Mama Santa's Restaurant in Little Italy

The famous Mama Santa's, yes that's Santa's not Santo's as many would have you believe, in the Little Italy section of Cleveland just south east of University Circle, is not at all what I had been led to believe. The prices were too high, the ambience was atrocious, at least in the dungeon-like room in which we were seated, and the spaghetti sauce was good, but tasted like Chef Boy-ar-Dee again. I don't get it. Is this the way "authentic" spaghetti sauce is supposed to taste? Does that mean the shit from a can we have been eating since we were kids is actually the RIGHT sauce? Holy Shit, I hope not, but I do know that the previously mentioned chef wasa real guy and got his start right here in Cleveland, I belive it was splled something like Boyardi. Anyway, I wanted to get the ball rolling before I got into the specifics, of which there were more good than bad.

On Saturday the 21st of March at approximately 2:45 PM, I arrived at Mama Samta's with a young protege. He and I walked in and were immediately greeted by a young woman behind the pizza counter who told us to go to the end of the counter and wait to be seated, which was obvious due to the sign stating such, but I must admit the youngster probably looked a bit confused which was why she made her comment, but I digress as I often do. (I have to leave this for now but will try to get back to it before Tuesday.) we were taken to a room to the left rear of the interior and, as I said before, it was very dungeon-like. It had very dark paneling and just "felt" odd. Maybe because it was also very high ceilinged, I don't know. Anyway, our server was right there and was great throughout the service. She was not too distant nor too "there." She offered explanations when asked for information and made my companion feel comfortable. Kudos to you. (By the way, I screwed up on the tip becuase I wasn't thinking right, sorry.)

I ordered, and I am reading this off the ticket, veal pizzioli, which was a wonderful mixture of peppers, onions, mushrooms and veal slices in a white wine sauce. I loved the veal and thought the flavor of the entire dish was great, of course sans the spaghetti side. I even forced, yes forced, my companion to taste the shrooms, even though he had an aversions to them, and he liked them. He ordered an antipasto salad and a small pizza with pepperoni and sausage. The salad was on a "regular" salad plate with "some" meat and cheese. J asked, at one point, where the meat went, and our server told him there was more there, than there actually was. I was a bit unhappy about that, because there was very little meat and cheese on the plate for and extra$5.95, but, live and learn.... We both shared our food, as I have alluded to earlier. I liked the flavor of the pizza, but can not, in all truth, tell you I REALLY liked it. The sausage tasted like nothing more than gorund pork. My companion said it tasted like ground beef. He may have been right, but it don't think it was beef, as such, anyway (again) I would order that pizza versus most others I have had, ut definitely without the susage.

Now my problem: for almost $40.00 for the two of us, I would not waste my time going there again. I have had the same flavors much closer to home and they did not tout themselves as being "Little Italy". For the price and the flavor you might as well go to Tizzano's, which, as I said some time ago, must have been a fluke when we went. In fact, Chef Boy Ar Dee was pretty good, too.