PrintLove/Hate Mama' Mexico (W 102 & B'way)
This place has probably the best, freshest, most carefully prepped Mexican in the city, and yes, you do pay for it. Don't believe me? - Do a dry run by ordering a basic combo platter, all items you've gloopity-glooped through at other places before. Here, the tamale is pristinely executed, with a firm, flavorful delivery, and the chile relleno is far more than a melted block of spicy Jack ensconed in a pepper. Chimchangas? Awesome. I could go on about the food...
It's alot else that irks, though. The service is way, WAY too stuffy, from the besuited and betied maitre d' at lunch to the plurality of servers just standing around, like sentinels ringing a fort. They're also overdressed. There are always the wallet-gouging specials, even at lunch and even with an 8-page menu. (Just ask not to hear them - they'll make it stop.) Service takes awhile, but only because it's DELIBERATELY slow, to artificially formalize the dining experience. This is also another place that insists upon dining clusters - if there's one other occupied table in the whole place, be sure you'll end up sitting right next to it. But my big peeve is the customer-assisted Changing of the Table Paper, in which after your meal and before the dessert course (and by the way, no one there cares whether you're actually having dessert - YOU'RE GONNA HELP CHANGE THE PAPER) a sentinel with a fresh piece of white table paper will come over, say to you "Change the paper", and expect you to lift up everything off the old table paper so the paper can be changed. You've got your hands full managing a 15-month old? - too bad, change the paper. Busy reading the latest installment of Connolly's "The Overlook" in the Times Magazine? - too bad, change the paper. And of course, you've already asked for the check before the paper sentinel appears (didn't I mention that?).
I'll return for the food and the home proximity, but pretty soon, we're gonna decline the paper change just to test the waters of defiance...
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5 Comments:
When you say "the city," do you mean Manhattan or the 5 boroughs? Because I certainly feel like the best, freshest Mexican I've had is in Brooklyn. I'm intrigued by your review, and I'll definitely check this out.
djacobs at 11:20AM on 11/30/06
You lost me at chimichangas. That's not good Mexican food, heck it's hardly authentic Mexican food! Does this place have mole?
megnut at 5:41PM on 11/30/06
megnut, believe me, I know chimichangas are the red-headed stepchild of the Mexicamerican food world ... and I do not care. A well-executed chimichanga, and the best I've tried are at Mama' Mexico, tastes great. MM minimizes alot of the less desireable aspects of the chimichanga, in that theirs are small with minimal reminder that it's basically a fried burrito. And yes, MM has a killer mole', smoky, not sweet, tasty. I just had the enchiladas mole' on my most recent trip there, right before again changing the paper.
Sandro at 10:50AM on 12/01/06
I'm with you on chimicangas, Sandro. Love 'em. I'm intrigued by this MM place, but I don't know if I want to try it, what with the crazy service. But I'll put it on my list for next time on on the UWS.
Adam Kuban at 3:57PM on 12/01/06
The owner used to have a place at 107th or 108th called Fiesta Mexicana (I believe) that was the same menu, but with a more relaxed atmosphere (and cheaper prices). It burned down and then he opened MM. I never understood why he went the black-tie, table-paper route--the food certainly doesn't merit it--you could get better Mexican grub in a Texan hole in the wall (but of course, this is Manhattan). There's also a branch in midtown. If you're looking for delicious mole, try El Toro Partido in Harlem (Brwy and 140th).
homesicktexan at 2:33PM on 12/03/06