Italian Cuisine for Dinner – Laurel Mississippi

…continuing with our recent trip to Mississippi with Laurie’s sister Bonnie and her husband Bill.  For our last dinner in Laurel before we headed back to East Tennessee, we’d decided to go Italian.

This is Mimmo’s Restaurante Pizzeria in downtown Laurel.  Like most restaurants and entertainment venues, there was a help wanted sign in the front window.  Reviews were good…except for slow and uneven service but we weren’t in any hurry.

Here are a couple of views of the inside of Mimmo’s Restaurante.  Tables are well spaced, the brick wall is an interesting architectural detail, the ceilings are very high and, for added interest, there is that big fountain in the middle of the dining area.

It had be a long day of shopping and exploring so we were ready for an adult beverage.  The beer selection was limited but we all found one that we like, with 3 Blue Moons and a Stella Artois.

Service was slow at the start and our waitress wasn’t the most organized person in the room…

So how about the food?  Bonnie and Bill shared the Cozze Bianche…fresh mussels in white wine sauce.  They really enjoyed their appetizer and the sauce was terrific.  It was a great start…but more bread was needed to mop up that sauce!

I ordered the Gamberi alla Diavolo as our appetizer.  A nice serving of large shrimp were sautéed in garlic and crushed red pepper and served with marinara sauce.  The shrimp were very large and fresh and the spicy garlicy marinara sauce was a winner!  Plus in this instance there were two pieces of bread that enabled us to finish off the sauce.

Both the Caesar salads and the house salads which came with our meals were fresh.  The only problem was the not unexpected delays in getting our food.  There was a big gap between our appetizers and our salads showing up…

The kitchen must have been short staffed as well.  We could only see one overworked chef at work and he was running fast.  We kept speculating which table would receive their entrees next…

The good news is that when we did get our entrees, it was worth the wait!  This was Bill’s Spaghetti Pescatora.  It contained Gulf shrimp, mussels, clams and calamari with spaghetti all sautéed in a garlic white wine sauce.  Two thumbs up!

Laurie and Bonnie had already sated their appetites with samples of the appetizers, a bit of bread dipped in sauces plus salad, so they decided to order and share what they thought would be a small Margherita Pizza with basil, oregano, mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce.  They couldn’t even finish half of this larger than expected pizza!

I selected the Veal Saltimbocca for my entrée.  Lightly breaded and pan seared veal tenderloin was topped with imported prosciutto and mozzarella in a light brown sauce, then served over angel hair pasta.  It was almost too much to eat…but I managed anyway.  It was excellent!

Our food was top notch.  We were forewarned that service was slow so that wasn’t as big a problem as it would be for many…or even for me if I hadn’t expected delays.  We spent well over 2 hours at Mimmo’s but given the quality of the food, it was worth the effort.  Five stars for food, 4 for ambiance and no more than 2 stars for service.

Mimmo’s has 3 locations in Mississippi, Quitman, Meridian and Laurel.  The Laurel restaurant is at 312 Central Avenue.  Phone: 601-342-2098.  Their website is at: http://mimmos.online/, but the best ‘current view’ of their full menu can be found at https://www.menupix.com/menudirectory/menu.php?id=31009963.   

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave