Mamma Lena's

Last night a small group of us went to Mamma Lena's for dinner. I heard from friends that is was real good Italian food and was looking forward to it... however I would 'eat' my words by the end of the night.

Walking in, it seemed like a cozy place settled in a historic building in downtown Waxhaw. Brick walls, a huge bread maker (where they make the homemade bread) and pictures of people enjoying food on the wall. I sat down and prepared to look over the menu while waiting for other friends to arrive. The menu, by appearance, had many options from pasta to pizza to specialities. Once our final friend arrived (there were five of us), the waitress came over to get our order. Waters all around except a friend and myself ordered a glass of wine ($7). The wine arrived and it was generously filled - I figured it must be for the price. Friend 2 noticed that the owner wasn't working and stated the food isn't as good when the owner is not there (Flag #1). This is when it starts to get dicey... We began to place our orders:

Friend 1 - small pizza with bacon and ricotta
Friend 2 - small pizza with meatballs and ricotta
Friend 3 - small pizza with meatballs and olives
Friend 4 - gnocchi with side salad
Myself - gnocchi with side salad

Seems simple enough, right? Well, Friend 4 asked if they could upgrade to a Caesar salad instead of a house salad. The waitress stated that they only had large Caesar salads and couldn't do that (Flag #1 - this means that the salads are premade in the bowls - how hard is it to put some romaine, croutons and some parm in a smaller bowl?) - so Friend 4 was stuck with the house salad. While we waited for the salads, the bread was brought to the table. Not to ruin it, but this was the best thing we ate all night. The inside was moist and soft and the crust was flaky and crunchy. It was served with garlic butter that had nice sized pieces of garlic.

About 10 - 15 minutes later, the house salads arrived. They looked like they have been sitting in the bowl in the fridge (yea Flag #2!). The bowl contained iceberg lettuce and wilty carrot sticks with some croutons on top. The balsamic vinaigrette that came with it was thick and tasteless. It had the consistency of maple syrup. During this time, I noticed that several diners in the nearby tables just up and left... leaving their empty bread baskets and water. Yes - the service/kitchen seemed to be that slow. It took about 20 - 30 more minutes it seemed for our entrees to come to the table. All in all, it was ok as we enjoyed each others company chit-chatting - but the chit chatting was turning into grumbling stomachs. First, the small pizzas were brought out. Friend 1 and 3's order was right... Friend 2 was brought a bacon and ricotta pizza instead of meatball (Flag #3 - the waitress said it would be an easy fix as the meatballs are premade and cooked and could just put them on the pizza - should food be made to ordered? This isn't a fast food restaurant - believe me). The 'adding meatball process' was so fast, the pizza came back out with mine and Friend 4's gnocchi orders.

Gnocchi time. Ok - the plate appeared big. From appearance, it was gnocchi shaped balls with red sauce and mozzarella cheese. The cheese wasn't fresh mozzarella cheese either but just shredded cheese from a bag it seemed - I could tell because some was melted and some was not. Yikes. I decided to dig into the dish to give it a try... the 'gnocchi' didn't really seem like gnocchi. You know how homemade gnocchi has the definite potato dumpling taste, weight and texture (a nice, plump piece of dough with a moist center?) - this did not have it. The gnocchi appeared to be just a big piece of store made pasta with perfect lines. It was overcooked and had no gnocchi qualities that I have ever seen. As for the sauce, I might as well have just poured pure salt in my mouth. It was the saltiest dish I have had in a long time. If you count salt as a spice - it was really anything that seemed added to the dish. The tomato sauce had the consistency of a jarred sauce (Prego maybe?). Not to mention with the shredded cheese (that was cold) - this was not worth the $12.50 pricetag. I only really ended up taking 4 bites and setting the plate aside asking for a takeout box - maybe the spouse will eat it. Friend 4, who also ordered the gnocchi was not impressed either - also only taking a few bites and setting it aside. At this time trying to choke down the Atlantic Ocean with floating pasta, I really needed some water. The server only came once the entire time to refill our water glasses and I never saw her refill again - boy, did I need it.

As far as Friend 1-3's pizza - they all seemed to like it ok but stated it didn't taste like it usually does. The dough seemed to be homemade by the big bread machine also. Friend 2's pizza did look pathetic... pieces of bacon and ricotta thrown around with some cheese melted, then on top - clumps of meatballs that were thrown on as an afterthought.

I don't think that 'the owner isn't there so it's not as good' is a valid excuse. A great... even good restaurant should be on top of its game any and everyday. It took us about 2 hours for our meal and ~$30 just for mine - which was definitely not worth it. There are definitely better Italian, nonchain restaurants in the area (which will be showcased later) - heck even Carraba's is better (shutter - a chain!)

I give Mamma Lena's 1 ghost. Service was poor (even though the waitress seemed friendly but definately stressed), the wait was long, the food was over salted and not seasoned properly, food seemed store-bought and premade.... should I go on? Hey - I am sure some of you are going to disagree with this assessment but 'the owner wasn't working' isn't an excuse.

http://www.mammalena.com/

Downtown Waxhaw

Cheese Mo'z

Over the week I tried Cheese Mo'z while out running evening errands. My spouse and I met up with another friend who wanted to try this new restaurant. It recently opened in May on Rea Rd in a nice little 'farm' community setting (along with some others - Cosmo's, Sweet T's). The Cheese Mo'z menu flaunts their 'coal fired' meals that are cooked at ~800 degrees.

We were seated on the patio and we had various servers walk by. About 5 minutes of sitting down, we were finally greeted and placed both our drink and meal orders. We ordered Cheesy Bread as an appetizer, which is coined as their signature foccacia bread with garlic, fresh herbs, smoked mozzarella and provolone cheeses and served with kalamata olive tapenade. I am not sure what is so signature about it - it was basically a piece of bread with some melted cheese on top - something I could made at home with Trader Joe ingredients. The olive tapenade did not look or taste like any other tapenade I have eaten. Both the bread and tapenade lacked flavor and I was not impressed by this dish. This was only the beginning of disappointment for the evening.

We ordered the following entrees:

Me - Five Cheese Calzone - Packed with mozzarella, ricotta, provolone, romano and parmesan reggiano cheeses, fresh tomato sauce and oregano - and I added pepperoni and mushrooms.

Spouse - Salmon Artichoke pasta - Oven-seared cedar plank salmon served on penne rigati pasta tossed with artichoke hearts, fresh oregano and homemade tomato sauce.

Friend - Small pepperoni pizza

I guess it was good we ordered an appetizer as it took about 20 minutes before any of the dishes were brought out. Mine and the spouses were first... The calzone was a big roll of black dough (we were warned of the coal... but the entire thing black?). The spouse's dish was not what was ordered - instead - it appeared to be spinach pasta. The spouse asked if this was the salmon and the waitress said she thought it was and left. (Keep in mind - the friend has yet to be served).

The spouse kept reviewing the dish and trying to find salmon and asked the waitress again - believing this was not the correct dish. The waitress said - "It was what was given to me." Also at this time, we asked where the small pizza was... A third time around, the spouse said that this clearly was not the salmon dish - the waitress - looking as if we were putting her out - marched back to the kitchen only to return with the 'correct dish.' No apology for the incorrect dish. Again - we asked where the small pizza was - and again - given an excuse ("the kitchen is backed up")... I would think that since all the orders were placed at the same time, the kitchen would receive the orders at the same time - weird how the kitchen seems to be backed up for just a small pizza. About 15 more minutes have passed at this point.

I decided to cut.... I mean saw... into the calzone. One bite and it was just a mess of dough with no flavor (unless you count burnt calzone a flavor). The cheese wasn't cold but didn't seem to be cooked all the way through and had a doughy aftertaste. There were a few pieces of pepperoni and hardly any mushrooms. I probably could have gotten a better calzone at Pizza Hut at this point. I didn't even finish the black ball of dough. What a shame. 20 minutes later - the small pizza came... Now, back to the salmon pasta - there was about 3-4 small pieces of salmon on dried out pasta. Seems like they cooked it, let it stand for about 20 minutes and then served it. The dish also lacked sauce and from what I tasted of it - it also lacked any type of flavor. This dish was also not finished. As for the small pizza, my friend took one bite and asked for a to-go box since it came 20 minutes into the meal.

Sorry Cheese Mo'z - this place is terrible and it will be very hard for me to go back. The service was slow and appeared to be 'put out' and drink refills hardly occurred. I needed all the water I could to choke down what I did eat. I give the entire place 1 ghost. If anyone has had a better experience, please let me know.

Don't waste your time.

http://www.cheesemoz.com/

Maestro's Pineville

Since Charlotte Restaurant Week is around the corner (http://charlotterestaurantweek.com/), I thought I would write about an experience I had during the Winter restaurant week....

When we pulled up, we thought this place could have a lot of potential with the 'old house' charm... instead it was very poor service and cold food. We arrived to a semi-crowded restaurant with little greeting. It took the server ~15 minutes until we were even provided water - and we had to let him know that we wanted to order a drink (this was 30 seconds before we got up and walked out). Then another server came to take our order... which was basically all she did. No 'hello, welcome, how are you" or anything... We both ordered the wild mushroom soup, which could have been better if it was hot. Instead it was sub-warm. I ordered the filet, which was not too bad but really - you can't mess up steak too bad. My partner ordered the veal picatta - there were pieces not fully cooked and the dish was cold. The only redeeming part of the meal was the dessert (Choc mousse). Again, no one came by to ask how our meal was or offer any additional service... Our bill came (at this time we were contemplating our tip) only to find that 18% was already added on. They over-tipped themselves for sure. As we left, there was also no thank yous for coming, see you next time or anything. For a place that was in such a great building and area, the food and service ruined it all. This by far has been one of the worst places I have eaten at in the Charlotte area.

1 ghost enough said...

http://www.maestrosbarandbistro.com/