First Bite: Mama Lou's Italian Kitchen

I've been looking forward to dine at Mama Lou's Italian Kitchen ever since I fell in love with its sister brand, Nonna's in Nuvali. And when my fried decided to have her birthday celebration at its Ayala Malls the 30th branch, I smiled from ear to ear! 

Hello, Mama Lou's Italian Kitchen.

After years of eying this place, I finally got to visit  Mama Lou's with some of my closest friends to celebrate K's birthday. Since we were dining on a Friday night, I decided to make a reservation to make sure that we have seats. 

Almost everyone came on time except for one who got stuck in terrible C-5 traffic. And I was glad that I made that reservation as the place was packed! 

We decided to go with Mushroom Chicharon (PHP180), Mozzarella Sticks (PHP195), Risotto Tartufo Funghi (PHP325), Half and half of Tabarnes and Quattro Formaggi (PHP325, 12" | PHP425, 14") and a pitcher of Mama Lou's Iced Tea (PHP250) while we wait for the rest to arrive.

While waiting for our order, we were given complimentary bread basket with pesto and marinara dips. We were all famished that we finished it with much gusto.

Mushroom Chicharon is not new to me as I've had it at Nonna's and loved it! The crisp oyster mushroom served with vinaigrette is an awesome appetizer that everyone should have when dining at Nonna's. And Mama Lou's version was exactly the same. Fried to perfection, it was so good that we had to order another. 

The Mozzarella Sticks were your usual golden brown cheesy goodness. 

Another favorite of ours is Risotto Tartufo Funghi. Each mouthful was oozing with truffle taste and its texture was on point with its rather plump bite. Either the serving size was too little or we loved it so much that we ordered another plate of it. 

And a trip to Mama Lou's wouldn't be complete without trying its famous pizzas. Since we were a group of fickle-minded gals, we decided to go half and half with our pizza.  We tried two of the three highlighted pizzas on the menu--Tabarnes which comes with tomato, mozzarella, bell pepper, black olives, pepperoni and anchovy; and Quattro Formaggi, a blend of mozzarella, bleu cheese, cheddar and brie. Both were great and not overly oily that would force you to dab the top with napkin. Tabarnes had a predominant salty taste from the pepperoni slices and anchovies but it was downplayed by the tomato base, black olives and bell pepper. Quattro Formaggi, on the other hand, is something cheese lovers would enjoy. Each bite was oozing with cheesy taste!

We wanted to try more dishes but the service during our visit was terrible. We had to follow up our orders several times as all servers seemed to be focused on one table where a celebrity was dining. We decided to just move to other restaurant to continue our dinner. 

Mama Lou's offer great dishes but service needed to be improved on. I was expecting a lot more as I had a superb experience at Nonna's. But I left the place disappointed. I raised my concern to the owner who responded right away to my message. I hope that my next Mama Lou's visit will be better. 

Mama Lou's is located at 2nd Floor, Ayala Malls the 30th, Meralco Avenue, Pasig City. They also have branches in UP Town Center, BF International, Evia Lifestyle Center, Ayala Malls Vertis North and an upcoming one in Ayala Malls Feliz.