Find handmade pasta inspired by chef Josh DeCarolis’s Italian nonna at Mothers & Sons Trattoria downtown, where our best recommendation is to fully go for it with a four-course, Italian-style meal with salads and bruschetta to start, followed by a pasta or two to share, a hearty protein entrée with vegetable sides and dessert. You may overdo it, but an after-dinner espresso or aperitif will set you straight. Experiment with the extensive selection of amaro to aid your digestion.
This is one of my wife’s and I favorite restaurants in the Raleigh Durham area. This is some of the best Italian food I’ve tasted and I’ve lived in Italy for a combined eight years. That being said, the quality has dipped over the past and the portion sizes have seemed to gotten smaller. I still love this restaurant, but was a bit disappointed in my last visit. I would also like to see them change the menu it hasn’t been changed in a couple of years. I do like to stress that the staff is wonderful and when I had a small issue with one of my plates, they happily took it back and gave me a fresh and larger serving. I do love the staff.
Linda B
Nov 12, 2024
5
This is one of our favorite restaurants. Atmosphere is nice, service is good, but food is top notch. The ingredients are fresh and recipes as if I am in Italy. The house made pasta is not to be missed.
Candise Henry
Sep 25, 2024
5
Mothers and Sons is always amazing! The food is tasty and the staff are great. We had a large group reservation and we underestimated our numbers by about 15 people, and the staff were super gracious in accommodating us and still providing great service. Thank you so much to the restaurant team! Highly recommend!!
Acelynn Barefoot
Sep 25, 2024
5
Enjoyed a fabulous dinner at Mothers & Sons Trattoria for our company retreat (second year in a row)! They provided impeccable service for our group, delicious food, and a wonderful opportunity to connect with one another! Could not recommend this restaurant enough for a private-dining event! :)
Naomi Taylor
Sep 25, 2024
5
Our work retreat vastly underestimated the number of people but Mothers & Sons scrambled to deliver and they sure did. We had fabulous service and fabulous food! Thank you!
Jay Horowitz
Sep 16, 2024
5
Grabbed dinner at Mothers & Sons before seeing a show at DPAC. Started with the arancini and beet root salad appetizers, both we delicious. For mains we had the eggplant parmesan and the daily special pasta fagioli. The eggplant was more like an eggplant lasagna, it was huge and excellent. The pasta fagioli was not bad but probably would not order again. Overall, the meal was very good and I would happily come back again.
Vina Carpenter
Sep 5, 2024
5
We just arrived from Oregon and stumbled across this restaurant. Fresh and delicious food! Great service as well. Definitely recommend this place!
Jon Z
Aug 2, 2024
5
Had a reservation for the other night and shared a few plates with my wife.
Incredible dish, the Squid Ink Tonarelli. It might be there one of the best I’ve ever had. It is the house specialty of course, so you assume it will be good. But, the first bite I had was so memorable, I’ll be thinking about it for years and years to come. I wasn’t expecting that.
We loved the other dishes we had, the Gnocchi in particular had such a depth in flavor that I was not expecting.
The grilled octopus was also a revelation… every part of the meal was exceptional and we had such great service with the meal.
10/10 experience, definitely planning on going many more times to experience more of the menu!
irko k
Feb 27, 2024
5
Didn’t make reservations, but got a great table. Service was wonderful. Food was great. The Porchetta was slightly charred.
The beet salad was delicious, and the eggplant Parmesan was delicious as well, we will go back again.
