Tutti Matti-January 26th, 2008

Winterlicious Restaurant Review

Tutti Matti, meaning "everybody's crazy" in italian, could perhaps really be crazy. Our reservations were scheduled for 9pm and due to usual delays (hair and makeup) we arrived at the restaurant at 9:30pm. The restaurant host abruptly informed us that our reservation was no good anymore, and that he was now seating the 9:30pm slot. Somewhat offended by our hostess experience we walked out to discuss whether we would be willing to wait until 10:00pm to eat at this "so welcoming" restaurant. Turns out our stomachs got the best of us (3 courses sounded much more appealing than burger and fries at a Montanas). We than waited in our vehicle until 9:55pm only to arrive at the restaurant at 9:57pm. We were than surprisingly welcomed and seated right away.

Ambiance
When you walk towards your table you can't help but notice the intimate setting and the home-like decor. The kitchen of Tutti Matti is clearly visible and almost makes you feel like your sitting at your friends dinner table watching him/her prepate you a gourmet meal. Everyone seemed to be enjoying their conversations and unaware of their surroundings. This restaurant would definitely not be a place to mix and mingle, or find your future hubby. All in all the restaurant was cute, intimate and conversational (and when I mean conversational I mean that the noise level allowed you to openly speak with one another).

Service
Now this perhaps could be the best part of the review yet. Coming into the restaurant and trying the winterlicious menu, would obviously be asking for variable/unusual service (as the gratuity was automatically added to the bill). Our waiter was perhaps the owner or father of ther owner or an uncle of the owner (I really could not tell). He first attempted to take our drink order and completely confused us by encouraging the purchase of a wine bottle as opposed to a glass. The girls ended up ordering separate glasses of wine (ignoring his suggestion) as their tastes differed, and I order a cosmo (which didn't feel the same as a NYC cosmo). Anyways, being non-italian our pronunciation of certain Italian words was very poor (if not ref like). When we gave our complete order to the waiter, he walked up to his other waiter buddies and laughed at us.

Appetizer:Salmon balsamic salad
The appetizer was neatly presented which inspired intrigue and definitely some drool. The raw salmon was thinly sliced and mixed with just the right amount of greens. This salad I really did enjoy and had never had anything like it (which I would later regret in the bathroom of circa completely gassed out and bloated, but that is another story).

Main Course: Tagliatelle con funghihand-cut pasta with wild mushrooms, truffle paté,garlic and extra virgin olive oil
The mushroom with freshly baked pasta had just the right amount of olive oil and oregano to fulfill me once more. Although I did enjoy this course it was not WOW, it was nothing I would ever go back for. Which is sad to see because being a winterlicious participant you would think the point of a 3 course meal for 25.00 would be to make customers want to come back and pay 75.00.

Desert: Chocolate banana pudding cream cake
Now this perhaps was the best part of January 26th (Circa ended up being flopp as expected). I have a big sweet tooth prolly the size of an elephants tooth (I use to have an elephants tooth on display in my family room..hmm) which I think you will notice in future reviews as well. The chocolate banana cake had just everything you could expect. The cake was moist and had a thin layer of banana cream that made any monkey go OOO OO AHHH AHH.

The evening ended in somewhat of a usual annoying situation when the waiter could not separate our bills (or refused to anyway). We than had to separately tell him how much we wanted to put on our individual credit cards, which he again seemed annoyed by. Although we saw plenty of people around us doing the same thing. Once we finished the staff were quite friendly and wished us a goodnight and thanked us for coming.

The place was definitely interesting, but I am glad it was only 25.00 dollars as I am most likely not going to return. The food was nothing to come back for, and the service did not leave a positive impression.

My final rating for this crazy italian restaurant on Adelaide is a 6/10.

Welcome

Welcome to the Divine Supper Club!
The purpose of these blogs is to create a place where our supper club can provide genuine reviews of each restaurant we have visited in the Greater Toronto Area. These reviews will reflect the tastes of group of females reaching their mid twenties. Each review will have a reflection on ambiance, service, presentation, each dish chosen, and than a final rating out of ten. The Divine Supper Club will critique two restaurants a month and will chose different cuisines from many different ethnic origins.