine-in and that was probably the cause for the lack of attention from the start of our dining experience.

From reviewing the website prior to arrival, a few of us were looking forward to their cocktails. Oddly, we found no cocktails on the main menu or the drink menu, only a selection of beer and wine. My mother-in-law asked if they happened to have a pomegranate martini and the waitress said she would check. Next thing we knew, a yellow-orangish martini was brought to our table. This was surprising, as we had expected the drink to be a deeper red color (in alignment with pomegranate juice) if they were able to craft a pomegranate martini, and if it were to be a different drink suggestion or drink substitute we had expected the waitress to check back in with us. The drink was unusually sour, and caused each of us who tried it to pucker severely after every sip. It wasn’t a level of sour one would “get used to” and the actual flavor of the martini remained unknown throughout the night.

We debated closing up and leaving after tasting the extremely sour martini, but decided to still give the place a try and share a pizza for the table. After ordering, we waited for what felt like an eternity to receive our pizza - our concept of time was possibly distorted because of our clear view of the two men in the kitchen standing around hunched over and glued to their phones, ignoring the beeping timers sounding off. When witnessing employees moving at the inverse-speed-of-light, it tends to make time pass slower too.

During the extended wait, we were able to take in more of our surroundings. We noticed the dirty table next to us, which had been unoccupied the entire time we’d been there (and was, by now, sitting dirty for a good long while) contained two nearly untouched meals - possibly a sign that it’s patrons had left unsatisfied. We also watched the only other family in the restaurant wait patiently and then tiredly for their food, receive the incorrect pizza, and then the father had to offer to help bring their correct pizza over to the table from the counter. The family finished eating and asked for boxes, but only received a pizza box. They were then left waiting for a box for their remaining pasta and the check. I heard the father mumble to the mother something along the lines of, “it’s like they realized they were giving us poor service and then just gave up on serving.” MOST DISTURBING, though, during the long wait for our single pizza, we observed one of the men in the kitchen transition from playing on his phone, to pinning up a new order print-out, to tossing pizza dough with his bare hands ALL WITHOUT WASHING HIS HANDS in between tasks.

While we ended up glad that the pizza was delicious, the general energy and attitude of the employees was lackluster and the service left much to be desired. We also ended up grossed out by the constant touching of phones in the kitchen area… especially when we then saw the dough prepped...

We used to eat here in the past but the service continued to go down hill so we stopped going. After hearing about new ownership we decided to give it another try because we did enjoy the pizza and the location was convenient for us.

We stopped in yesterday evening. It's not often my wife's schedule and mine align so that we can enjoy a meal out together so we were excited. It started out well, we were a friendly lady who may have been one of the oweners, who pointed out a table. The waitress took our drink order. A few minutes later she came back and we ordered an appetizer and a pizza. The drinks & appetizer came a few minutes later.

As we waited on the pizza, I noticed the owner walking around greeting the 3 other tables of customers and asking them if they are enjoying the food. He laughed with them, making conversation. At one point, we overheard the lady who greeted us check on a table behind us to see if everything was ok b/c they weren't eating. We thought that was very thoughtful.

After maybe 20 min, we kinda started wondering where our pizza was. Dinner rush had ended before we arrived, per the waitress. There were three take out orders picked up. No new dine-in & the other two tables were done.

We waited 10 more min. No one had been back to our table to give an update or refills. We are chill people & understand sht happens in retail so we weren't rude, didn't say anything but we were getting restless.

Ultimately we waited 40 minutes before we motioned for the waitress to come and give us our check for the appetizer and drinks. We had to go b/c had of an errand to run before dark. She said the pizza was coming up. We were out of time & patience by then & declined. She offered a weak sorry & offered to box it up. We said no thank you. The owner, as we gathered to leave held up a pizza from behind the counter & asked if we wanted it. Really? We paid & left.

Neither owner ever approached us or offered an explanation or apology for the wait. We are are very disappointed. The place wasn't even busy. One table had left & the two other tables had their food.

We really wanted to like this place. And it could've been salvaged but what really gets us is there was no effort to salvage the service once it was clearly understood that it had gone awry. Where it me, I would've walked over to the customers and apologized in person and offered a new appetizer or drinks or something. I would've try to save the experience and hopefully get the customer back. Because no matter what had gone wrong if that one gesture had been done by either owner then we could've tried it again. We understand retail and stuff goes wrong -forget to put in order, get busy & lose track, etc - but you have to try to make it right if you want to establish yourself as a customer service oriented business.

Nothing was done. We had watched owner speak to all the other tables & the husband even went outside to say goodbye to some customers and yet we didn't even get a real apology for not getting the food we ordered. We didn't want anything free. Just wanted dinner... That's what ultimately erased this from our list. There are too many other good pizza...

I normally don’t leave reviews for businesses, but after the latest in a string of poor experiences I felt compelled to do so.

My wife and I ordered two meatball subs from Mama’s this evening for carry out. Upon placing the order we were initially concerned based on the confusion on the other end of the phone as we explained that we wanted one with black olives and the other with raw onions and hot peppers. Didn’t seem to be overly complicated to us, but apparently it was. While the sub with black olives was correct, the other sub had no onions or hot peppers. We did receive a container containing onions and green peppers though, so I guess we were supposed to add them ourselves? Additionally, both subs had minimal marinara and were overall dry and bland tasting. My wife ate half of hers, while I could only eat a quarter of mine.

As if the poor food quality wasn’t enough, the real fun came when I arrived and went to pay. Despite the subs being listed as $10.95 on their website and clearly stating that they came with one side, I noticed an additional charge of $4.95 per sub for the sides we’d asked for. When I questioned the cashier about this I was told that it was a recent change and that it was due to some people not wanting a side with their subs. Fortunately, I still had their website open on my phone and showed the cashier THEIR menu and the pricing and the cashier removed the additional charges for the included sides. It’s also worth noting that there was an additional charge for the onions and green peppers that I had received for my sub. That charge was removed as well.

As others have noted, the business has been through 3 owners that we are aware of in the 8 years that we’ve lived in the area. We have been customers since moving into the area and have never had any problems until about a year ago, and there have been several in that timeframe. We usually order pizza and wings from them and most of the time do not have an issue as we are pleased with the quality, but the service within the last year has really caused some concern. We have witnessed arguments among the staff, and staff that have difficulty with their ordering systems and their menu. Additionally, we have had interactions with “managers” where when confronted about issues present in the business they do not take ownership for the mistakes and try to push the blame onto us. In one instance they blatantly lied and when confronted about it they backpedaled and tried to gloss it over.

I’d be open to feedback from the owner and would be more than happy to discuss this with them further if they...