Mama Santa's

Visited Mama Santa's finally. There was a line waiting to be seated but it moved fairly quick. The place is not large and they were busy but you didn't feel like you're on top of anyone. It had a real authentic old school feel. We started off with basic mozzarella sticks and they hit the spot. Very fresh. I had the chicken parmigiana with spaghetti. Best sauce ever. Period. Loved it. The chicken was good but the sauce made it the best spaghetti I've ever tasted. My wife's pizza came out a little later. They let you know on the menu that they have 2 kitchens so that may happen but it was worth it. Great pizza. Portnoy have it a 7.6. I'd go higher. My wife and I shared both plates and it was a great evening

Our server was amazing! It was a very busy Monday lunchtime during Christmas week and she was in the ball. The pepperoni pizza was delicious! Well seasoned, tender crust, good amount of pepperoni. Came out piping hot! We had ordered it as an appetizer and it came out before lunch. Highly recommend the pizza! I did have higher expectations for their pasta dishes since Mama Santa's has been a staple in Little Italy for so long but was disappointed. The spaghetti was bland and the tomato sauce was nothing to write home about. It didn't have much texture or taste, I wouldn't consider it well seasoned. I got the veal parmesan and the same sauce as on that. The veal was crispy but the breading was salty and the slice of veal thin. The garlic bread was thinly sliced white bread with butter doused in a lot of garlic powder and salt, so much so that the bread's color is a pasty tan/grey. It shouldn't take much to make a good garlic bread. Finally, the bathrooms are in an area requiring you to navigate between narrowly spaced tables and then to scoot behind a table, all the while customers are eating. I feel bad for the people at the table closest to the bathrooms. All in all, I wouldn't go back unless it was for the pizza.

Came as part of my 5,700 mile 30 city food tour research as I wanted to explore little Italy in Cleveland. Very friendly staff. Poorly lit and semi outdated dining space. Ordered the veal scalopini in a red wine tomato sauce with food network featured spaghetti noodles. Nothing was bad. But nothing was remotely memorable. Meat slightly oily with the sauce. Spaghetti felt like basic out of the box. Even the plating was a bit on the boring side.

Not sure if people who love Little Italy are just used to unseasoned, half-cooked, low quality, overpriced food but just seems like the pattern here. I really have yet to have passable pasta anywhere in Little Italy and Mama Santa's is as bad as Maxi's. The sausage was good though. It was seasoned, good texture and a reasonable portion. But my, my, we have to talk about their pasta. I got the olive oil fettucine and what--do they just stop seasoning after a drizzle of olive oil? What about salt? Pepper? Italian herbs? Anything? Others in my party got the cavatelli and meatballs and it all looked like a plastic play-dough dish...inedible. This picture I included was after I dumped half a bottle of red pepper flakes, pepper and salt (had to ask for them b/c they weren't even at the table!) and parmesan cheese (I don't even like this but it gave it flavor!). The "garlic bread" that was served was plan, thin, cheap pieces of white bread toasted and scraped with the minimum of butter with garlic powder. How is everyone okay with this??? Portions were tiny and prices were high. Our server was nice but her voice was so raspy it was hard to hear. So yeah, 1 star for their sausage and 1 more for their tiramisu which was pretty good.

Food is delicious. I recommend the Cavatelli and add the meatballs, you won't be disappointed. Service was good and friendly. Ambience definitely had what I imagine to be an old school Italian dining feel. Seating was really cramped for us as we were at a table against the wall but decent amount of room in the dining room overall. Absolutely recommend and is a must in Cleveland and the Little Italy area since 1961.

Alrighty, well for one we didn't wait much for a table. Waiter was not at all attentive for a place that wasn't busy. Food was a solid 8.5/10, it did taste homemade but one of our dishes was wrong. They do bring out the pizza first before the dinner dishes but we were aware of that. Refills are not free! Over all, cleanish place. FYI: We were a party of 7 and we were charged a 20% gratitude tip. SO DONT TIP CASH.

Little Italy. Narrow streets. Parking half on the sidewalk. Adorable places to visit for a meal. Coming here, someone was touting this as their best memories from their college days in the area. Go and get the pizza, they said... Well, the sausage pizza was okay. The problem was that it reminded me of Tree Tavern frozen pizza. Wow! For little Italy I was hoping for a lot better experience. The place and service feels like a typical pizza place in any town USA so that made the experience even more out of place.The punch line, however, was a 30% service charge for a large group. Yes, we were a LARGE group that took up probably almost the entire place. Yes, the food is cheap. 30%? On what planet does that make sense?

Most fire place ever. Incredibly authentic. One of a kind. Unique. For everyone. Will be back.

Great food and good service!I love their pizza so much that it is preventing me from trying other things. Their salad is very fresh and tasty too.

The mozzarella sticks were good but the sauce was so oily it wouldn't stick to the stick. Got the veal parmesan and the veal was good but again the sauce was very lacking. Date got the Alfredo and it smelled like a deviled egg. The house chianti was a 10 dollar Walmart wine. The meatballs had no texture. Over processed and probably frozen. But the seasoning of the meat was good. The service sucked. Some old Nona grunted at us and was very slow even though the place was practically empty. Every time I said "Thank you" she replied "Yeah" or "Ok." I won't be coming back