Mazzi’s menu worth exploring

By Adam Sparks in Feature, Food on November 12th, 2010 | 2 comments

EUGENE — I’ve been eating at Mazzi’s since I was an undergrad at the University of Oregon, which was longer ago than it seems.

The Italian/Sicilian-food restaurant on East Amazon Drive in Eugene was a go-to spot for dates; it’s elegant yet casual, and has ambiance and a cozy, classy feel to it, with low lighting and a fireplace in every room — including a hooded fire pit in the main room that burns on chilly nights.

In the summer, the patio was a great place to sit and enjoy the warm evenings in Eugene with a beer, or iced tea, and some good food.

All these years later, Mazzi’s is still a go-to place for dates … with my wife. We love the food, the ambiance, the cozy-yet-elegant feel. The food.

Frank Ernandes opened Mazzi’s in 1970, in honor of his father, Tommaso “Mazzi” Ernandes. After graduating from the University of Oregon, Frank started the restaurant, using recipes adapted from his extended family back in Favignana, Italy, a little island off the coast of Sicily where Mazzi Ernandes was born. Frank’s Eugene-area farm supplies many of the vegetables used in the kitchen. The restaurant’s attached bakery supplies the bread products, and the fettuccine noodles and cheesecakes are all homemade every day.

I didn’t know all this when I first started eating at Mazzi’s, but now that I do, I appreciate the cuisine even more.

My greatest flaw when it comes to dining is I tend to find a dish or two that I really like, and then I order it time and time again. It makes ordering simple. It also makes dining less adventurous — and rewarding — than it should be.

My No. 1 dish at Mazzi’s had always been the Fettuccine Alfredo with Grilled Chicken and a House Salad. Fresh pasta made with organic flour (I always go for the spinach fettuccine noodles) and homemade alfredo sauce; salad vegetables right out of the Mazzi’s family garden, and that tangy house, Italian dressing. Fantastic.

My backup dish was the Stromboli Calzone. Anyone who’s ever been to Mazzi’s knows the calzones are superb, and the Stromboli is my favorite. Homemade bread, chicken, prosciutto, mozzarella and parmesan cheese, broccoli, zucchini and red onion, topped with crisp, ripe tomato slices, and that rich, homemade tomato sauce.

I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it.

Since I first set out to write this review, I’ve dined at Mazzi’s four more times, forcing myself to try new dishes on each trip. I could probably fill up pages about the Fettuccine Alfredo and the Stromboli Calzone, but I figured it wouldn’t be enough to merely tell you about the two dishes I’ve enjoyed, over and over, for more than 10 years.

So I decided to branch out.

And that turned out to be an excellent decision.

The Salmone Soffritto is my new favorite dish at Mazzi’s. The meal is a regular component of the monthly Specials menu, and the menu description says all you need to know:

“Fresh, wild Northwest salmon, pan-seared, flamed with brandy, and then baked with fresh garlic, Italian parsley and lemon, served with spaghetti pesto and fresh seasonal vegetables.”

The salmon special is one of the more expensive items on Mazzi’s menu at $19, but it’s well worth the price and comes with dinner rolls, which are baked onsite and are fantastic. I absolutely can’t wait to go back and have this dish again.

Other items I’ve tried in the last couple of months include the Spaghetti with Meatballs, the Cannelloni with Cream Sauce and the Veggie Speciale pizza.

Spaghetti and meatballs is about as traditional as Italian food gets, but Mazzi’s does it well. I already knew before ordering that I love their tomato sauce — I’m a big tomato fan, and the sauce has a really rich, hearty tomato flavor — so I figured I couldn’t go wrong with homemade spaghetti noodles covered in that Mazzi’s sauce.

And I was right.

What surprised me, though, were the meatballs. Two of ’em, and they’re huge — they stand nearly three inches tall and are almost three inches wide. Seasoned, flavorful and perfect with that sauce. With the meatballs, this dish costs $14 — $10.75 without — and considering it made for two full meals, the price felt pretty reasonable to me.

The Cannelloni with Cream Sauce gets my vote for best value on the Mazzi’s menu.

For $14.50, I got two homemade cannelloni noodles stuffed with chicken, sausage, spinach, fresh-grown herbs, ricotta and parmesan cheese. The dish comes with either Mazzi’s tomato sauce or a cream sauce; I went with the cream, and it was exquisite. The sauce is light, not near as heavy as an alfredo, and the cannelloni is covered with cheese, baked and served in a small dish. I decided to forgo the salad, figuring the cannelloni and those dinner rolls would be plenty of food, and I was right, it was the perfect amount.

The last meal I had at Mazzi’s was a large vegetable pizza. I love pizza cooked in wood-fire grills, so I knew beforehand I was going to enjoy this. At $19.75 for a large, this isn’t a pie you’re likely going to order on any given night, but this also isn’t a cheap-tasting takeout pizza, either. And, for less than $20, my wife and I each had dinner and enough leftovers for two lunches, so I suppose if you break it down, that’s not a bad deal at all.

Mazzi’s has, for quite a few years now, been a once-a-month dinner place for me, but since I first set out to write this review, I’ve been eating there every other week.

I will continue that trend from here on.

And will also continue trying new menu items, fully expecting to uncover new favorites and tasty surprises as I do.

Mazzi’s Italian Restaurant
3377 E. Amazon Drive
Eugene, OR 97405
541-687-2252
mazzis.com
facebook.com/mazzisitalian
twitter.com/mazzisitalian

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Mazzi’s is a business partner of Wired Advanced Media, which operates Wired Oregon.

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