Matt's Restaurant & Italian Café

Clean and friendly place for a quick lunch not so italian lunch

Story and photos by Hilary Tetreault

"Good afternoon ladies," said an Italian looking man with a big smile, standing behind the counter.

The year-old Matt's Italian Restaurant & Café in downtown Plattsburgh is a small quaint space decorated with colorful framed paintings on the walls and classical music playing in the background. When entering the café, you notice the dessert cooler with a variety of Italian desserts like cannolis, cheesecakes and tiramisu. Seven tables fill up the cozy and clean café, a perfect setting for a quick lunch with friends.

In this seat-yourself restaurant, you also have to go up to the counter to order your meal. Matt's Italian Café offers "so-called" authentic Italian specialties. If you consider Philly Cheese steaks and a basket of french fries authentic Italian, then I suppose this would be the restaurant for you. Matt's Café offers some pasta dishes like spaghetti and lasagna but offers more of a deli style food choice. I would have to say that the Italian in the restaurant is a bit sparse.

The menu of sandwiches, panini's, and pasta offers a little bit of Italy . We loved the appetizers, such as the mozzarella sticks ($4.95) and a bowl of chili ($3.99). The assortment of beans, meat, and spices made for the perfect homemade chili flavor.

I ordered the special, which was a barbeque chicken wrap that came with homemade potato salad. The others in my group ordered a Rueben sandwich and a cold turkey sub which, both came with tortilla chips which was rather odd considering we were in an Italian restaurant.

The same gentlemen that greeted us when we walked in apparently was our server as well. He brought us our sodas that had no ice because the ice machine was not working. We sipped on our luke warm sodas and waited for our lunch, which came very quickly.

As we were eating our lunch we noticed that our server and what seemed to be the cook, stepped outside to smoke a cigarette in front of the café. As they were out front, a customer waited for about three minutes to pick up his lunch to go. The two men came back in from their break to get the man's take-out order.

After being semi-satisfied with our lunch, we decided to share a cannoli, something Italian. We had to pick up our cannoli at the counter, it was not served to us. Our dessert was filled with a creamy chocolate chip filling and a crispy homemade crust. It was served on a colorful plate that made the dessert more appealing. Our $3.50 dessert disappeared in three minutes.

Even though this little Italian café is lacking a taste of Italy, I enjoyed my lunch and the cheap prices. The service was fast and friendly, and I would definitely recommend it to someone on a tight budget or someone in a hurry.

Have you ever been to Matt's Italian Cafe? Let us know!

Matt's Italian Restaurant & Café
87 Margaret St. Downtown
518-324-2240

Free delivery

Mon to Thurs. 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Fri and Sat 12 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Sunday Delivery Only 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.