MAMA LOUISA'S ITALIAN RESTAURANT - TUCSON, AZ

We went here once during Tucson #1 and I remember liking it but not being super impressed. However, we (including Jean and Tim) wanted to eat Italian and this was one of the most reasonably priced restaurants. I don't understand why pasta dishes are so expensive when that type of cuisine has got to be one of the cheapest to make.

anyway, even though we arrived at the restaurant at 6pm (we had made reservations and were seated as soon as we  arrived) which i thought was an early dining time for a Saturday night; the place was packed and the noise was at the screech level. it was a real din in there. so it was physically uncomfortable to communicate even though the table we were sitting at was a small one.

as an aside, the restaurant is decorated in the usual frank sinatra- grape arbor theme but the bathroom was one of the plainest i've seen and slightly grungy.

And just like my first visit, the portions were huge and the food was good but not very good and i didn't especially care for the heavy on the tomato taste and thin pasta sauce. Garlic soft breadsticks came promptly to the table and were tasty but once they cooled off, they tasted pretty doughy to me.

I ordered a combo meal; 1 meatball, 4 cheese ravioli and some pasta with marinara sauce. I also got the all you can eat salad bar which was quite good. The lettuce was fresh and they had lots of additives for the salad and the thousand island dressing was almost a 10. The bar also had some great 3 bean and small white potato salad and a killer macaroni salad with thinly sliced green olives and a very very light dressing.

I filled up on the salad so i could take the bulk of my meal home for a leftover lunch; figuring that italian food is often better the second day; plus i'm getting tired of Lean Cuisine frozen meals for my lunch.

Bill had pork marsala with a side of fettucini alfredo. He was quite satisfied with his dish.

And then we all went home to my tiramisu which was awesome.