Review

Fat Joe is back wit another installment of sharing his knowledge of food, drinks and cruzzin in my IROC. So I was catchin a day load down at the Philadium when I overhead deez two broads (Tina, Gina) from aronacawna talkin about going to dinner. Naturally, I leaned in a bit closer after hearing something about food and was further intrigued when I heard a gift certificate was involved. I rudely interrupted their conversation and I introduced myself as Philly’s biggest food guru. Imagine my surprise when they had heard of me (from a incident I had drivin up da Spectrum steps years ago). Long story longer, I invited myself to their meal, bought em a round out of someone else’s pile and headed straight home to tell my moms to press purple fila joggin suit. Now Mama Maria is a bit of local celebrity cuz she has dis local cooking show “Cooking Wit Mamma”. Mama Maria’s Ristorante features Mama’s old world recipes and unique dining style in da heart of south philly. The restaurant itself has been around since 1992 (bout the same time their website has had an update) but its decor has a comfortable old world kinda feel, like I stepped right into a spot in say Naples. Now da way da meal works at Mama Maria’s is bit unique to your traditional chow house. First of all, Mama’s gives you all da table wine you can drink (red or white) which is primo touch for a guy who overindulges in alcohol, such as me. Don’t be overwhelmed by the amount of courses, it’s about da same amount of food that you would get in a regular place just over a greater period of time. What yous do get to choose is your entrée, which usually consists of three or four choices of meat, poultry, seafood, and usually a fish. The staff there provide great service and are quite knowledgeable about da different options Here is da course breakdown.

Course 1. Antipasti - dis was on da table when I rolled in, it had some roasted peppers, eggplant and zucchini wit some sort of tan bean. I actually enjoyed dis, dem broads didn’t stand a chance on dis dish.

Course 2. Soup - Escorale soup was also pretty tasty, of course I ate everything.

Course 3. Pasta – Three different kinds of pasta dat night was a vodka, freado, and a marinara. All very tasty.

Course 4. Entrée - You know what cuz, I wasn’t to impressed wit my entrée. Don’t get me wrong, every part of dis meal was enjoyable but the entrée left something more to be desired (which is not a problem wit me and da ladies). Presentation isn’t all that important to me (take a look at me), but I could have got da same garnish at a diner in Jersey.

Course 5. Dessert – When da cart came out, I got real excited again. You simply pick what you want from like rum cake to New York style cheese cake. Everything her was solid.

After Dinner Drinks - Da best part of dis about dis meal, Mama makes a mean homemade lemonchello which comes in flavors; strawberry, lemon cream, orange besides da usual straight lemon. Dis already impressive array of after dinner drinks is flanked by a bottle buca, amaretto and grappa. Being a man that is dedicated to his work, I tried each and everyone of deez bottles for you, and lemme tell ya, Dey were all bangin.

Getting to rub elbows wit Mama is always a nice touch, commin out and greeting all of her patrons I feel is something you don’t see everyday in a today’s restaurants in Philly. I give mamma some props for comin out and goin a few rounds wit me on a half a load.

Mamma's has a set price of $50 a head which doesn't include sales tax or gratuity. For all da booze you can consume, its a decent deal.

Parking is home of da double park, on Passyunk you can get away wit dis. There is a park lot across da street. It usually full but its better then not havin one.

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