Mamma Luisa Italiano - Newport

Visit every time we are in Newport and the food is always a 10!

Finally made it for the first time to Mama Luisa.. The minute we walked in, it felt like we were transported somewhere in Italy on a small hill top town .. beautiful, cozy place with lovely music playing in the background…..very lovely stuff and food was beyond any words .. just spectacular ?

Absolutely loved our time at Mamma Luisa! It was our first visit, and we fell in love with their pasta vongole. The sauce had a deep, rich flavor that cannot be replicated elsewhere. Prosciutto and cantaloupe dish was just so heavenly! Steak was great, but a little chewy (we requested medium rare . Last but certainly not the least, their desserts were so yummy! I had tiramisu, and my fiancé had a pistachio cream dessert. Of course, we loved both. Our server (Jessica, I think? was so courteous and knowledgeable and took care of us so well! She’s the best. : On the other hand, one of the servers (an older Asian lady was quite rude to this lovely older couple who sat near us. The way she talked to the couple didn’t sit quite right with us. Her speech was curt and did not seem professional. We heard her say that she has worked at the restaurant for 10 years, so I guess her attitude doesn’t come from her lack of experience. She wasn’t our server, but she made us feel quite uncomfortable whenever she was serving the tables next to us. Since she wasn’t our server, we are not taking a star off, though!

This is really too bad that we got to this point. I hope you don’t have to change a reservation. We had an unexpected circumstance come up and I called to explain. They agreed it’s extremely busy weekend (7.4 with people crawling everywhere and then some) and they’ll have no reason to not rebook space. I have screen shot of reservation app to prove they filled space. However, despite our agreement, they agreed to waive fee if they filled, they hit my CC for $100 cancel fee. As a Newport Local, I will not only return, but will also be in touch with everyone I know here to suggest they should not book reservation at ML.

I am deeply disappointed on how the restaurant treated us tonight. I am home sick, since we didn’t want to get charged a fee for not showing up, my fiancé went to go pick up food. The attitude and rudeness of the guy at the front desk was unacceptable. He made us get two appetizers and then told us that we had to use the whole giftcard since it’s a one time use. We were also still charged the $50 fee… for a no show.. even though we explained our situation to the owner.. We used to love this restaurant, celebrated our engagement there. We will not be going back.. which is a shame.. if I could give it zero stars I would. Don’t waste your time at this restaurant.