During a trip to Montreal earlier this year, we stayed at the Imperia Hotel and Suites in Terrebonne. There's a restaurant in the hotel that we've eaten at a couple times. While it's OK for hotel food, we were looking for something other than eating in the hotel that particular evening. My colleague, Ian, and I had gone out for a beer run after getting to the hotel and we noticed an Italian restaurant not too terribly far from the hotel - Mangiamo Trattoria and Cafe. When everyone got in to the hotel that evening, we suggested heading down the road a bit to Mangiamo and they all thought that was a good idea.
Mangiamo (which roughly translates into "Let's Eat" in English) is a four location small chain that you'll find more in the north/eastern suburbs of Montreal, areas that are heavily populated with French Canadians. It is a family friendly restaurant that does not serve alcohol (more on that later) and features an extensive menu that has a little bit of everything for everyone in the family. But their focus is on Italian food with pasta dishes, veal and chicken entrees, pizza and calzones. I couldn't find out the owners or the history of Mangiamo, but there appears to be some connection with the owners of Mangiamo with the Giorgio Ristorante Italian restaurants and Le Steak Frites St-Paul steakhouses in the greater Montreal area.
The Mangiamo in Terrebonne is located on Chemin Gascon (Gascon Road), a main north-south street heading into the older part of Terrebonne and just off the 25 Freeway. (see map) Since there were nine of us that evening, we had called ahead for reservations. But they said that if we came in at 7:30 we probably wouldn't have trouble getting a table. We figured either the place was big, or it wasn't a popular place. Well, it was big - it probably seated 200 people - and it was popular.
As our group waited, I scoped out the bar situation. Well, as I said, there is no alcohol sold at Mangiamo. But when Ian asked if we could bring in our own wine, the host said it was no problem - they didn't even charge a corkage fee. He even pointed out an SAQ - short for "Société des Alcools du Québec" (basically, "The Alcohol Society of Quebec"), the provincial liquor store in Quebec - that was just across Chemin Gascon from the restaurant. Ian and I hopped in the van and we went over and found some bottles of Liberty School cabernet. It was a little more expensive in Quebec than what I can find it in Iowa, but we ended up buying four or five bottles to take back.
We were kind of taken aback by the number of families in the place. It was pretty loud in the place, but almost as soon as we had ordered our food we noticed that people were filing out pretty quickly. By 8 p.m., we pretty much had the restaurant to ourselves. The dining area featured a number of two seater tables that could easily be manuevered around to accommodate groups of four, six, eight or more. We were seated at a series of two seater tables along a wall with banquette seats. The atmosphere and decor were both pleasant enough.
The menu was interesting to go through. Although it was in French, I had little trouble figuring out what some items were. And what I couldn't figure out, we had a French speaking person at our table to help with translation. They had veal or chicken parmesan or marsala on the menu. Of course, they had a number of pasta dishes, all of which could be paired with one of five different types of sauce they offered at Mangiamo. One of the things that caught my eye was the Lasagna Erico - lasagna baked with a bolognese sauce, mushrooms, Italian sausage, pepperoni, green peppers and red onions. (They also had a Pizza Erico on the menu, too.) I ended up ordering the Lasagna Erico.
One of the first things they brought out was a bread board with fresh Italian bread and roasted garlic cut in half with vinegar and oil. Now, I didn't think I was that hungry, but the roasted garlic on the bread with the vinegar was outstanding. I couldn't stop. None of us could. It was very tasty.
We had ordered a few appetizers including the fried calamari that was very good. The calamari had a great consistency in taste with the light batter they used and the sauce that came with it had sort of a spicy mayo flavor. I was afraid I'd eat too much of the bread with the roasted garlic and the calamari that I wouldn't be able to eat my entree.
Our food came to the table remarkably quickly - probably because it was past 8 p.m. and we were literally the only ones left in the house. My Lasagna Erico (below left) was about as interesting in presentation as it was on the menu. It was mozzarella cheese baked on a plate - not in a dish - over slices of Italian sausage links with chopped green peppers and mushrooms interspersed through the dish. Pepperoni slices with rings of red onions and chunks of real bacon were on top of the mozzarella cheese. Actually, I'm not even certain that there was any pasta noodles in the dish. If there were, there weren't many. I'll have to say that it wasn't bad at all.
Ian got the veal parmesan (above right). It featured two small veal cutlets that were fried, then baked with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. A small side of spaghetti with a bolognese sauce came with it. Ian proclaimed the veal parmesan as, "Good. Not great. Bet certainly edible."
My colleague, Matt, went the simple route and got the penne pasta with chicken (below left). It didn't appear to have much chicken in it, but it was tossed with olive oil and herbs. Matt said it was fine. "I'm glad I got this," he said. "I loaded up on the bread and calamari."
One of the other guys got something that looked excellent - the veal marsala (above right). And according to him, it was very good. It featured two veal cutlets topped with sauteed mushrooms - large slices of sauteed mushrooms - and a marsala wine sauce reduction. Instead of pasta, he went with the mixed vegetables. He told me, "Oh, yes. This is very good. I'm actually surprised at how good it is."
We all decided that the food at Mangiamo was pretty good - above average for an Italian restaurant. And it was also pretty reasonable - we figured it was less than $25 bucks a head for the food, including the appetizers. I couldn't finish my portion of the Lasagna Erico, but I did make a significant dent in it. Other than not knowing that it was a B.Y.O.B. place, our experience at Mangiamo was pleasant enough. Good service, good food, good atmosphere - all at a good price. Mangiamo is not fine dining, but it's serviceable when you're eating with a group.
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