Mangia Fresca

Food is awesome! I’m a fan of this spot, they have very good pizzas due to their awesome authentic wood burning oven that they use, and besides all that they have very good sandwiches to accompany them, such as they’re amazing breaded steaks, but if you like peppers and cheese make sure you order extra, also I was not as impressed with their salads as I was with their amazing sandwiches, pasta and pizzas, but thats just my opinion. Overall Very nice place for dinner or a quick bite to eat!

I’m so disappointed! I really like this place but just had a horrible experience! My father in law ordered me the blueberry verde salad which was my favorite. I started eating it and realized that the mixed greens were wilted and mushy. I didn’t notice it at first because the top layer had the good greens but once I got to the middle it was disgusting! Especially because I had a mouthful before I realized it was bad! I spit it out in horror! I called to let them know. The woman I talked to was nice and she gave me a credit for another salad. But honestly I’m so traumatized that I don’t know if I’ll order from there again. I would have preferred to get my $ 10 back. I was so looking forward to eating it. Went to bed hungry instead

This place is located in a peculiar location next to the Orange Line station on Halsted and Archer. It’s unassuming but does have a couple of parking spots.
There are a lot of Italian places in Bridgeport and this place’s menu immediately reminded me of Ricobene’s which is just about a mile away. I got the breaded steak sandwich for a direct comparison to Rico’s famed breaded steak.
Mangia’s breaded steak is definitely a cleaner version compared to Rico’s. The breading is good, meat is tasty, much less messy than Rico’s and mozarella and hot peppers are a must. However, I still strongly prefer Rico’s breaded steak. You get a lot more steak, hot peppers, cheese, and overall food at Rico’s. Plus, I think Mangia’s is pretty expensive. $ 13 for a not-​so-​big breaded steak with cheese and not-​so-​many peppers. I’d rather get a king-​sized Rico’s breaded steak for that price.
Mangia’s food is definitely tasty. So if you’re not a gluttonous pig like me and enjoy a smaller meal, try Mangia’s for sure. But I’ll probably be getting my next breaded steak at Rico’s.

Again, food is awesome! Fettuccini Alfredo is a tad on the watery side but other pastas are great! 2^nd time this week being here. And the counter staff are great.

I’m a fan of this spot. I’ve only had their breaded steak (which is a solid tasty steak) the roll it comes on is my favorite of any in the area including the mighty Ricobenes and at $ 9.95 you can’t go wrong. My Aunt had the Panino Prosciutto, which I had a bite of and was very tasty. To finish we had homemade Canoli which the stuff in front of you. I’m a fan of this method as it keeps the shell crispy and not soggy. Wood fired pizza on site, easy parking lot and a great neighborhood spot over all. I’ll be back Mangia Fresca!

I wish I could give 0 stars. Absolutely the worst food I’ve had. The so-​called chicken Marsala was plain chicken breast (tasted like rotisserie chicken) over plain pasta over runny «sauce». Never mind that it took 30 min. and I don’t know why. If you come Bridgeport go to Ricobenes instead. Plus they forgot our French fries.

I came here to pick up some grub to go since I was in the mood for some good pasta and Alfredo. I was surprised by the huge portion they give you for. Honestly, this would be enough for two people. I also liked how they separated the topping for you. I wouldn’t say this has the best Alfredo but it’s good enough to fulfill your appetite.
My only complaint are the fries which were the WORST fries I’ve ever ordered. I asked for crispy ones and the cashier said they could be well done. Turns out, they were TOO well done; they tasted burnt and I ended up dumping them out.

Got an Italian beef and it was cold as my freezer. I tried to give them another chance so I ordered a veggie pizza. Horrible. To them a veggie pizza is tomato and zucchini. They only good part was the crust! Never will I go again. I’ve learned from my two mistakes.

Wow. Shame on me. I tried this place again. Wont get me a third time. Over priced and not worth the trouble. Avoid avoid avoid.

I was going to walk over and get a breakfast sandwich so I called ahead of time so it would be ready when I picked it up. They wouldn’t take my order w/​out a phone number? Seriously?! I just want a breakfast sandwich, I don’t want to give you my phone number, and I don’t want to be «in your system» I just want a sandwich, I’m hungry. Just make my sandwich, stop trying to get all of my information. Anyway, the food is pretty good but its a bit overpriced and this isn’t the first time i’ve had bad service. I’ve spent a lot of money here, and you just lost a good customer. Check out the other bad reviews. AVOID.

Ordered a breaded steak sandwich. Looks great. Took a bite and a long hair was found. Took it up to the cashier and asked her for another one since I didn’t order hair in my food. She asked for a receipt!
Even though she just served me about three minutes earlier and still called the manager who really doubted that the hair was in my sandwich. Had to go back to my table and bring the other three guys up to prove that the hair was in there.
another 12 – 15 minutes, got another sandwich. No apologies, no free fries or tiramisu or anything for waiting while my lunch friends were done with their meals.
I will not recommend due to the poor customer service.
*\****

Great food with good service, highly recommend the breaded steak or a brick oven pizza

Do not like this place at all. I had always seen this restaurant and decided to stop in one day. I order a basic ham and cheese sandwich and my wife got some breakfast platter (which was fine).
Mine on the other hand … Not so much! I took a bite and it tasted funky. I told my wife to try it and she thought the same thing. I put two and two together and the mayonnaise was spoiled!
I brought my food up there and asked if I could either get a new sandwich or a refund. The staff was baffled and told me that the manager wasn’t present so they couldn’t say yes or no. How are you going to refuse a customer a new sandwich when the one you gave them was spoiled???
Anyways. It took them more than half an hour and me asking a few more times for them to finally «budge» and give me a new sandwich.
I don’t think I’ll be going back solely because of the unprofessional demeanor the company had.

A simple Italian restaurant that offers a good assortment of pastas, brick-​over pizzas, salads, paninis, sandwiches, and even breakfast! We decided to stop by for dinner and ordered the lasagna, margherita pizza, and soups (chicken rice with lemon and a ravioli soup). Even though I was expecting the lasagna to have meat, it was still very good and filling. It would be great if an option with meat was offered. The margherita pizza was delicious with a slightly-​burnt and toasty crust. The soups were a bit on the salty side. Overall, it was a satisfying dinner and I would visit again, maybe build my own pasta.

This is a good restaurant — the pasta is AMAZING! I especially recommend the pesto, grilled chicken breast, and the… what’s it called olio and argelo? You know which one.
However I do NOT recommend the olio one if you’re in a relationship as the garlic used is very fresh and will stay on your breath for days!
Also of note: the pasta portions are VERY generous. You can easily eat half and have the second half for a later meal.
Oh, one last thing; I had the panini vegiano tonight. It was decent but too oily. I won’t order again.

I’m trying new places to eat and found this place on Unilocal.Today i tried the beaded steak sandwich. I must say i paid $ 16 for the sandwich drink and fries. Ouch!!! but i will say the sandwich was good. The steak was tender and the bread was soft. There’s alot of places with horrible chewy breaded steak sandwichs. The only thing i will do next time is bring a friend to split this sandwich. The place is clean and you’ll feel safe there alot of cops eat there. … lol
I forget to mention they have fresh cut fries. I ate them before the sandwich. May come back for a order of fries :)

Nope can’t fool me. When you have Fresca in the name no matter how you say it, it means fresh. Ordered the pick your own pasta. So I had the bowtie pasta with vodka sauce and grilled salmon. The vodka sauce was a little thin for my taste and mediocre tasting at best and the salmon was in no way fresh or grilled. It tasted like the salmon you get at Walmart, frozen in those individual packs. And how can it be grilled and there are no grill marks on it but yet it was over cooked and dry. I’ll stick to getting my italian fast food at Pompeii in Little Italy.

Well for a while now we were on a trial separation, every so often I’d go back thinking things would be different and just like going back to an ex for a night when you shouldn’t have, it wasn’t good, but scratched an itch. Well at some point even that comes to end.
We went in the other night and I tried to order something that in concept seemed simple, and I was willing to pay the higher price. They have a simple build your pasta, pick a noodle, and pick a sauce, easy enough. Well of course I wanted a sauce that was on the fancier side of the menu and it comes with tortellini, so I asked at the counter, can I have the pancetta sauce on fettuccine noodles instead? The girl at the counter first starred blankly then blurted out a clear NO! Then I asked is it because it was pre-​made, she said she didn’t know and that I could ask the guys that cook. (This place has the kitchen area right behind the counter, so you can see them) However, she didn’t move from the register to get whoever it was that I can ask. Well me being me, moved over a few feet and tried to get their attention, one guy went somewhere further back out of sight, and the other did a repeat of the blank stare and shifted out of sight. So much for asking.
I would have been willing to pick something else out if we had just been able to find out why this couldn’t be done, or clarify if it was just a pricing thing. I was more than willing to pay the cost for the fancier sauce, if that was the issue, I know I said that above but it merits repeating, I wasn’t trying to get the fancy stuff for simple pricing.
Done and done, I’m no longer tempted, it’s over! I’m under no illusion that they’ll be missing me either.

Stopped in for fried raviolis. I had such a taste for them. $ 6 for 4 undercooked, dripping, frozen in the middle awful raviolis. Don’t bother!
Never to return. Didn’t want to give a star. Made me to post successfully.

We stopped here for dinner in hopes that maybe it could be an occasional substitute for Rico’s or Freddie’s. Never mind that idea.
Service is politely frosty, not as friendly as the other two places. I was a little floored when I heard our total: $ 28 for a pasta dinner, sandwich special, and one arancini. I was even more upset and surprised when we got home and I found that my pasta «dinner» consisted of 15 (oh yes, we counted) gnocchi sitting in orange-​red «marinara» sitting in a single layer that barely covered the bottom of a 9-​inch aluminum cake pan. I mean, they charge approximately $ 3 more than Rico’s for their pasta dinner, and serve significantly less.
At this point, I think the redeeming factor for this place may be their fries. I can’t believe how much we paid for prepackaged-​quality food in snack-​sized portions. Rico’s and Freddie’s for us after this.