This Italian restaurant has opened within the last year & is about 9-10 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip. I always see a lot of cars parked in front at night so figured the food must be pretty good.
My husband was at Starbucks next door to Mastrioni’s a couple of months ago with a friend and the owner walked in. The owner knew the guy my husband was sitting with so they all starting talking. When the owner found out I, the absent wife, wrote a Las Vegas food blog, he gave Vic a $25 gift card for me to check it out.
The happy hour banner promised drinks for ½ price from 4:30 to 7 PM Monday thru Thursday. We walked in at about 5:10 on the Thursday and asked to be seated at the bar.
View from the Bar
The waiter appeared right away & gave us menus, filled our water glasses and brought some house bread (good bread!) and olive oil/balsamic vinegar.
Olive Oil/Balsamic Vinegar
I asked if they had any special house cocktails but….no luck.
Since it was an Italian restaurant, I ordered a Negroni. It’s Italian. It’s a classic drink that everyone’s heard of. It’s an aperitif. Very fitting.
Negroni w/ Lots of Ice
The waiter looked a little lost when I asked for a Negroni and had me repeat the name a couple of times. Then he said he’d go ask.
When he returned, he said the bartender hadn’t come in yet so if I knew how to make it, he’d try.
I couldn’t remember the proportions: but John looked them up on-line & the site he was reading said, 1:1:1.
Gin, Campari & sweet vermouth with a twist of of Flambéed orange.
This is what came out. Actually, the waiter didn’t do too badly considering he’d never even heard of a Negroni.
Manhattan at Mastrioni's
John ordered a Manhattan on the rocks. He said the drink was made with a sour mash whiskey (Jack?) instead of bourbon and he thinks regular vermouth instead of sweet was used. So…not really a Manhattan but John manfully drank it.
I looked at the menu appetizers and wanted to try the
Bruchetta
Bruchetta– which was roasted ciabatta bread topped with chopped tomato, garlic and basil ($8)
and the Fried Calamari – lightly floured and served with a marinara sauce ($14).
They had a lot of apps on the menu but I wanted to try what could be considered ‘typical’ Italian restaurant appetizers.
Calamari
Calamari…..very good, tender, light crisp coating and delicious Marinara.
Bruchetta…the mixture of the tomato, garlic & basil was tasty. The ciabatta was awfully soft and not chewy but nicely toasted and the fact that the bread was so tender made it easy to eat with the topping intact.
I ordered a Gin Gimlet for my second drink and that tasted fine.
Gimlet
So:
Restaurant: pretty & inviting with original art and a wide granite bar to eat & drink on.
Service: excellent. Server did his best to please (even to the point of making a drink he’d never heard of)
Food: On the basis of the appetizers and the bread, I’m going back for dinner because the food was good.
Drinks: Next time I’ll order from their good looking wine list and skip the cocktails.
Bill: $42.00 and we left an $8.00 tip. It wasn’t until the next day when I was writing up this post did I realize that we didn’t get Happy Hour drink prices on the bill. Unless the drinks are regularly $12.00 and $16.00. Which I doubt.
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