Mamma MIA Restaurante

I love this place. We’re local and we make sure to stop by Mamma Mia once every few weeks. The staff are always SUPER friendly, and they really go above and beyond to make sure you’re enjoying your meal and time there: very accomodating. If you want really high-​end savory Italian entrees I would recommend Enoteca Adriano or Café Bella, but those two are MUCH more expensive and you’ll most likely have a long wait during peak dining hours. At Mamma Mia– get their pizzas and their gnocchi, we’ve always had GREAT results when ordering those. The appetizers are good as well, we like the bruschetta with brie and prosciutto. They have really great food for the price, and you can get a nice bottle of wine similarly priced to go with. Come here for a stress free dinner, with great service and great food!

«Mamma Mia! This place sucks!» — that’s all that need be said about this place; but if you want to know more, here is why:
— I ordered the PANZEROTTINI AL CRUDO because other reviews raved about it, and I like prosciutto. It is advertised an the menu as pizza dough stuffed with prosciutto and cheese. It wasn’t prosciutto, it was cheap pressed ham. When I complained, the waiter said, «Oh, that’s uncured prosciutto». $ 7.95
— I ordered «LINGUINE AL CARTOCCIO Freshly made Linguine with sautéed shrimps, clams and freshly chopped tomatoes. Then baked in aluminum foil with a spicy wine sauce.» It was all tasteless. Not even the «spicy wine sauce» had any taste. Not even the taste of garlic. (I can only think they forgot about the garlic.) The clams and shrimp were completely devoid of taste. The only bit of truth of this menu item was baked in tin foil. $ 14.95
— Sofie’s lasagna was cafeteria quality. I noted that it was devoid of any meat. $ 12.95
I was not thrilled to eat my tasteless linguine out of a piece of tin foil either.

Recently just brought some out of town friends in, the service food, atmosphere and hospitality were absolutely terrific. Very authentic Italian.

One of our favorite Italian places in SD. We always get the panzerotti (lightly fried pizza dough filled with ham, mozzarella and tomato sauce) as an appetizer and I have yet to find better gnocchi anywhere. Highly recommended!

Favorite Italian food in PB! My go-​to is the Gnocchi Mama Mia, hands down the best gnocchi I’ve ever had. The last time I went, they had taken it off the menu, but thankfully they still made it for me! I love the pizza for takeout and recommend using garlic as a topping, so good! It is a great «hole in the wall» home like place with authentic food and customer service. All of the staff has a thick Italian accent, but are very nice when you cannot pronounce something correctly! All around great atmosphere and amazing food.

This is my go to Italian restaurant, not only is it super authentic but it’s always well priced. It’s a cute little restaurant that looks like a cottage over by 711 on balboa /​grand ave.
I discovered it about 4 years ago when I lived down the street and I crave the food all the time. I love the bruschetta with Brie, artichokes and prosciutto. The Adele pasta is delicious as well. I’m most obsessed with their homemade tiramisu, a lot of places try to make this dessert and can’t fully grasp the importance of layers of flavor, but mama Mia certainly gets it.
When you walk in you will notice everyone is Italian and they all have very thick accents, I believe it’s a family owned business. They take care of their customers very well in the restaurant or take go.
Love love love this place !

I enjoy dinners at this place. Good food, delicious pasta. Wine selection is well gathered, so I always choose smth tasty and rich in flavors. I like an Italian spirit, there is definitely warm and cost atmosphere. It’s a good place, check it out. And please, order Tiramisu

At first our experience was great; we were a group of 7 and were seated quickly … Manager was friendly. We ordered our food all at once, but everyone’s dinner came except for one. We had all finished our meals and were waiting at least another thirty minutes for the last entrée. When asked about the last entrée, the waitress said she hadn’t forgotten about it, but it still took another half hour. She clearly lied about this and then apologized
Blaming it on the kitchen, but the very friendly manager, Francesco, never even came back. On top of that, while they appropriately comp’ed the late entrée, they still charged the «mandatory» extra gratuity of 20%. Hopefully this was a fluke (as I hear), but it was bad enough that I won’t return

Ate everything too fast to take pictures! Everything was delicious! We had the calamari, caprese salad, paesana pizza, tiramisu, and the sweet blend. The only thing better than the food was the service and owners. Everyone was so welcoming and warm. Authentic food, atmosphere, and beautiful people.

This place is worth the stop. Great food, excellent service, and very welcoming. I was having one of the worst days and left with a smile. Thank you and happy holidays!

Mamma Mia! This place is super cute, but unfortunately missed the mark. My friend and I stopped in here for dinner on a Thursday evening, not too crowded so we snagged a seat outside on the deck. The server, albeit informative, wasn’t exceptional and took a loooong time to take our order, to the point where I actually had to flag him down (which I HATE doing!). The food was mediocre at best.
I was recommended to come here by friends, so there are a few menu items that perhaps would have changed our minds. Want to know more? Message me on Lokely :)

I will start with the food is Okay but not good! I’ll make this short and to the point.
I went out for a quick dinner and decided to sit inside. We were the only ones other than another couple in the restaurant. The guys Who ran the place were speaking and enjoying their time with the other couple so much so that they were so loud that I could not even talk to my girlfriend who is sitting right next to me. It gave us a headache and was completely inconsiderate. They tried to be friendly and were but it felt like I was eating at a fraternity house during the middle of a party. The guys wore regular T-​shirts and jeans or shorts and there was no professionalism regarding attire. They also were texting right in front of us.
They asked if I wanted garlic bread. We said yes but he made it seem like it was like the typical bread you would get with dinner. When the check came we were not only charger but it was priced as something different and was two dollars higher then the garlic bread and was labeled bruschetta.
My food was to come over Arugula but there is literally like four pieces of arugula. While the sauce was good I ordered lamb and pork. I got chicken pork with one piece of beef jerky like lamb and some of the pork was undercooked.
Overall, I have never ate in a restaurant so loud yet nobody was even there. I couldn’t wait to leave and I did not even say anything about the food, or the check because I wanted to get out of there so fast. I will not be back.

The little lady and I gave this place a try the other night. We saw it on Dining out with Noah and it looked good.
The negative reviews are interesting… I don’t understand how people can perceive a dining experience so differently, but that’s another subject.
First off, parking sucks. It’s street parking only, and we got lucky with a spot at the curb right in front of the restaurant. If not, expect to be driving around the neighborhood like a stalker.
We were welcomed warmly by Simone and Linda. Both were friendly and casual… and he is a bit loud… in an «Italian way.» But we saw nothing wrong with that.
He made some recommendations for appetizers and entrées, which we heeded.
It was free corkage night (Tuesdays and Thursdays?) so we brought a bottle of our own good California red, which they happily opened and poured.
My wife tried the lasagna (she’s an aficionado) and I had the red meat sauce gnocchi. Both were just outstanding. Huge, tasty portions on both counts.
As if we needed to, we tried a dessert. Based on Linda’s suggestion, we tried the tiramisu, made fresh in their restaurant. Again, it was delicious.
Throughout the meal, one of them would stop by to chat and see that we were doing OK.
I really like this place and suggest it to those who don’t mind a more casual, relaxed atmosphere while enjoying tasty Italian fare.

I love love love this place. I have been going here for years to enjoy there delicious food.
They have an amazing selection of Gnocchi dishes and all of them are so delicious. If I had to choose from one, it would be the Gnocchi Gratinadi. The baked bread bowel and sauce just give no words to describe how delicious it is, I’m actually speechless
I bring all my friends and relatives here because of the great atmosphere and true Italian service.

Worst restaurant ever… experienced with all my friends all upset for having a $ 950 bill for bad service, rude and unprofessional waitress and management… dirty, disorganized and old dinner and glassware…
And all of that with not enough or good food!
If you want the worst experience and service take your party there! !!

Possibly the worst dinner experience I’ve ever had.
My friends and I went here to celebrate a birthday – we made reservations for 11 a few days prior and showed up right on time, 7PM on a Thursday. We showed up with 6 bottles of wine for the group since on Tuesdays/​Thursdays there is no corkage fee (normally $ 10/​bottle).
We were seated in their outdoor covered area and given menus. The restaurant was about 60% full inside with nobody else sitting in the outdoor area. The birthday girl decided we would get «family style» dining so everyone could have a little variety. We ordered a linguini w/​meatball dish, a sauced gnocchi, and a risotto. Once we placed our order, we received some prompt «Bravis» and then the waiting began.
At first the loud Italian banter amongst the middle-​aged servers and manager seemed charming but within minutes turned grating and excessively forced. We sat there as a group with water and the wine that we brought and went through all the bottles before we were even served any bread.
When the food did finally arrive we received three dishes of food of mediocre quality that ensured everyone left still hungry. Service took forever, dishes were bland with not enough food to go around, the atmosphere was obnoxious (and unprofessional considering one of the servers remarked I was the only non-​white member of the group [really dude? You’re not my friend, pal.]) and WORST OF ALL, the bill came out to over $ 300!!! I’m not exaggerating any details!
The night ended as the birthday girl apologized to us for picking this place. My recommendation to you: AVOID this place especially if you’re coming in a group and for the love of god DO NOT get family style dining.

Overall, the food here is alright. The staff and the experience in the store feels like its straight out of an Italian movie though. I think it would be worth coming back just to experience it since we had take out.
So about that take out. They had confused our order and by the time we noticed, since the wrong order was really similar to ours, we had already began eating. The staff was very understanding and worked out the differences and was able to still get us a few of the entrees that we were missing.

This restaurant is perfect! Very small and quaint Italian restaurant serving real authentic Italian. Their pizza is out of this world. I ordered a pizza that had biew arugula and prosciutto on top. Seriously amazing! Then we ordered the gnocchi with a spicy tomato sauce and it was delish! I seriously thought about this meal for about a week after I ate it. Everyone that works there’s very very friendly and hospitable. To top it off you can bring your dog there and sit outside! Great date stop or if you want a nice more quiet dinner. Highly highly recommend!

Came in on a Friday night and was genuinely welcomed by the manager like family. I’ve read some reviews about it being «loud” – this is the authentic Italian experience.
The atmosphere really adds to the meal – there is ample outdoor seating and there have good deals for large parties.
I didn’t think the salad was anything special and could probably be done better. Additionally, the bread was a couple of small biscotti shaped breadsticks. The pasta we ordered was a great deal and super delicious. We had the gnocchi with ragu and meatballs, as well as the tagliatelle with a black truffle cream sauce. The former was delicious and had a flavorful sauce, the latter was as well, I only wish it may have also had pancetta or some meat. However, I have to applaud the place for having lots of vegetarian and gluten free options!
For dessert we had a crêpe – good but the crêpe was a little well done and hard to cut.
Definitely a place id return to for another night out in the future!

All right all right this place isn’t as bad as I thought it was. We ended up coming back two weeks later for my roommates birthday and everything went smoothly! We were a big party of 11 and the food came out 15 minutes after we ordered it! I was very very surprised and happy (even though I ate a snack before dinner, juuust in case). The only thing that didn’t make this visit a perfect one was that we needed to ask a couple of times to get the wine out. Other than that, I was impressed with the speediness of the service.
The food was delicious just like last time. No complaints there! I might be back but like I said before, it’ll probably be just to pick up some take out.