Foods from Mamma Grazzi's Kitchen
Comments

2012 Aug 13
My folks were in town for the weekend, and in the mood for Italian food. I had been here for a party a couple of years ago and enjoyed the food, but hadn't been back (for no apparent reason), so we decided to come here to see if it was as good as I remembered.

The food certainly didn't disappoint. We had an order of bruschetta to start, which was heaping with ripe tomatoes and just enough oil and garlic. For our main courses, I had the "Funghi" pasta: fettucine with a heaping portion of various mushrooms and rosemary in a rich cream sauce. Oh, yes. My SO had the "Piccante" pizza with spicy sausage and sun-dried tomatoes, my dad had the "Pasine" penne with Italian sausage and peppers, and both enjoyed their meals very much. My mom, in particular, was so enamoured with her "Francesca" spaghetti with pine nuts, raisins (!) and ricotta that she proclaimed (more than once) that she would gladly come back again the next night and eat the same thing again!

On the other hand, unfortunately, the ambiance and service were a bit lacking. When we arrived, the restaurant (which is in an old house and consists of several smaller rooms on each level) was nowhere near crowded, but we were stuffed into one corner of a room with several other groups. I can see how this makes it easier for the servers, but it's nice to have a bit of privacy when the opportunity is there. In particular, the room where we were seated had a very high ceiling and a stone wall, which made for terrible acoustics, and we were right next to an extremely noisy group of 10-12 people. The end result: we couldn't hear each other at all and had to bargain with the waitress to be moved to another room. Note to all restaurants everywhere: don't do this to your customers. It's really, really annoying.

Other sore points included a bored waitress (not our waitress; she was quite attentive and polite) sitting on a windowsill, texting in full view of the customers, and that same waitress later interrupted our meal to steal our bottle of olive oil to loan to another table (it was never returned). And this was with the restaurant half empty; on a busy night there must be a waiting list for the one or two bottles of oil in the house. Seriously, spring for a few more cheap glass bottles so every table can have their own oil!

Bottom line: the food was absolutely delicious, but a lot of small, yet bothersome, details made the overall experience not quite up to what I was expecting.

2010 Aug 18
I ate there recently with friends. The pasta was good - we all enjoyed our meals, but we were all unimpressed by the service.

It was sometimes hard to get anyone's attention and the waiter was quiet almost to the point of rudeness.

It really wasn't bad but I've had better meals and service on Preston, at Bella's, and at Vittoria Trattoria, so I wouldn't rush back there the next time I'm in the mood for Italian.

2009 Jul 21
Mamma G's was my favorite pasta place for a long time, but for the past, of, eight months or so the quality has been slipping. The last two times I had pasta here I did not enjoy it, the kalamata olives in my pasta tasted "off" last time, and the time before the sauce was bland.

I hope that the quality improves, because some of their pasta was really yummy.

2009 Jun 7
1833 - Can you give more details regarding the problems you had there?

2009 Jun 7
I will never eat at this restaurant again. I was treated poorly by rude staff members as well as a very unhelpful manager.

If you want to make a reservation and give a deposit for a large group... don't bother, they don't want your business... at least that's what I was told.

2009 Apr 1
Ordered Calamari and a beer.
The calamari was a tad overdone, and otherwise uninspired. The service was average. The calamari was more than $10 for about 6 whole baby squid, which is quite steep for the quality.
The pasta's were quite poor, and at almost $20 each, a total rip off.
Will not return unless I'm bullied into going with friends again.

2008 Mar 27
It's a nice italian place with reasonable prices at night if you want good pasta! Got calamari for appetizers as well as bruschettas to share (we were 4 people). Both were good. I like the "perfetta" in the selection of pasta ;-) There is a lot of choice to please everyone!
Only cons: if you're a dessert person, there is not much choice. I don't recommend the tiramisu, it's not great.

2007 Mar 12
Went here for dinner with a large group on Saturday night.
The food and service were very good. Our waitress (though young) was very polite and professional and did not get ruffled even though when she tried to open two bottles of wine, both of them broke at the top.
On to the food. We shared the grilled calamari to start and it was delicious. Nice and spicy with a pesto sauce drizzled over it.

For my main I had the Scaldarsi pizza with spicy sausage and chilli peppers. It was delicious.
There was too much going on that I forget what the bf had, but he loved his pasta as well.

I had the Sangria to drink and it is actually really good Sangria.

Not a bad place for the market......

Enjoy!

2007 Mar 12
Great food and atmosphere. Go there for pasta as there's not much else on the menu.

I was told some while ago by a friend that the owner toured Italy for 3 months and got recipes from that trip to bring back to Ottawa in order to open the restaurant. Not sure if it's true but it makes for a nice story ;-)

"Long" pasta are made fresh, at the restaurant. Short ones are ordered.


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2010 Feb 14
Great place for italian. The salmon pasta is to die for! Yummmmmmmmm