Matthew W.
Yelp
Randomly stumbled across this restaurant on social media a couple of weeks ago. After seeing some reviews and pictures of their food, it got moved up on our must-visit list quickly. It wasn't until a friend of ours at a local brewery told us we needed to go ASAP. So, we did, immediately.
Located in the West Village neighborhood of Detroit, this cute house-turned-restaurant is a warm welcome to the area. With its large wrap around deck that is shared between multiple small businesses, it is the perfect spot to enjoy a great meal outside and soak in the sun. While I do not want to take the spotlight away from Mumma's, but it's pretty neat that there is a bar, massage parlor, and a forthcoming ice cream shop located in this 3-house block. There is also a nice little "Things from Detroit" shop around the corner and is across the street from the renowned Sister Pie.
Now on to the actual food review. The owner, Carl, greeted us at the door and welcomed our little 4-person group in as if we've been friends of the family for years. Upon hearing that it was our first time visiting, he graciously offered us various samples of the food they serve. We started with a 1/2 meatball each that had been cooked in a lovely red sauce. Then a small portion of their Marriage Salad. This had slow roasted pork atop of a bed of lettuce with some interesting sauce. Then finally we tried their baked meatball, which had a bunch more cheese baked into it than the stewed meatballs.
After trying those samples, we settled on our order.
Dish 1) 8" meatball sub with cheese. The roll they used for this sandwich was wonderfully fresh and filled to the max with sauce, cheese, and their homemade meatballs. This had so much flavor for only being 4 different ingredients. Truly a slam dunk and I think you will be hard pressed to find a better Meatball Sub anywhere else.
Dish 2) Fettuccini w/ meat sauce & Fennell Sausage. This dish had perfectly cooked noodles that were slightly cooked just past al dente (my preference). They had the perfect amount of chew and bite. The sauce again was amazing. Thick enough to coat the noodles, runny enough to soak the bottom of the plate with more of their fantastic bread. The fennel sausage had a slight sweetness to it which was complimented nicely by the herb flavor of the fennel seeds.
Dessert) We tried both offerings of their cannoli's. The way he presented them gave us 4 different flavor profiles to try while only buying 2 cannoli. One was filled with your traditional sweet cream and the other was filled with a nice ricotta filling. One end of each was dipped into walnuts while the other have in chopped peanuts. While both of the fillings were amazing, I preferred the end with peanuts over walnuts, but that is just a personal preference.
Carl has an amazing story as to why he created this restaurant but it is not one I would like to spoil. Instead, I urge you to take an afternoon and go visit him yourself. Throw on some sunblock, order one of his amazing dishes and let him set the scene. It is quite refreshing to have a new restaurant around with an owner who is very passionate and an absolute pleasure to interact with. He deserves 6 stars.