Mare E Monti — Restaurant in Worcester

This place had great food and great service. It is a bit packed in the waiting area but what can ya do. They have a wide menu but from seeing reviews prior I knew that their pasta and their specials were where I wanted to browse. I didn't plan on ordering the "Worcester restaurant of the week" menu until I saw it. My plan was to order something with the Rosa sauce and rigatoni. But the chicken ala vodka with the stuffed eggplant appetizer was on that restaurant of the week menu so I had to dive in. I also ordered the arancini appetizer along with a side of mushroom risotto and a side of sausage.

The arancini was out of this world. I love arancini, but some places do it better than others. This was the best arancini I have ever had out of dozens of different kinds that I've tried. It is perfectly crispy outside, and the risotto is perfectly white and creamy inside. They are divine. They come with marinara, which was also delicious, but not a necessity for enjoying the arancini since they were so tasty on their own. The rolled up eggplant with ricotta and spinach appetizer was also excellent. I was really impressed with their ricotta. Again I have eaten Italian food all over the east coast but this ricotta mixture they were using was maybe the best I have had. The side of risotto was top notch. I am a bit more picky about risotto so I would say this was the third best risotto I have ever tried, 9/10. It is perfectly creamy and cheesy. It is not undercooked or overcooked. Some might prefer this risotto over a risotto that is too cheesy or creamy and they would give this a 10/10 because it was really savory. Excellent side dish. Regrettably I was not impressed with the sausage side order. I think maybe because it was the end of the night, it was cooked a bit long. It did not taste juicy or fatty, which is what I go for in a sausage, I don't order those because I want lean LOL. It was also far spicier than I expected. In this case because it was a bit dry I did not enjoy it but I think if it were cooked correctly with that extra kick it could be stellar. Sausage is very inconsistent in Italian restaurants imo 🤷 but still it was about above average, not too bad.

Finally the chicken a la vodka entree was a perfect dish. It was ridiculously tasty. The vodka sauce was exactly creamy enough. There was no overpowering acidic taste. The tomato and cream perfectly complimented one another. They have the perfect ratio of cream to tomato sauce in this dish. I would not be surprised if they use wine instead of vodka because I was so pleased that there wasn't any sort of alcohol taste in the dish. It was by far, hands down, the best vodka sauce I have ever eaten. The penne pasta was cooked perfectly. The chicken was so soft it could melt in your mouth, and they loaded it, I had 3 of 4 large pieces. Probably this dish had 60-70% more chicken than I expected, and it was delicious.

We will be back for sure. Or at least ordering take out if we are in the area.

Ooo and before I forget they give a garlic and oil with their bread and that garlic will melt in your mouth like candy. Smush a piece...

Thank you Robin for the phenomenal service!

I was so excited to dine here with one of my good friends. So many people have recommended this place to me and we finally stopped in.

Unfortunately I didn’t have the same experience…. I wasn’t crazy about the food. Here’s how I felt about what I got tonight:

The Number 19 drink: 7/10. It was very sweet and tasty. Would have loved to have it over ice to kind of balance the sweet and keep it cold. Clams Casino: 2/10. It just wasn’t there for me… I love them at 111 and these didn’t compare.

Veal Piccata : 4/10. The veal was so tough and chewy. Not the melt in my mouth experience I was looking forward to. The Piccata sauce is yummy though.

Meatball and Ricotta. Meatball 5/10 seemed harder in the middle. Also didn’t get the melt in my mouth experience I was looking forward to. The Ricotta though??? 10/10… it was something I could eat alone with a spoon. Amazing.

Tiramisu: Eh. 4/10. It was dry and so we paired it with the Nutella Mousse that made it better.

My friend had a meal with gnocchi and mozzarella: she didnt eat much of it. None at all really. It was odd how the cheese was so hard in the center of the meal rather than oozing. …She also got the stuffed risotto balls which was to have different cheeses in there with peas and ham chunks. There wasn’t any ham and seemed to be just mozzarella and peas. Good if advertised this way, but it didn’t meet the expectations of how it was described on the menu.

Robin handled our grievances with grace and heard us out. We tried the almond torte which was her suggestion and wow!!

Although we didn’t really have an experience that met our expectations… we will be back so she can lead us in the right direction, and give it another try! Thank you thank...

I wanted chicken parm tonight , so I googled a few places I never ordered from before. This place came up and I read good reviews so I decided to call and order . When I called I told host that I never ordered from there before and I wanted the chicken parm dinner. I asked if it came with enough cheese or sauce she said the way it comes gas enough . With that answer I knew I had to ask for extra cheese and sauce which I did. When I picked it up I also asked if I could get some Parmesan cheese crumbles in a cup . She gave me a weird look and said there is already cheese on the chicken, I told her no that is not what I was asking . I wanted the Parmesan crumbles . So she went to the kitchen abd brought out my food , I saw a small container of sauce and Parmesan. It looked right so I came home with it, when I opened it did not look right . I thought I ordered the pollo Ala Parmesan dinner this was supposed to be Italian herbs and pomodoro sauce and there was hardly any sauce on the dish and the little container of extra sauce they gave me wasn’t enough. I am willing to pay for extra sauce .

So I called the restaurant and spoke with the supervisor and explained that there was 2 chicken parm on the menus and they gave me the incorrect one . Get apology was so not sympathetic, it seemed like I was bothering her. She didn’t even say is there anything I can do to fix the issue . She pretty much just said have a good day and hung up on me . So rude , worst service ever . Shame on them for treating new customers this way, I will never be going back I do not want to give buisness to a place that has rude employees and not customer orientated.

If you do not want to be treated poorly don’t go here ....