Little Maria’s

A meatball sub place located in downtown Winnipeg. Meatballs are OK but lacked unique flavor and «zest». Pricing is on the higher end, where a lunch could get close to $ 18 with a drink, tax and tip. Enjoy Winnipeg!

Cute place that intrigued me when I first caught a glimpse of the mural on the side with the big words «little maria’s porchetta & meatballs». I mean how can you go wrong?
This place serves up your basic pastas $ 14-​$ 16, 8 different subs $ 10-​$ 11, soups, salads, bruschettas and naked balls (3 meatballs and a side) or naked porchetta (6 ounces roast beef with a side) for $ 11.
There’s 3 kinds of meatballs available: beef + pork, chicken or veggie. There’s also 4 different sauces: tomato basil, rose parmesan, arrabiata (spicy), and bolognese. I opted for the classic beef and pork naked meatballs in a tomato basil sauce with a pasta as a side (there’s 5 sides available). The meatballs are gluten-​free as there’s no breadcrumbs used in the meatballs so it’s all meat. Unfortunately, the meatballs I had were just dense and heavy with no real flavour other than just meat. Maybe I got a bad batch? There was no depth of flavour or seasoning, just meat. The pasta side was penne with roasted veggies and was good. It’s a generous portion of food and I barely finished all 3 meatballs. next time, I would try the porchetta as I think that would be interesting.
My friend opted for the meatball sub $ 10 but chose to have the chicken meatball with provolone and bollo sauce. The sub was very big with 3 meatballs. The chicken was probably a bit better than the classic meatball I had but still very dense.
Overall, it’s a good lunch place if you’re looking for a good sizeable meal. Food service was pretty fast — you order at the counter and they serve you.