Restaurant Review: Mangia Mi East – Sandy Hook, CT

Saturday night before Mother’s Day and we arrive at this beautifully renovated house-turned-restaurant on the hill in Sandy Hook, CT. Taking the Missus out the day before Mother’s Day to avoid the crowds and share just a small token of the gratitude and thankfulness I have for her.

We were fortunate enough to call at 5:10 PM and get a reservation for 5:30. However, when we arrived, most of the interior dining area was sparsely filled. It was a beautiful spring evening and we wanted to sit outside, though we hesitated as the building faces west and we didn’t want the setting sun in our eyes. Fortunately, the front porch area is spacious and there was a four-top right beside the exterior door that provided shade and a warm breeze.

The outside area was more lively, still about halfway to capacity. There was a table of four beside us that was a little boisterous, probably due to some well-deserved spring daydrinking. One of the cocktails of choice that I overheard reordered was a Jack Daniels on the rocks, which I can only describe as Sandy Hook chic.

The restaurant location is pleasant. However, sitting outside, there is a construction site adjacent to the porch which you can’t do anything about. The property line of the restaurant could use some landscaping TLC maybe a mow, a bed of flowers, or even a well-shaved bush.

My wife’s family is Italian and they are all exceptional cooks, so we really need a draw to go out for Italian food. I was hoping for a large seafood entrée like a Zuppa di Pesce with all the bountiful umami of the sea. Mangia Mi does make their own pasta, which is so critical when you have so many Italian restaurants and ever-increasing, inflated costs. How can you justify a $35-plus entrée for dry spaghetti that costs two dollars a pound?

The wait staff was all younger local kids. They were very friendly and helpful. Our waitress was especially kind and knew the menu well, able to help with questions or assist with a selection.

We decided on the Roasted Brussels Sprouts with crispy pancetta and shaved pecorino, and my wife wanted the Blistered Cherry Tomato Crostini. I feel like the price point on these was $18 for the sprouts and $13 for the crostini, which is important because there was a vast difference between them not unlike Alfredo’s Pizza Café and Pizza by Alfredo.

The Brussels sprouts were delicious, cooked through so they were soft but still had a little char and crisp from the roasting heat. The shaved pecorino provided a complementary texture, along with the salty and generous cubes of pancetta. My mild case of OCD kicked in, separating the food to get each bite to include a trio of the ingredients.

Now, as lovely as the Brussels sprouts were, the crostini was disappointing in the other direction. It reminded me of when my mom used to do cheese and crackers for the daycare kids except I would have much rather preferred those. For thirteen dollars, you got three small pieces of crostini, a tight smear of cheese, and around six to nine small cherry tomato halves. There was no flavor and it was just blah. It hurt my frugal heart.

For our entrées, I got the Shrimp Fra Diavolo over homemade linguine, and my wife got the Crispy Chicken Piccata with capers, lemon, and wine over tagliatelle. My entrée was good, but I can only describe it as and now I know what it means to say one dimensional. The pasta was cooked well but had no flavor. The fra diavolo sauce was good but again, just missing something. It felt like some red sauce with a nice bit of heat, but I wanted to add salt, pepper, and garlic. The shrimp was also very well cooked but lacked seasoning and depth. It felt as if each part had been cooked separately, and when combined, they weren’t feeling one another  so they kept their distance. There was no love, no sweet Italian serenade on my plate.

My wife’s entrée was another story. The ingredients were old friends. They had obviously been hanging out and enjoyed one another’s company. The crispy chicken was thin, flavorful, and pan-fried wonderfully. The piccata sauce with capers soaked into the chicken and tagliatelle, with a beautiful lemon freshness dancing around shouting “Look at me!” It had that mangiami (eat me) attitude. I ended up taking parts of her dish and incorporating them into mine to bring out some flavor, and it worked nicely.

After our meals, my wife was excited to get a dessert called banana bread pudding which she had before. However, we found out it was part of the seasonal menu and they didn’t have it. That was okay because we were content to have our decaf cappuccinos, however we found out they don’t have those either. In the end, we were sitting quietly on the deck and thought it would be nice if they had some light background music, when all of a sudden “Make It with You” by Bread started playing from somewhere.

The gentle breeze and warm tune lifted us up and carried us quietly back across town.

Final Verdict: 7/10
This was our second visit, and I’m hopeful that they will pull it all together for a third-time’s-the-charm experience.