Tri-City: Massimo's
For Mother's Day, we took our mother to Massimo's:
We chose Massimo's because my sister got two $50 gift cards from a family friend for getting into medical school. And because the fine print on the gift cards stated that they could not be used on specific holidays, Mother's Day included, we purposely went the night before.
That's right. We're Asian that way.
The restaurant was pretty busy, but luckily we had the foresight to make reservations. We definitely felt a bit underdressed compared to everyone else:
Confession time. I was wearing flip flops.
Though in my defense, I've always felt that simple black flip flops are the dressiest of all flip flops. No? Just me?
Our meal started off with some complimentary focaccia bread:
The balsamic vinegar and olive oil that went with the bread came in this awkward bottle that basically only poured out olive oil regardless of how hard you shook it or how quickly you tipped it. In the end it didn't really matter because we asked for so many bread refills that by the time we got to our last basket, most of the olive oil was gone and we were finally able to get to the balsamic vinegar.
We wanted to make sure we used up the gift cards, so we decided to go all out. For my family, going all out means getting an appetizer, ordering one entree per person, and finishing with dessert. Crazy, I know.
For our appetizer, we got the cajun rock shrimp ($10):
The battered shrimp were unexpectedly plump and were cooked in this delicious butter sauce that was supposed to be spicy, but really wasn't.
For my entree, I got the roasted rack of lamb ($39):
It came with some kind of sweet glaze, grilled asparagus, and potatoes. Even more interesting was the little pot of what tasted like toothpaste jello. I know it's supposed to be a palate cleanser, but it was just weird.
My sister ordered the rigatoni ala Massimo ($16):
The sauce was made with roasted veal, mushrooms, diced tomato, scallions, and sherry cream. The portion size looked deceptively small because of the giant plate it came in, but there was actually a good amount of food there.
My mother actually requested a trade for my sister's dish, since she found her linguini vongole ($19) to be too fishy for her to handle:
No surprise there as it was loaded with clams.
My father, on the other hand, loves all things seafood, so he was perfectly happy with his pasta pescatore ($26), which was one of the specials that night:
Prawns, bay scallops, clams, mussels, fish...there was certainly no lack of seafood on that plate.
We ended our night with a mudd pie ($8):
The food at Massimo's was good, the service attentive, and the atmosphere intimate. But frankly we found it to be a bit expensive for our tastes. The gift cards went a long way to covering this meal, but we still had to tack on another $50 to cover the difference and tip. While there are some restaurants that I would gladly put down the money because the experience is worth the cost, Massimo's isn't one of them.
Sorry, Massimo's, but unless we get another gift card, I don't think we'll be back again. All the same, thank you for a great day-before-Mother's-Day dinner. My mother had a great time and at the end of the day, that's really all that matters.
Massimo's
5200 Mowry Ave
Fremont, CA 94538
(510) 792-2000
http://massimos.com/
We chose Massimo's because my sister got two $50 gift cards from a family friend for getting into medical school. And because the fine print on the gift cards stated that they could not be used on specific holidays, Mother's Day included, we purposely went the night before.
That's right. We're Asian that way.
The restaurant was pretty busy, but luckily we had the foresight to make reservations. We definitely felt a bit underdressed compared to everyone else:
Confession time. I was wearing flip flops.
Though in my defense, I've always felt that simple black flip flops are the dressiest of all flip flops. No? Just me?
Our meal started off with some complimentary focaccia bread:
The balsamic vinegar and olive oil that went with the bread came in this awkward bottle that basically only poured out olive oil regardless of how hard you shook it or how quickly you tipped it. In the end it didn't really matter because we asked for so many bread refills that by the time we got to our last basket, most of the olive oil was gone and we were finally able to get to the balsamic vinegar.
We wanted to make sure we used up the gift cards, so we decided to go all out. For my family, going all out means getting an appetizer, ordering one entree per person, and finishing with dessert. Crazy, I know.
For our appetizer, we got the cajun rock shrimp ($10):
The battered shrimp were unexpectedly plump and were cooked in this delicious butter sauce that was supposed to be spicy, but really wasn't.
For my entree, I got the roasted rack of lamb ($39):
It came with some kind of sweet glaze, grilled asparagus, and potatoes. Even more interesting was the little pot of what tasted like toothpaste jello. I know it's supposed to be a palate cleanser, but it was just weird.
My sister ordered the rigatoni ala Massimo ($16):
The sauce was made with roasted veal, mushrooms, diced tomato, scallions, and sherry cream. The portion size looked deceptively small because of the giant plate it came in, but there was actually a good amount of food there.
My mother actually requested a trade for my sister's dish, since she found her linguini vongole ($19) to be too fishy for her to handle:
No surprise there as it was loaded with clams.
My father, on the other hand, loves all things seafood, so he was perfectly happy with his pasta pescatore ($26), which was one of the specials that night:
Prawns, bay scallops, clams, mussels, fish...there was certainly no lack of seafood on that plate.
We ended our night with a mudd pie ($8):
The food at Massimo's was good, the service attentive, and the atmosphere intimate. But frankly we found it to be a bit expensive for our tastes. The gift cards went a long way to covering this meal, but we still had to tack on another $50 to cover the difference and tip. While there are some restaurants that I would gladly put down the money because the experience is worth the cost, Massimo's isn't one of them.
Sorry, Massimo's, but unless we get another gift card, I don't think we'll be back again. All the same, thank you for a great day-before-Mother's-Day dinner. My mother had a great time and at the end of the day, that's really all that matters.
Massimo's
5200 Mowry Ave
Fremont, CA 94538
(510) 792-2000
http://massimos.com/
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