REVIEW OF M’TUCCI’S KITCHINA, located just south of Hastings on Montano and Coors. This new restaurant is one of many to occupy this space, all of which failed for one reason or another. The first that I remember is Spinns and for the longest time I actually thought the place was a Laundromat and it actually turned out to be a great place. Texas style chile and hot dogs of every type you could imagine. Steaks, not so good and a selection of beer that would warm the heart of any beer enthusiast as it was just being in this place with a somewhat sports bar like theme, you really felt welcome. However when it comes to businesses and that includes restaurants, I am reminded of location, location and location. It was a nice try and a good risk, but not the right spot for a city that thrives on Red or Green. They have since moved to a smaller spot behind the CVS pharmacy just across the street, the menu has been watered down with less items, but if you still want the best hotdog in town and I do mean, damn good and an outstanding beer to go with it, Spinns is the place for you. Next they tried to put a Mexican Food Restaurant in its place. One problem this restaurant had and I don’t even remember the name, the food was an insult to the state of New Mexico and to be honest I think I even wrote about it before. Truth be known, I knew it would not take long for the place to go out of business. You think you’re going to fool New Mexicans with poor quality New Mexican Food, I am sorry, you will not last. Now the place has a Voodoo curse on it. Anything that goes there goes under and people who see the place have memories and they will not go there to eat anything, so what do we do? We slap an Italian restaurant there and give it a Chinese looking Italian name with a possible New Mexico sound to it. Usually Chinese restaurants have the monopoly on the word Kitchen, with some exceptions and at the same time you make it Kitchenia which is Italian and it sounds like Mexican food going on there, so really nobody knows what the hell they are going to serve and whatever M’Tucci means, could be a name, have no idea. We walked in and where seated, given menus and a smile. Then the wait began, a long wait, too long in fact and with a staff that kept staring at us from across the room like we committed some kind of god awful sin, one of the perks of hiring people on the West Side, they are like a box of chocolates, you never really know what you’re going to get. I went to a manager and got me a waitress who was not too happy with what we did, but she put on her best fake smile, the kind of smile you see if you and her where on the edge of a cliff and she was about to push you off because she knows she could get by with it, and we began to order. There is no kids menu but a bowl of spaghetti would do the trick and they do offer one type of Gluten free pasta which they can substitute for many of their dishes. Here is where things get interesting; my attitude was that this is just another failed restaurant, maybe gone by Christmas. You have to be good, real good to make it in the land of New Mexican Food and an Italian restaurant is a serious risk. The food is damn good, scary good, some mistakes but not many. My wife had a pasta dish with chicken and gluten free Rigatoni, it had alfredo sauce like gravy to it and was to die for. The chicken was slow cooked, tender and according to my wife, delicious. I had the Cannellini Ricotta Spinach with the marinara sauce. I like to think my marinara sauce is the best. Having been to famous resturants like Wolfgang Pucks the only one close enough to my sauce that I have found, I have to admit, M’Tucci’s Kitchenia is better than mine. Their sauce is good for light pastas for example angel hair or other light stuff, not really a spaghetti sauce or something for a lasagna like mine is, but for everything else, they have me beat, I admit it, I can’t compete with them on this one. Now as for the Cannellini, it would have been nice of them to COOK IT! The pasta itself was outstanding and with flavor, you have to cook it, needing a steak knife to east pasta is ridicules. Except for my wife’s Gluten free dish which is the first I have ever tried that actually tasted great, the spaghetti was under cooked and my Cannellini was under cooked. The fad right now is pasta undercooked with enough starches in it to spray down a pair of jeans to the point of never bending them again. Cook all the starch out and don’t overcook, I know it’s hard and might take some skill but it is doable and tastes better. The wine list sucked, well not really. The list, you could tell was made up to compliment only the food they served, never leaving any room for those who have different taste desires such as a sweet red wine or Moscato as my wife asked for something red and sweet, she ended up with a red Zinfandel. I think Mimmos has everyone beat on the wine department, especially on Fridays when I used to watch all the old men come in late before closing with leather cases containing a wine bottle or two and they would sit in the back drinking wine with the owner as if to say, mine is better than yours or ill kill you. Talk about some serious wine tasting, I wonder if they still do that? So how do I rate our new Italian restaurant? I give M’Tucci’s Kitchenia on a scale of 1 to 10 and 10 being the best, I give them an 8. They have a few kinks to get out and once they do, other Italian Resturants in Albuquerque had better look out. One last note, as I left and I had not see this even with the prior business that where there, the place was JAM PACKED.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 03:21:51 +0000
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