NEW YORK/DINING: MAMO

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MAMO

When people ask me how I can be a restaurant critic while eating limited foods, I always explain that I’m not a food critic.  Rather, I review the entire dining experience.  And my joke is that, as long as a place has cute waiters, they’ll get a good review.  If that is my true criteria, Mamo is getting one, in spades!  Sheila and I loved the personnel there!

(L to R) Chef Matteo, server Andy, and captain Andrea, in front of Mamo. Love those Italian men! Photo by Karen Salkin.

(L to R) Chef Matteo, server Andy, and captain Andrea, in front of Mamo. Love those Italian men! Photo by Karen Salkin.

And, seriously, the food and ambience matched the service.  (By the way–this time we didn’t limit our admiration to the males—we loved Ursula, the hostess, equally.  She was so pleasant, and as professional as she was all along, at the end we ladies enjoyed some good pajama party-type laughs.)

Sheila deemed Mamo, which is in the Soho neighborhood, “very European,” an assessment I totally agree with. It’s also the classiest eatery I’ve been to in New York City for quite awhile. The whole ambience has a peace to it.

Photo by Karen Salkin.

Photo by Karen Salkin.

On the brick walls, movie posters of old Italian films lend an authenticity of culture to the enterprise. And Sheila made note of the large drum lights, which beautifully diffuse the lighting. No wonder a steady stream of customers, many of them continental, showed-up until after 10PM on a plain Sunday night!

For what to order, I definitely recommend listening to the servers’ suggestions.  Several of these guys are really Italian, (like the very pleasant captain, Andrea,) and know Chef Matteo’s cooking inside and out.  You know that I always march to my own drummer, and in food, especially, I’m usually sure of exactly what I want.  But our very knowledgable waiter, Andy, really knew his stuff, so I was happy to hear him out.  We were thrilled that we listened to him.  Everything we ordered was at his suggestion, (except for my veal chop milanese entree, the ordering of which he just reinforced.) [Note: he also highly recommended the lasagne bolognese, which is what I would have chosen, as well, but we just could not eat that much.]

Pizza Margherita. Photo by Karen Salkin.

Pizza Margherita. Photo by Karen Salkin.

We began with the margherita pizza. After one bite, we both simultaneously declared it to be “heavenly.”  It was sunglasses-good, which only one other pizza in the world is to me.  (To enjoy Brooklyn’s Spumoni Garden pizza, I have to put my hair back, close my eyes, and wear sunglasses.  And no one is allowed to talk. Mamo’s pizza deserves that same treatment.)  Sheila said that the “cheese is significant, because it’s a different-for-pizza French cheese.”  She is correct—this is the only Pizza Margherita I’ve ever seen that features cantal cheese.  That really does make it extra-yummy.

We had a conundrum as to what to order for the salad course, but Andy made the perfect suggestion.  Since the capri salad we were considering isn’t very different, (though I have a feeling it’s also delicious,) he told us to try the antipasti salad instead.  While they both feature my favorite cheese—burrata—this one comes with it atop a bed of cooked vegetables, including carrots and potatoes.  It’s finished with bagnacauda, which is a very light anchovy sauce.  I’m not a fan of those tiny fish, but in this case, they just added a tiny bit of salty taste; we would not have had even a hint that it was made from anchovies, had we not seen it written on the menu.  Sheila said the sauce was “the best” she ever had, and that the veggies were “beyond crisply tender.” (Even though “crisp” and “tender” are usually opposites in cooking methods, I understood exactly what she meant.)  We both went wild for this dish!

The burrata and cooked veggie salad. Photo by Karen Salkin.

The burrata and cooked veggie salad. Photo by Karen Salkin.

Since there were just the two of us, we really could have quit there, and been thrilled with the meal, (which included a lovely bread-and-grissini plate.) But their entrees looked so appealing that we just had to plug on.

At Andy’s suggestion, Sheila went with the unusual halibut, which was baked in paper.  (The menu stated, “baked in foil,” but it appeared to us to be parchment paper.) She loved the truffle sauce, which she said was “a luxury.”

The meat choices were not the norm, which we appreciated.  But, since I don’t eat rabbit leg, veal kidney, or red meat, I went with the veal chop milanese.  (They also serve a very high-end Wagyu burger, which features fresh truffles, foie gras, and gravy!  An upscale meat lover’s fantasy!)   The milanese is veal that’s pounded very thin, breaded, and fried, with a salad on top.  It’s one of my favorite dishes when made with chicken, but this is the first time I had tasted it with veal. It’s a wonderful compromise between a thick, juicy chop and a true Italian dish, and is always satisfying.

(Clockwise, from left)  French fries, halibut, spinach, veal milanese. Photo by Karen Salkin.

(Clockwise, from left) French fries, halibut, spinach, veal milanese. Photo by Karen Salkin.

My veal came with a hearty portion of super-crispy fries, and we ordered stir-fried spinach as a side dish. The creative presentation of them, in thin-lined copper pots, was definitely a highlight of the meal!  Sheila pointed-out that the candlelight on the table enhanced the “authentic look” of the pans.

I always have to try a dessert, and Andy said they don’t have a written menu of them because they’re “ever-changing.”  He said it’s “sort-of a surprise effect.”  I love that analysis!  That night, they were serving a delicious and creamy strawberry-adorned chocolate mousse cake, which we both enjoyed. If we had had the energy after that beautiful meal, we might have even fought over it.

The only thing we missed-out on was it being one of our birthdays—the entire staff brings out a slice of cake while singing “Happy Birthday.” Their voices are indeed lacking, but their warm wishes are definitely not. That bestowal was really fun to behold. So, I guess that I’ll just have to pay another visit to NYC, and Mamo, come January 14! So, get those voices ready, signori!

323 W. Broadway, New York  646-964-4641  www.mamonyc.com

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