La Mia Cucina isn't your standard Miami University dining hall experience.
Instead of Yankee pot roast and sloppy Joes, the restaurant offers a variety of Italian dining. It's the only place on campus that can honestly claim to have a brick oven, which they exclusively use for their pizzas.
Another aspect the Italian-themed dining hall focuses on that others don't is presentation.
La Mia Cucina's simple, subtle additions to each dish make the food look good to eat. Rather than slop your own spaghetti and meatballs at Bell Tower, weigh your plate on the scale and swipe your meal plan, La Mia Cucina does all the work for you. Perfectly portioned onto a dinner plate, their spaghetti is finished off with a sprinkle of shredded Parmesan cheese. Their breadsticks accompanying most dishes are freshly buttered and topped with minced garlic, head and shoulders above what you get at Haines Food Court.
By making your meal while you wait, La Mia Cucina separates itself from other on-campus eateries. Just order your meal, swipe your student ID, grab a buzzer and your beverage and find a table before they buzz you to come get your newly prepared food.
This past Wednesday, Miami seniors John Scheflow and Andy Linden experienced La Mia Cucina for the first time, at the height of the 7 p.m. dinner rush.
Scheflow tried the chicken & pesto tortellini, BBQ chicken pizza and a Mountain Dew.
One thing you needn't worry about at La Mia Cucina is whether or not your plate is served hot enough.
"I almost burned my finger just carrying it over here," Scheflow said.
"This is really good," he continued, between tortellini bites. "It could use just a little bit more pesto though."
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"It's definitely plenty of food," Scheflow said before getting to his pizza. "I'm five minutes into my meal, and I'm already full."
When it came time to tackle the pizza, it turned out to be Scheflow's favorite part of the meal.
"I like the (homemade) BBQ sauce," he said. "I'm glad they didn't overdo it. There's also a good amount of cheese on the pizza. I think the pizza itself would be enough to fill me up."
As for Linden, he went all out his first time at La Mia Cucina, ordering the Italian wedding soup for starters, the chicken & pesto tortellini, shrimp & goat cheese pizza, an apple pizza for dessert and two Boylan's brand sodas - a sugar cane cola and a creamy red birch root beer.
In fact, La Mia Cucina has the best beverage selection of any on campus dining hall, ranging from Tradewinds to Nantucket Nectars, Izze's to smoothies, not to mention their complete Starbucks coffee choices.
"The portion (for the soup) is unreal," Linden said, amid spoonfuls of broth.
As for the dessert, according to Linden, "The apple pizza is perfect."
Despite most customers' satisfaction and praise for the dining hall, like all restaurants, La Mia Cucina has room to improve. During dinner hours, prepare to wait at least 30 minutes before getting your food. Standing in line among countless sorority members for 20 minutes before even ordering is no fun, no matter how indicative it may be of the dining hall's popularity.
When your buzzer finally goes off, the narrow, cramped aisle to get your food becomes awkwardly claustrophobic as those ordering food and those picking food up conjoin around the bar area.
Then there's the (missing) nutritional information. The chicken & pesto tortellini is rumored to have more than 70 grams of fat while their "personal" pizzas have been said to contain more than enough daily fat intake at approximately 110 grams per pie. Similar to IHOP's mysteriously non-existent nutritional info, when searching for La Mia Cucina's info on the university Web site, the link is conveniently "NOT FOUND" (http://www.hdg.muohio.edu/eatingatmiami/NutritionalInfo/CachedListings/La%20Mia%20Cucina.htm).
Along with minor complaints concerning Linden's fat-filled pizza, the presentation looked sloppy compared to other pizzas being served, nor was he given a soup spoon for his Italian wedding.
Even if it was due to the sheer amount of food ordered, Linden had to wait an inordinate amount of time (more than 20 minutes) for his dinner, forced to watch his friends take down their meals before his eyes. Noticing this, the head chef later apologized and gave the table two free pizzas (they left with four to-go boxes).
Then there's the menu itself. Look at it and circle the number of times they use the word "rustic" to describe multiple items. Admittedly, this isn't a huge deal, but many times on the unimaginative menu, the term is overused.
By far, La Mia Cucina's biggest flaw is its lack of Parmesan cheese shakers. On each table, there's a crushed red pepper shaker along with salt and pepper. But no Parmesan. What's worse, there's even room for it on their table setup. An Italian restaurant without Parmesan cheese is like an Asian restaurant with no soy sauce. What gives, Cucina?
Still, for all of its minor areas for improvement, when judging La Mia Cucina, students should always remember to take it for what it really is - an on-campus dining hall, not a freaking Olive Garden.
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