Matteo's

A fantastic new restaurant. We love it! Mussels and Black and Blue Steak are fabulous!!!

I really wanted to like this place.  I love Lawrenceville, and my uncle used to work in the building before they opened Matteo's.  Unfortunately, my husband and I probably will not dine here again.

We made a reservation for a Saturday evening.  When we arrived, there was no hostess stand next to the door.  We thought that was odd, so we checked in with the bartender.  We then realized the hostess stand was a tiny stand in the middle of the restaurant, with no one standing there.  I didn't want to stand there waiting for someone right next to other diners at their tables. We got a drink at the bar (which took about 20 minutes), and then sat at our table after we flagged a hostess down. The whole process seemed disorganized, and the bartender made it clear that there was no front of the house management because the chef is the owner.  Huh?  

I ordered the anti pasta salad for an appetizer and it was good. We both ordered pasta, and they were both just ok. Not worth the price paid.  The waitress was sub par.  I also thought the menu was typical and didn't offer anything unique.

The restaurant itself is attractive.  However, I highly doubt I will return.

I was very pleasantly surprised with Matteo's. Who doesn't love Italian food? I mean, I'm 100% Italian*, I sure do (*I'm not... I'm 50%... but whatever). In my opinion, there's a tier system with Italian food.

High: Your grandma's Italian cooking
Medium: Italian restaurants that taste like your grandma's Italian
Low: Italian restaurants that make generic Italian that tastes like they just opened a bottle of Raggu and dumped it on some pasta.
Gross: Olive Garden

I love me some Alla Famiglia and consider this is in my top restaurants in Pittsburgh. I swear I thought the sauce tasted close to my Grandma's. YUM! But other Italian restaurants in Pittsburgh don't really come close to that. They may be good, but just not there.

While Matteo's wasn't necessarily like G-ma's, it was pretty darn good! I ordered one of the daily specials (out of the TEN they offered that day), the mussels diablo. I like that you can pick your noodles with your pasta entree. I also like the fact that they didn't scrimp on mussels, you got a ton. The spice factor was just right and really the whole dish was a win with tons of peppers and tomatoes. I did have a little bit of dish envy when I tried my friends pasta vodka... as I love vodka sauce. Solid sauce I'll say... that's my next order.

The service wasn't bad like some of the other reviews have stated, but we were in on a slow lunch day, so I'd hope it wouldn't be bad. It was actually quite friendly. I also really love the interior. Dark wood and a really beautiful piece of framed art/tapestry that I wanted to steal! I could even imagine coming here for some apps and sitting at the bar one night.

Honestly, because of the vodka sauce, I'm coming back, and soon!