The food is good. I would have given it 4 or more stars, except for a few things: * The first time we went there, we never received their little garlic bread balls from the waiter. Then we noticed that everyone else was getting them....after we ate, so I asked for some. I mean, why did the guy forget to bring us some of these delicious treats, when he provided them to all of his other tables. * It was a cold day, and we were seated by the door. Every time the door opened, we received a blast of cold air. I had to get up several times to close the door, since this was not high on the waiter's list of priorities. Also, they never "enforced" the door closures, so you would get these people in jackets standing in the doorway, half in and half out, with the door open. I had to go tell a them a couple of times to close the door! Even when we asked the waiter to keep an eye on things, we were exposed to the cold way to many times to be enjoyable. Overall, the food was actually pretty good. We have to get the meatball dishes, since they were what the restaurant was named after, and we enjoyed them a lot.

From the start, we had mediocre service at best. They sat us quickly, but took 5 minutes to bring a menu, and another 5 min to bring the drink menu. They then refused to honor my ID, because i was not a CA resident. Okay, whatever, no drinks. We ordered and quickly received our meals (aprx 5min). My penne were drowning in sauce and cheese; there was less pasta on the plate than either. The ravioli were also hidden under a quarter inch of creme sauce. It was beyond Americanized. They attempt to have a classy atmosphere, but their name and food tell a different story.

I was so excited about eating at Mama meatballs it reminded of my youth growing up in New York City in Little Italy with the greatest food ever and the giant portions and the friendly family service well this fell short of that but the service was very good and tbe food. .. well ok at best. For the food, the gravy is paramount, thats Italian for the sauce. I prefer the gravy to stick to the pasta I want the stickiest, thickest, richest sauce with a zesty hint if garlic and the freshest herbs from the garden, this was not that kind of sauce when my son ordered the spaghetti and meatballs which was $14 and came with nothing the water from the sauce floated to the top so the clear fluid sat up on toenon the top of the pasta dinner

By far the closest thing to AUTHENTIC Italian food you can get in all of SLO County which makes sense since the family is straight from Italy. I have both eaten many times and used them to cater my wedding because of how authentic and tasty their food is. Do yourself a favor, and give them a shot.

Phenomenal food, phenomenal waiter