I've been a regular patron of Mazzotti's for years and have always been satisfied with the service and quality of food. Recently I had the stuffed chicken served with artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes. It was so rich and wonderful, the ultimate comfort food. My experience may be slightly biased as I had consumed a 1/2 eighth of mushrooms before the meal. The waitstaff were friendly, but by the time my meal was served they began to look like reptiles. I'll be back on 'shrooms!
Review Source:I have been to Mazottis 4 times in the last two months, We have ordered different things each time we have gone. Let me start by saying they have the best choppino I have ever had. Big pieces of wild caught salmon, shrimp, oysters etc and the broth was heaven. I could have eaten more for the price, I would have loved 1c more broth please ;)! (Its $24) Â
I have also had their Vegetarian lasagna which is fresh made to order, I ask for easy cheese, and Eggplant Parmesan, easy mozzarella, side of extra Parmesan... HEAVEN all of them. They have a base sauce that is to die for!!!
I really like the wait staff I have experienced, they are attentive and they make sure your water glass is always full. If I had one comment I would say I wish they had a machine to make coffee drinks to finish the meal. While they make a great cup of coffee, somehow when I go there I want to finish with a great cappuccino... These folks get 5 stars... Great food, tasty bread, butter and Balsamic/oil for it. Clean bathrooms, excellent staff, very short wait times and great ambiance.
I was a diner in a party of three last evening. Â We were seated quickly, and our waitress was efficient and friendly. Â My mother in law very much enjoyed her spaghetti bolognese, and my wife enjoyed her lasagne. Â I had the 'small' calzone, which in actuality is quite big. Â I requested an additional side of alfredo sauce, as the tiny saucecup that came with my order was not even enough to dip half of my calzone in. Â I was told that there would be an additional charge. Â What? Â An additional charge for enough sauce for all of my entree? Â I'm not a sauce-hog, either.
A+ for the service. Â B for the food, as the food downstairs at Abruzzi is more flavorful. Â C for their prices, and F for their myriad upcharges; substitutions, check-splitting, etc.
Awesome & quick!
Love this place! Food is always good. Service is great. We especially like a waitress named Kara (I think). She is always friendly, helpful, and efficient. She recognizes us as regulars and knows we're on a time crunch. We normally choose this place for a cozy lunch, and it's a great place for people watching!
I've been here a handful of times and the food is always mediocre at best. This last time was the final straw though. Came here for my pregnant partners birthday and brought a cake and a bottle of "non-alcoholic wine" (fancy grape juice). After a meal that might honestly be some of the cheapest tasting Italian food I've ever had the waitress brought the cake out without even trying to make it a surprise. We didn't want a loud happy birthday rendition or anything, but a candle and at least a surprise would of been adequate since I specifically asked for it when giving them the cake. While delivering the cake the waitress knocked over a glass of water on our birthday girl and then had the nerve to charge is a ten dollar "cakage" Â fee and then a ten dollar corkage few for a six dollar bottle of grape juice. On top of that the restaurant added a twenty percent gratuity to the tip which was not earned, at all. We didn't even get proper utensils or water untill after the food was delivered. Long story short. The service got an F and the food quality got a C. And I will never go back. Â I'd recommend Abruzzi for Italian food in Arcata.
Review Source:Having just moved to the area, my husband and I have been trying out area restaurants.  This was one of the worst /I have been to since moving to CA 3 years ago.  To be honest, the bread and sun-dried tomato butter was delicious - I enjoyed the slice and a half they gave me.  So, that started the meal off well - I was excited to try more.  I had the soup - it was gross.  The waitress was so terribly inconvenienced by having to take our order AND bring the drinks, that I decided to just let it go.  The  seat by the window was freezing cold, and with the draft as well, I had to keep my coat on and wrap my hands around the nasty soup.  The crab cakes they served us, eventually, were still frozen in the middle, oozing gobs of grease, and weren't even mixed well - at the very center was a huge clump of diced onions.  The main course, stuffed organic chicken breast was good, but not compared with the food I lived on in NY.  It was way better than the stuff they served us before that, though.  Considering I was starving and frozen, it tasted wonderful.  The waitresses are as lazy as the cook s are incompetent.  We will not be returning there again.  Oh, and if you are dressed up very nicely, maybe you will get better service - at least that's what I was told.
Review Source:I was so delighted when Mazzotti's started offering gluten-free pasta as a substitute for any dish. I enjoyed this opportunity several times. A few months ago, my mother, my son and I--all of us with Celiac disease--were able to enjoy GF gnocchi as the pasta with our dishes at no extra charge. After steering clear of Italian restaurants because I always have to have a salad, it was such a pleasure to know that I could enjoy Italian food outside of my house again.
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Tonight my husband, two-year-old son, and I returned. I was looking forward to ordering the Frutti di Mare that my mother had so enjoyed. When I ordered my son's and my dishes, a child's order of gnocchi with marinara and a half order of the Frutti di Mare, there seemed to be some hesitancy and immediate grumpiness from the waitress, but she said that she would check to see if she could make the substitution. I felt confident since we had had the same dishes before. A few minutes later, my somewhat abrupt and grumpy waitress returned to tell me that there would be a five dollar charge for the substitution. I was flustered and said that that was a new charge that I had never experienced before (there is no mention of an extra charge on the menu) but went ahead and said I would get the orders anyway. She had taken away our menus already, and also my son didn't want salad for dinner and neither did I. When she returned again, I asked would that be a five dollar charge for the child's plate substitution, too, and she said maybe she could do four dollars each because they were half orders; she was pretty defensive about the situation. I was still pretty shocked by all of this. She returned again with my dinner salad with croutons on it. I guess I am used to servers who are trained that when one orders something to be gluten-free, she probably wants the whole meal to be gluten-free.
The meal was okay, though I was rather distressed by all of this and the way that the server was acting so put out, so I couldn't really enjoy it and ended up taking half home. At the end, she said that she ended up charging us $7.00 instead of $10.00 because she didn't think we should have to pay for a full substitution. I did appreciate that.
I feel that Mazzotti's needs to be up front about their pricing for gluten-free substitutions and note it on their menu. I always appreciate servers who are well trained to work with customers with special needs and would love to see this waitstaff better educated and more empathetic. I recognize that special requests are an inconvenience for everyone. I have to live with that inconvenience every day of my life. That is why the Celiac community is so jubilant when there are restaurants that offer us an opportunity to feel normal and enjoy a restaurant experience and an evening of food that we can't replicate at home. We spread the news of these opportunities like wildfire, and businesses benefit from widening their customer base. Â
My ticket had, "Tell us what you think on Yelp," printed on it. Let the wildfire spread.
Excellent establishment. The food at Mazzotti's is as good as any of the other upscale joints in Arcata, and the servings are larger while the prices are a bit lower than Plaza Grill, Abruzzi's, and most other halfway-fancy North Coast eateries. All of the house specials are excellent, and the pizzas are a great deal. You will always get your money's worth from Mazzotti's.
Review Source:The only reason this place doesn't get a 1 star review is because they have great bread and their sun dried cheese spread is delicious. The food here has got to be some of the worst Italian I've ever had. None of it is seasoned well and it's all run of the mill and nothing special. I ate here a few times when I lived in Arcata to give it a good chance but it never impressed me.
Not a place I would go back to or recommend to anyone.
If I could have rated this place any lower, I would have.
This was literally the worst Italian food I have ever tasted. I come from a large Italian family straight off the boat and to say the least, we own several successful Italian restaurants throughout San Diego. I ordered something very simple, a calzone, and not only was the food cold, but even if it was hot, it would have still been terrible. I am extremely disappointed with my experience here and will not be returning. The kicker for me is when I politely told the waiter that my practically untouched food came out cold and I was not planning on taking any of it home, he gave me a 10% discount. After receiving the bill, for the already grossly overpriced food, I expressed to the waitor my displeasure in the fact that I had to pay ANYTHING for this meal, let alone only receiving a discount of $2. He proceeded to argue with me that I ate half of the food, when the first slice was too offensive to eat anymore of the calzone. Lastly, 3 of my friends who went with me last night are currently throwing up from food poisoning.
This place needs to be on Restaurant Impossible.
As far as service goes, they could use a little improvement there.
As far as the food goes,.. I grew up in an Italian family with a grandmother from Italy. Â Mazzotti's is the closest thing I have found so far to real Italian food! Â That's a pretty big deal for a real Italian to say. Â The only thing that would make it better is if my grandma or her cousin were in the kitchen.
I feel like every time I come here, I get forgotten by the waitress. The service is super slow. At least you can draw on the tables while you wait for your water...and to place your order...and get your drinks...and food...and the check. The last time I went, which was about two weeks ago, the waitress completely ignored us for the first twenty minutes and then as we were finishing up our meals, she came back every two minutes to ask us if we were done. I thought it was a little rude...
The food is okay. It is pretty average Italian food. The portions are HUGE so I guess you get a lot for your money's worth, but since I can never finish it (and rarely eat my leftovers), I am left wishing they would just make smaller portions. Some dishes are available in "half orders," but not all.
Overall, I'll come here if someone else wants to, but never out of my own free-will.
Came here for dinner on Easter Sunday. Â Seated right away, polite, prompt service. Â Food was good. Â Good, not great. Â I had the ravioli, son had the gnocchi, wife calamari, daughter the soup. Â Food was OK, did not knock my socks off. Â Ravioli was a little bland, calamari a little salty. Â Not bad, just not the best we've ever had. Â Guess we're spoiled with Rome, Venice, Florence, North Beach in SF and North End in Boston Italian food sets the Italian food bar for us.
Review Source:Delicious Italian food..and fantastic service.
My Wife and I were traveling, and we happened upon this place. Â The food was tasty, big portions (so plan on having lunch for the next two days) and reasonably priced. Â
A big A++ compliment to Janelle, our server and the rest of the wait staff. Â My water glass never got past half full. Â Janelle was fantastic, very friendly and funny! Â As we were visiting the area, she was great in telling us where to go for breakfast that was not a chain restaurant, and interesting places to see.
We enjoyed out time there..we went back the second night for dinner.
I blame my Tom-Tom navigator for this one. Â After reading some rave reviews of another nearby Italian restaurant, I popped in the address and headed up to Arcata from my hotel in Eureka. Â I was directed to a modest residential neighborhood, at which point Tom-Tom told me to "turn right" into an empty field. Â So . . . Plan B, let's pick a random restaurant!
The service here was good, but the food was just . . . Meh, exactly like the Yelp ranting says. Â Big portions, but still too expensive for what and where it is. Â Everything covered with way too much cream and/or cheese. Â I have been known to get lazy and prepare similar pasta at home using alfredo sauce from a jar and/or condensed Campbell's soup (don't judge!). Â I have also been known to make the occassional salad consisting of romaine lettuce and canned vegetables. Â These things are not for eating out. Â Be a better planner than me and skip this place.
OK, I have saved several reviews of various local restaurants that I have been to over the last month and a half (had visitors and have been unable to Yelp my reviews - until now).
It had been awhile since I have been to Mazotti's. Â Now I remember why.
The last time was in Eureka, this time was Arcata.
Both places are not really clean.  Especially the bathroom.  Nowadays, most places have baby changing tables - not Mazotti's.  I certainly was NOT going to change my baby on the filthy floor of their bathroom!!!  Trash was all over the floor and it was NOT my  job to pick it up!
OK for the food...
I ordered lunch (SIMPLY ENOUGH, RIGHT?)
I ordered soup and salad.
MY SALAD HAD A WAD OF LONG HAIR IN IT!!! Â IT WAS NOT MINE - I HAVE A PIXIE CUT!!!
I advised the waitress - she was apologetic enough. Â But apparently not enough to give me a discount. Â It was really gross!
The soup was on the cold side, the salad was HAIRY and it took the waitress forever to come back with a refill on iced tea.
I guess I can wait another year or more to return!!!
Good, simple food. Â I loved, loved, loved that they had half servings on some of their dishes.
I had a half serving of the clams with white wine sauce. Â It was really good, flavorful and the perfect amount of food.
Everyone else in my party enjoyed their meals immensely.
Decent service. Â I liked the watercolor sea life decorating the walls.
I know the Mazzottis in Eureka is a little better than this place but seriously I've known enough people who have worked here to know the food is not authentic in anyway. The ingredients are of a sub-par quality and seem hastily prepared. The lunch menu has some decent grinders and the salads are ok but for a dinner spot, and with Abruzi right around the corner why bother. That being said, great night life spot. I saw KRS-one here a few years back and it was awesome, and reggae thursday used to be the best.
Review Source:Service: A+
Food B
I needed take out, and they got it for me in under ten minutes. PLUS the food, while being pretty standard italian, is good. Even the bread is warm.
The waitress...Kelly...was really nice, gave excellent recomendations, and was very helpful. There was a waiter who also struck up conversation (I wore my Coachella sweatshirt) and as a single gal traveling, that was really sweet not to have to sit at the bar by myself while waiting for my food.
Bread=nom with garlic butter stuffs
Red Pepper Soup=total nom, could be a little bit spicey...
Cannelloni= a little on the sweet side, could use a little something something, but fairly decent for the price ($13.99 for all of the above).
Overall...recommend.
Offers your typical Italian fare-- and considering the space and quality of the food, it's a bit overpriced. On the good side, the waiter was very friendly/outgoing and knowledgeable regarding the vegan/vegetarian items on the menu (not the usual experience for a vegan in an Italian restaurant). Despite the demographic, I was still a bit surprised that they offer a (specifically) vegetarian pasta sauce. The meat sauce was fresh also, as was the warm bread and house salad. If this place were a bit cheaper, I'd probably rate it higher. Also, we wound up here because we were in a time crunch and La Trattoria didn't open for another 30 mins. We weren't terribly thrilled at first but Mazzotti's surpassed our expectations.
Review Source:Really enjoyed our meal here. Everything was top notch. We enjoyed great and attentive service from the minute we walked in the door and I just can't say enough good things about the food. It was fresh, tasty, well prepared and nicely presented. Really yummy bread and plenty of it, basket after basket until our orders arrived. I look forward to going back.
Review Source:I have always had great experiences with mazzotti's. I've only been to the Eureka location once, so my opinion is mostly based on the one in Arcata. The prices aren't cheap, but neither is the food. It is tasty and satisfying. The bread and special tomato / pesto/ garlic butter is tops, and the salads are fresh. I feel neutral on the service. No experience stands out, good or bad.
Whenenver I had a little extra in the wallet and wanted a nice meal, mazzotti's was usually near the top of my list.
The food was decent, but with 5 of us, I asked for '2' checks. They charged us 20% for seperate checks!!!!
yes, 20%!
I will never go here again. I worked in restaurants for 10 years and it is not that hard to split 2 families bills.........................:-(
Hey management, you should rethink this one.
I've been here twice, and have failed to be impressed. Â First of all, it's expensive for generic-tasting (at best), Americanized Italian food. Â The portions for the house specials are small. Â The wait service is great if there's not a lot of other people, but when it's busy you have to vigorously flag them down amid the noise. Â The first time, my traditional spaghetti was bland at best, I could make it much better in my own kitchen. Â The second time I decided to be more creative and ordered linguini with seafood, which tasted good if a little generic, but this turned out to be a bad decision as I spent the whole night and morning throwing it up. Â Two out of two bad experiences is enough of a lesson for me. Â However, they do provide crayons.
Review Source:I think the Olive Garden is better. That's bad.
I had the vegetarian lasagna. It was waaaay too cheese, and had waaay too much sauce. Too much of something good is not always good. The cream of broccoli was not good, either. Â Just not good.
I don't feel too bad, because my lunch including a microbrew was only 13 bucks. I did leave most of my food, though.
Service was good, no complaints there.
The prices here are better than other nearby Italian restaurants.
Pros:
Fantastic bread and butter. Â Good salads. Â Fresh tasting foods. Â Decent service. Â A great place to go with friends. Â Some dishes are very good: try their eggplant ricotta. Â You get a lot of food.
Cons:
Often very crowded. Â One time someone I went with got a dish with sausage in it that had gone bad. Â Their sauces to me taste a little bland and not-so-special to me. Â Parking can be a pain at times, since it's right on the plaza.
Bottom line: Â It's a cheap(ish) Italian restaurant that's a good place to go with friends. Â Go for the company without terribly high expectations and you'll probably have a good time. Â If you want to go during the evening on weekends, you might want to make a reservation.
Mazzotti's is right on the plaza, It's a good go-to restaurant for some Italian at a decent price in Arcata. This stuff isn't incredible gourmet Italian cuisine, but the more generic Italian food that they serve IS good. The meatballs are nice and big, and flavorful as well. Lasagna, spaghetti, rigatoni and other noodle dishes are good and filling. Even the sauces are tasty. The food is nothing complex, but if you're hungry I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Plus, they often have live music performances on their small stage at night. I like Mazzotti's.
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