Mama Carpino's

In all of the HD, Apple Valley houses 2 of the HD's top Italian restaurants. DiNapoli's and Mama Carpino's are arguably the top spots for Italian in the HD. Both restaurants are elegant, family oriented, and NOT Olive Garden. After reviewing DiNapoli's, it was only a matter of time before I headed to the crosstown rival for a meal fit for review.

As soon as you walk through the door of Mama Carpino's you'll immediately notice the dessert fridge and all of the decadent treats and pastries behind the glass. All dessert items are made in-house and can be purchased to-go if desired.

Mama Carpino's also offers a full deli equipped with various Italian meats and cheeses.

Immediately after we were seated our waitress brought us fresh baked bread accompanied by a plate of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The bread was warm, fluffy, and had a crunchy outer shell which had a strong flavor of italian herbs and seasonings.

We decided to start off with the Bruschetta appetizer. Bruschetta is what I like to call "Italian chips and salsa"! The Bruschetta consisted of bread slices baked to a hard crunch and a blend of tomatoes, oil, basil, and onions covered in parmesan cheese. If you're a garlic lover then this dish is screaming your name, the dish had a mild spiciness from the garlic and a strong garlic aftertaste to accompany the fresh tomato and basil undertones. The crunch from the crouton-like bread slices served as a perfect carrier for the soft garlic filled tomato mixture. If you order this appetizer while on a dinner date, make sure you bring some mints in your back pocket, that is unless your date loves the smell of garlic!
Our meals came with starter salads, I opted for the homemade raspberry vinaigrette dressing on my salad. The dressing was sweet and sugary, the olive oil in the dressing perfectly balanced out the sweet flavors to make the dressing taste like a sweet vinaigrette and not a dessert sauce. The salad was light and cleansed the pallet, properly preparing us for the main course.
Above is the Crab Manicotti, they basically just made one huge manicotti packed with crab chunks and various cheeses, the dish was drenched in a cream based italian sauce. The dish itself looked more like a large burrito than it did a manicotti dish! The lasagna sheet they used to wrap the crab mixture was a little undercooked towards the middle of the dish and was almost unmanageable to cut and eat at times. The crab portions in the mixture were very generous but some pieces tasted incredibly fishy compared to other chunks in the filling. The ricotta and other cheeses in the filling were very tasty but also tasted fishy in certain areas of the dish. The cream based sauce had way too much cream that easily took away from the other spices and ingredients in the sauce. The idea of the dish is great, but unfortunately it wasn't properly executed, I even questioned the freshness of the crab while eating the dish due to the overly fishy taste in certain chunks of the filling. I think a properly cooked pasta shell would've gotten this dish off to a better start too.
My wife opted for the normal Manicotti dish, her Manicotti tasted excellent. The pasta shells were perfectly cooked and the cheeses were warm and gooey. My only gripe with this dish is the sauce, it tasted more like a pizza marinara sauce than a pasta sauce. It worked with the dish, and that's essentially what matters, but it could've been better with a little more elbow grease in the making of the sauce.
Our friend Mike ordered the Chicken Alfredo, this dish was easily the best of our entrees. The noodles were soft, the chicken had great texture, and the sauce was creamy and had tremendous amounts of flavor. The Alfredo sauce easily stood out as the shining star in the dish!
Our friend and fellow blogger Monique (A Profound Muse Poetry) ordered the cheese ravioli. The cheese blend in the ravioli tasted great and the shell was warm and soft. Unfortunately the sauce was once again the only dull spot to the dish. While tasting Monique's ravioli and my Wife's manicotti all I kept thinking about was how the sauce tasted like the marinara dipping sauce that comes with fried cheese sticks. It just seems like the seasoning was off in the red sauce, maybe it was just an off day....
Pictured above is the garlic cheese bread side dish, this is also another pick for the garlic lover in the group! The bread was crunchy and held up great to the large amounts of garlic, butter, italian seasoning, and mozzarella cheese! This bread is a perfect accompaniment to any italian dish and adds an extra splash of flavor when teamed up with any sauce or pasta!

Overall Mama Carpino's offered a very pleasant dining experience with friendly service, a beautiful dining room, and a vast selection of meal choices. The execution of the dishes seemed to be lacking with undercooked pasta, under seasoned tomato sauce, and questionable crab meat. Despite the hiccups, Mama Carpino's is still a decent Italian restaurant that just seemed to be having an off-day. However, the Chicken Alfredo dish alone is more than enough reason to make a stop at Mama Carpino's! For our appetizer, 2 entrees, and 2 soft drinks the bill came in at just under $40. Mama Carpino's is located at 22010 Highway 18 in Apple Valley.