Mangia Mi East

“At Mangia Mi, there isn't a giant kitchen packed with cooks turning out rushed plates. It's one chef, in an open kitchen making dishes to order with fresh homemade pasta, right in front of you. You can literally watch the creation from behind the bar. Three simmering pots lined up in red, white and green (quiet nod to Italy) and one incredibly talented chef orchestrating it all. Honestly, that's what makes it so special. People are quick to complain when food takes time. Sometimes slowing down is the whole point. The food is absolutely worth the wait. Brava Chef Rebecca.”

“When I think of Italian restaurants in the area that are hyper fresh, authentic, and deliberate in the execution of the dishes, no one beats Mangia Mi. Nothing comes close in tasting like the food was thoughtfully prepared with painstaking attention to detail. Everything was cooked to perfection and if there were a different world other than "fresh" that I could use, I would, a million times over. I dream about the food long after I've left. The pasta dishes, the sauce, the salads... They taste "light," but not light on flavor unlike heavier, old-school Italian options in the area. It's A meal you can feel good about eating because it's comforting yet complex and doesn't weigh you down!”

“Delicious Italian dinner at Mangia Mi! my husband had the Bolognese I had the Osso Buco veal special. Both were fantastic! We had no room left but managed to eat the amazing chocolate chip bread pudding for dessert….save room & go hungry!”

“Food quality / price (value) rating 8.5. The atmosphere is casual but upscale. The menu is well rounded with several standard Italian dishes with a contemporary slant. We both chose the Halibut special. It was prepared and presented nicely. The service was very good. We sat outside on their beautiful Victorian porch. The dishes are served a la carte, no bread or salad, which always feels a little disappointing. The beers were reasonably priced, and they have a Happy Hour Monday through Thursday. Two halibut dinners, one wine and two beers came to $120 plus tip.”

“Where to start with this review.....I have no idea. I guess the only place to start would be with a recommendation. SO, here it is. Don't bother. Now let's talk about why. Mangia Mi is a new place in Sandy Hook that has generated lots of excitement around the town. It is very hard to get into without reservations, and the parking lot is even harder to park in. With that sort of difficulty one would imagine that this place was the place to be, it is not. Beware, this is not a cheap restaurant. a 3 meatball appetizer will run you $19, a chicken parm entree is $28, but if you want pasta with it you can tack on another $11! Wait, what!?! Chicken parm for $39! This is going to be good! Well, it isn't. For the PREMIUM dollars being asked, the quality does not match! Honestly, if I am going to pay that much for food (across the menu) then it better be darn good, and it wasn't. So, our order and experience, what made this unhappy review you ask? Well frankly, the full experience. Environment: It's fine. Just open kitchen, bar, open dining room with some family style tables. Service: We were sat promptly at arrival for our reservation, but then it took another 10 minutes (maybe more as I wasn't so annoyed to time yet) for the waitress to come over and take our food order. We ordered and asked that it all come out together (can you feel the foreshadowing?). Part of our order came out, and other other maybe 5 or 10 minutes later. After the order came out there was no follow up until we were ready to leave. Food: Ugh, do I even want to write this? Like I said above, this place is expensive and with that I was expecting to be wowed. I don't mind paying for great food, but that it was not. You can get half or full size dishes. The half size is more than enough of a portion for 99% of you out there, go with that. Here is the breakdown for those still following along. New Haven "Ah Beetz": WHAT IN GOD'S NAME were we given!!!! It had zero resemblance to the wonderful food it is masquerading to be! We were given a STINKY, and I mean STINKY, gloopy, oil mess on something resembling dough that had a HUGE piece of burnt cheese on the bottom. The smell was so off putting; it was almost like bad cheese, maybe it was. We tried two pieces and left it as it tasted as poor as it looked. There was SO much oil on it that when the waitress removed the peel from the table there was a POOL of oil on the table. She wiped it before I could snap a picture. I asked if the pizza is always that oily and she said, well the chef finishes with an olive oil drizzle. Um, this was more than a drizzle!!!!!! Meatballs: Maybe they would have been good, but the sauce they were in was obviously burnt at some point and stirred up. Yeah, I get it, "this is nanna's Sunday all day sauce", well nanna had issues. On top of the sauce being burnt, the meatballs sat in a pool of oil as well. They were a little dry, but maybe would have been serviceable, then again at $19 they should have been amazing. Tagliatelle w/Sausage and Broccolini in Vodka sauce: Ugh, not good. I like al dente pasta, but this was hard pasta and could have used another minute or two in the water. That might have also unstuck the noodles too. The sauce did not have all the vodka burned off, so while there was a vodka taste, there was also the burn of alcohol. It made the dish in edible. Lastly, the menu says broccolini, but I got broccoli. Is it a big deal? No, but only if you tell the customer when ordering. I did say something when the waitress returned to ask if we were done. Had she come earlier, I would have said it earlier. To her credit, she did remove it from the bill. Crispy Chicken Piccata w/Tagliatelle: Ok, this was good. The flavor was nice, the amount of sauce good, the chicken was cooked right. I would say my wife was happy with it. Conclusion: Wow, thanks for making it this far! Mangia Mi needs work. For the prices they are asking the quality and service is not there. The food was not good and I'm out of space for this.....”