Via Emilia

I’ve only eaten her three times and I’ve never been disappointed.
The service and food have always been great.
It is located across from the USA Mitchell center and is small enough to pass by and you’ll miss it if you’re not paying attention.
A great place for a romantic dinner.
Be sure to call ahead for reservations.

The best Italian restaurant in Mobile. Every dish I have had has been fresh and unique. Intimate atmosphere with genuinely helpful staff.

Excellent excellent amazing food. We had brunch here and we enjoyed the pancakes and French toast. Everything authentic. Highly recommended.

I decided to try this restaurant based on a review in Lagniappe. Not all is as bad as my rating indicates, but what is bad, IS BAD! If cleanliness is important, choose another restaurant. The waiter was working outside of his normal duties, he usually works in the back, and it showed. I’ll give him credit for trying. First, he only wiped our table to clean it from the last patrons. He didn’t clean it, just wiped off the debris with a dry towel. OK, we could live with that. Much later, he brings out fresh bread, wrapped in a dirty towel. The towel had oil stains on it. It appeared he took someone’s basket of bread, dumped their bread, inserted new bread and brought it to our table. The service was very slow, the place was packed. I noticed my wife making a funny face as she stared at my glass of tea. Oh yeah, we were not given straws with our drinks. I seldom use them, but my wife never drinks in public restaurants without them, except this time. She pointed out that there was a fresh imprint of purple lips on my glass. I don’t wear lipstick, and if I did, it wouldn’t be purple. DISGUSTING! We pointed it out to a waitress, not our waiter, but he was no where to be found. She made a half-​hearted joke and brought out a new glass of tea with straws. No apology, and of course she didn’t offer to comp the drinks, or anything else.
The food was delicious. My wife had the eggplant Emilia, while I had a pork dish. I will not attempt to spell it. It was also very good. The eggplant was outstanding! We also had roasted artichoke hearts, which were ample and delicious, as an appetizer.
It did not appear to be going well for this business on our visit, so others may have a better experience. We heard the waitress at another table comping a couple on some of their meal because of mistakes made. The other couple didn’t seem very happy either. I didn’t think to check and see if she was wearing purple lipstick.
If you desire great food in an unclean atmosphere, this is your place. It just isn’t mine. Sorry. I hate to give a bad review for a small restaurant. The chef knows his business, but I think he may be the owner, and the owner probably needs to be managing, or hire a competent manager to see these kind of mistakes never happen. I don’t think the kitchen is large enough to handle larger crowds.

Great restaurant! Very low-​key and intimate. Can tell they focus on the quality of the food.

Wow, this place is awesome! Very small and intimate, great for dates or small groups. Menu isn’t extensive which makes ordering easier but you can’t go wrong with any choice. I had the shrimp and scallop Geonese and it rocked I haven’t seen scallops that big in a long time and the pesto sauce had me wanting more. My girlfriend got the eggplant Emilia which was also delicious. Our waiter was nice and answered all of our questions to the T, but the other servers didn’t seem very interested in helping us, that’s the only thing that kept me from giving 5. Be sure to make a reservation a few days in advance because seating is limited!

Was in town on business and an employee at my hotel recommended this place. After seeing the ratings on Unilocal,my coworker and I decided to give it a go. This place is super small and we lucked out and got table since it was a Monday night. First word of advice would be to make reservations! Wasn’t totally impressed with the atmosphere, rather cheap looking and outdated plus I was served a glass of wine in a glass that still had the last patron’s lipstick smudges on it and food particles stuck to it… FAIL!
The servers were just barely pleasant and I can bet it’s because they’re bumping into one another all day because the place is so small!
Okay now let’s get to the reason they still deserve my 3 stars… I had the Eggplant dish minus the shrimp and cheese while my coworker got the same dish with the works. It was phenomenal and the homemade pasta was amazing! Highly, highly recommend it. This restaurant could easily get 5 stars if they clean up and modernize a bit! I’d give them 3.5 if I could but you get the gist of what I’m trying to say.
Go there with an expectation for good food! Oh yeah the food takes a while to come out but that wasn’t a big deal given the food tastes freshly prepared. I’d go back.

Delicious breakfast and amazing fried green tomatoes. I came here for brunch and it was great. Prices are good for the amount of food you get.

Always excellent cuisine! Via Emilia is certainly one of my very favorite local places… always fresh with excellent presentation and warm reception! I have tried most items on this delightful menu… it’s difficult to choose my favorite! I have to say that I particularly enjoy the Eggplant Emilia… a fabulous dish of eggplant topped with cheesy shrimp and cheese!

This is my favorite restaurant in Mobile. The service is great and the food reminds me of my trip to Italy. The prices are a little high for a college student but if you go at lunch it’s perfect. Ian is my favorite waiter he is perfect so I try to go whenever he is working.
You get so much food so I always have leftovers but I am dying to go back and try one of their deserts. Tiramisu is my weakness.
*Edited* I went back and finally had the tiramisu. There was a lot of cocoa powder on top, my boyfriend choked on it a little bit, but underneath that it was delicious.

Drove past here and just had to stop. It very much is hidden away but also stands out among all of the chain restaurants.
Inside is a bit fancier, and you can see some of the fresh made options, outside on the patio is more low key but in its own way romantic.
Items rotate regularly and are posted on a white board. Since I was sitting outside, I had to awkwardly get up and hover over another person’s table to see it. It wasn’t very neat, so I was really unclear with what the options are. Obviously printing menus everyday might be a challenge but maybe there is a better solution.
The food is made to order so it takes a bit of time, but once I got my parm crusted pork, I could tell the helping was generous. Also, the homemade bread is amazing. On the downside, it is a bit more expensive, but you can tell the food is quality.!Definitely worth it if you feel like something other than a chain or BBQ!

The food here is delicious! We got the ricotta pancakes, pesto chicken sandwich, and the roast beef sandwich. Everything tastes homemade with quality ingredients. Worth the money for sure! Service was great and they made sure that our food was hot when it came out! We will be back!

One of our favorite spots. We love everything we have ever eaten here, and the staff is incredibly helpful!

This is a true jewel of a restaurant. It is small, quaint, and private. It is a little oasis in this city. If you enjoy a true unique experience you must visit this restaurant. I was amazed. The owner is on site and goes out of his way to be sure you enjoy the meal. They will modify the dishes to suit your tastes. Unbelievable! When one thinks of Italuan in this city one must exoerience this little restaurant. It reminded me of the little treasures you can only find in New York, Chicago or San Francisco. Once you have eaten here, the bar for Italian is reset and you will only eat Italian at this Place. 5 stars and BRAVO !!

My wife and I ate lunch here on a Friday. We were pleasantly surprised by how good the food was! The food was very fresh and seasoned perfectly. The pasta is made daily in house. The menu is written on a chalk board, so it seems the specials may change daily. Also items may run out therefore it’s easily updated.
There is a patio outside next to a small pond with a fountain that you can enjoy a meal or drink next to.
We also had dessert (tiramasu) that was made in house which was very good. They also offered a carrot cake that looked good.
All in all it was a good dining experience and look forward to dining here again!

The food is great, and the people who serve are so welcoming. This place is a must have.

The lamb and steak dishes are absolutely incredible– hands down the best in Mobile. Granted, one visit did not end well at all, as I ordered a positively inedible marsala dish. I couldn’t manage to choke that horror down. It turned me off to the place for over a year, but when I returned the food had reverted to its former glory. The fact that I’m still giving this place five stars despite that experience tells you how incredible the food is normally.

If you are a fan of the ‘famous crab soup’… then you will get a closer one here… The Crab & Corn Bisque — i preferred without the corn kernels in it was a treat. The cream of the soup melted in my mouth. My husband had a chicken marsala, and to its credits it was made how exactly it should be. The mashed potato had that perfect cheesiness to it. I had Chicken Cannelloni. The roll was delicious and yum. The chicken had the right kind of spices.
The place has a home — turned — restaurant look and the menu was written on the board. It was hard for us to peek from corner tables. We had to take a pic of the menu in our phone and order. The lighting was good for dinner but poor for reading. We had our seating indoors, so the noise was irritating. I should have preferred outside tables.
Food is amazing and authentic. If you are focused on amazing food and can compromise on ambience and noise, Via Emilia is a choice. My stars are just for food !

I wanted to be able to give this place 4 stars. Or even 5. Really I did. I’ll compromise with 3 ½. Nothing was bad about our visit, but for the price, it didn’t rock. Or in the words of my hubs, «it was good but there was nothing orgasmic about it.» He hit the nail on the head!
First of all, I highly suggest reservations on their busy nights. Which judging by our visit was Saturday at a minimum. We were relegated to the «non reservation» courtyard area on this mildy chilly night. So I never really saw the inside, but the whole ambience really could have used some cheesy Italian music piped in over the speakers. It was strangely quiet. Loudly quiet.
The food was overall good. I despise the chain Italian places so I really, realllly wanted to like this place. Fried green tomato appetizer was The Bomb. Huge portion and they knocked it outta the park. Nothing Italian about them, but YUM! I had the shrimp and scallop fettucine chalkboard special and it was delicious. The shrimp had a slightly, what I call, iodiny taste to them… aka, not as fresh as I’m used to, but still good. Hubs had the much Unilocaled about chicken marsala. It was meh. Very black peppery, sort of bland. We’ve had better.
Service was slow. Don’t be in a hurry. Their bread is really good though, so it helps you ease the pain of waiting. Expect to spend $ 25/​person and that is possibly just for the main course. Give it a try though — it just wasn’t as great as I expected.

Did I really eat at the same restaurant as these people?!? I’m usually not a harsh judge of character, but I had really high expectations of Via Emilia and I was sorely disappointed. :(Went there last night and got seated promptly and was told the menu was on the chalkboard. The lighting was bad and it was hard to see what was written, even with ²⁰⁄₂₀ vision.
Our server came promptly and took our drink orders and handed us delicious warm bread with olive oil. My husband decided on the chicken marsala and I wanted Italian sausage with linguine instead of the polpettone. I was told this would be no problem so I still felt pretty confident waiting for the meal.
Our food came in a reasonable amount of time and I look down on my plate and see not Italian sausage, but LINGUICA. At an Italian restaurant. Can’t pull the wool over my eyes, there is no mistaking that paprika taste in the sausage I got. I’m sure most people would’ve eaten it with no problem but I found that particular sausage unappealing with the linguine to say the least. My husband’s chicken marsala however was quite delicious and wish I had ordered that instead.
I wanted to end on a good note so we ended up splitting a tiramisu which was decent. Not the best I’ve ever had but still pretty good. If I decide to give this place another chance I’ll update my review. In the meantime, I am still on a quest to find good Italian here in Mobile. :(