MAMA Oakland

"Fantastic food and service! We got the Yukon Potato Chowder and the Focaccia Bread for our appetizer. The Focaccia Bread with the fig jam was heavenly! For our pasta dishes, we had the vegetarian versions of the Bucatini & Mama’s Sugo and the Wild Mushroom Risotto. The dishes were excellent, and the service was top-notch!"

"Had a delicious experience, opted for the extra course and I may not ever need to eat again. The food is amazing but the atmosphere is still casual. A great combo. We sat at the chef’s counter which was nice for a date night out."

"Wife and I had our anniversary dinner here and enjoyed it a lot. The menu is fixed, but we splurged and got a nice bottle of wine and extra entree as well! The food is that good - simple yet elegant, and of course delicious! Must try for a romantic night out or with friends and family"

"Great quality food and service was amazing. Sounds like the menu changes every day but I truly think you can’t go wrong with their pre-fix. We added a bottle of wine and the meatballs. The portions were perfect."

"Came by for a nice night out right as it opened. We booked the wrong reservation date but they still managed to squeeze us two in as long as we left in 1 hour 45 min, which was plenty of time to eat. We had the fixed menu and added short ribs and a bottle of wine. I noticed mostly couples coming in although there was a large family group as well. The shop is decorated in retro pink and green colors. It’s a cozy ambiance. You definitely feel like the staff cares about your experience and they know their stuff about the menu. They took away each set of utensils as we finished each part of the menu, and they wiped the tables too. We got one of each option in the fixed menu to share between the two of us. Tomato salad - Beautifully arranged. Different shapes of heirloom and cherry tomatoes. The tartness of the tomatoes shone through the light sauce. Butternut squash soup - Creamy and acidic. It felt warming. There were only like 2 pieces of prosciutto in this. Mushroom paparadelle - Also creamy and the noodles were thinner than I anticipated, thus making it lighter than I expected. Completely different from the tomato-based pasta so it balances things out if you can try both! Tomato - I’m a fan of bright tomato sauces in pasta. This felt like it had a bigger ratio of tomato to meat. The shape of the pieces made it quick for me to eat, although I didn’t realize how full I was getting until later on. Short ribs - Less heavy than I anticipated as the bones were big and there was less meat. I think there must have been 4 pieces of meat overall. The amount of sauce balanced things out. The accompanying salad was bitter which I liked. It cut through the richness of the meat. They waited for us to finish our pastas before bringing the short ribs out. Makes sense for table space but we were expecting to eat it with our pastas. The portions were just right! I ate a bit of bread before coming here and felt like I should’ve been a bit hungrier. As with most pastas, the fullness hit me as soon as I got home. The wines had interesting descriptions in the menu. The staff was happy to answer any questions we had. Overall this was a romantic date night experience."