No one tells, "Norm!" when you walk in the door, but this place definitely looks and feels like it serves a lot of regulars. That said, the hostess and server both were friendly and welcoming.
The atmosphere is more on the casual side, and it looks like they have a great patio for outdoor eating.
We arrived in time for happy hour, and weren't overly hungry so we thought we'd just pick through appetizers and salads, but the primary draw was the steamed mussels in red sauce (an East Coast favorite of ours).
We started with chips and bleu, which was a little different from what we've had elsewhere, but the humongous pile of fresh, hot potato chips on a pool of blue cheese dipping sauce was delicious. Happy hour price of $6 was a tremendous bargain.
Next up, the mussels. There was a happy hour option that as more Cajun than Italian, but we opted for the regular price dish. The bowl was very large and very full, and we had only three that hadn't opened. I know enough not to force that kind of thing, but does everyone? I think the kitchen ought to take more responsibility there. Nevertheless, we were in heaven!
The tomato vodka sauce was smooth and just spicy enough and the mussels, deliciously sweet. The dish was served with two pieces of toasted, buttered French bread, which was nice, but a basket of soft Italian bread to soak up the copious amount of sauce would have been better. (The dish also includes fingerling potatoes, but that seemed weird. )
The salads we ordered were more food than we needed, having slurped our way through the mussels, and, as it turned out, we didn't eat most if them. They were a disappointing letdown from the other two out-of-the-ballpark hits.
The house Mantra Salad is served with a delicious-sounding Honey Shallot Dijon Vinaigrette, but it was either watered down or needed more of each ingredient. There wasn't much flavor, and a naked salad just doesn't do it for me.
The Cobb salad was huge! But again, came with a less than flavorful vinaigrette. If the option exists, I'd go with a blue cheese dressing in both instances, should I get salad again.
And, we will go again, because THOSE MUSSELS! Yum!
Now, as noted, we were FULL, but my husband has a thing for key lime pie, so we ordered it. Comparatively speaking, not a great key lime pie. But a key lime cheesecake, not bad. I don't know if that was there intent, but that's what it tasted like.
Overall, some great things, some not so great. Can't wait to go back though, with just a little more knowledge , because the pasta looked (and smelled) amazing! read more