Mama's

If you leave a restaurant full and happy, knowing that you need to walk back to the office to stave off a nap, is this the sign of a good meal? Not if you are pulling out of pig-out places serving gross amounts of country food or Chinese buffets. But in the case of MAMA’S on Dauphin Street in LoDa, it is.

MAMA’S is where quality and quantity meet. The portions are generous, but not gargantuan. Occupying a townhouse tucked among jewelry shops and a few burned out buildings, MAMA’S packs it in, literally, one block west of Bienville Square.

The consistent presence of lunchtime crowds has sometimes kept me from venturing in. But on a recent muggy weekday, I found that while they are always busy, the tables turn quickly and your lunch is not rushed.

Perhaps it was the service. MAMA’S appears to take a team approach to service. We were served by a succession of waitresses. This could be dangerous, but in this case it worked with only minor errors that could be found in any place this busy.

The menu is dominated by daily meat and starch combinations and your choice of two sides, but also has a wide selection of salads, sandwiches and fried platters. My table of four was quickly presented with our tea and soft drinks while we made our decision. I ordered the Fried Green Tomatoes ($6.95), an appetizer. A dozen large tomatoes arrived coated in a batter similar to that found on seasoned fries. Corpulent slices of juicy green tomatoes were fried to crispy perfection and served with a passable, but rather thin horseradish-ranch dipping sauce. These are the best fried green tomatoes I have tasted in some time. So many in other places are limp and rather soggy. Skip the sauce, add some salt and enjoy them alone.

The daily entrée selections with sides are $6.95. I ate there on a Tuesday and the choices were broiled pork chops with rice and gravy, chicken and dumplings or country fried steak. The vegetables include collard and turnip greens, fried okra, squash, black-eyes, green beans and limas among others. You can order any a la carte for only $1.50 a piece.

I had eaten the chicken and dumplings on a previous visit. Plump, doughy dumplings saturated the thick, creamy sauce scattered with tender slices of chicken. The table next to mine was being served their lunch just as I was deciding. A plate heaping with a generous sized country fried steak with mashed potatoes strutted past me. My decision was made. I included fried okra and turnip greens to round out my plate.

The steak was fried as well as the tomatoes had been, the potatoes creamy, with brown gravy drawn from a heavy hand. The flavor of the turnip greens was delicate, not stewed or overly salted. The true slight bitter, yet sweet characteristics were in abundance. I was cheated on the fried okra, but my server immediately noticed and brought me another cup full. Cornbread was served, but everything else was so good that I forgot to eat it.

One of my friends was not very hungry, so she ordered the appetizer of Buffalo Crawfish ($6.95). They were small, yet numerous pieces of crawfish meat were deep-fried and tossed in buffalo sauce with blue cheese dressing. The buffalo sauce was not exceptional nor was it offending. It was not lathered on heavily and the crawfish were enhanced slightly rather than overwhelmed. As with the horseradish-ranch, neither the blue cheese dressing nor the regular ranch was worth complaining about or praising. The side salad she ordered would have made a complete meal, but it was forgotten. The only real spoke in the wheel.

The salad was a good mix however, as the other two diners at my table ordered it as one of their sides. One chose the chicken salad croissant ($6.95), which was loaded with white meat chicken. The salad was abundant with the typical salad contents, but was extremely fresh and so was the fruit salad she chose. Last came the crab cake platter ($6.95). Flagrantly heavy mounds of crabmeat and dressing lay atop seasoned fries. Spiraling bands of well-made remoulade complimented the two sautéed patties. This diner could not even think about eating the second one. You might want to split this entree. If only they had salmon croquettes….

I succumbed to watching the latest damn reality show, “The Biggest Loser” on NBC tonight. It is rather sad to see these people hope and yet suffer as they had to weigh, work themselves to death, and come back to a house full of doughnuts and Cheetos. After watching some of them, it made me realize that maybe I really didn’t eat that much food today.

Ah, reality shows, they enable you to feel superior. I don’t eat this way normally, but the food at MAMA’S is good for your bones every once in a while. So treat yourself, and remember that you don’t have to clean your plate. But I promise you will.

Kinnon Phillips is Lagniappe cuisine editor. Contact him at kphillips@lagniappemobile.com.

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