Mamacas

30/10/2008

Mamacas
Category: Modern taverna/Downtown
Atmosphere: Modern
Food: Taverna fare that could be a lot better
Service: Competent
Cava: Decent
Prices: 25 euro a person
Address: 41 Persefonis str., Gazi, Tel. 2103464984

For those who go to restaurants just because they’ve read about them! The food is a lot less than mediocre although this place is famous. The neighborood is fun and offers more interesting places to dine out.

I don’t know what we were thinking! On a balmy October midweek night, we found ourselves wandering around Gazi. Tables outside were full. A few friends were heading to Urban, Having recently been there, be opted for the best-known taverna in town, a place I had not been to in many years—almost since its opening around a decade ago. Mamacas. Then, despite the overcrowded outdoor dining space and the relatively empty dining rooms of most nearby restaurants, I remembered why I had given up on well-known Mamacas so many years ago. The food just isn’t good.

For anyone who’s followed this column recently, you’ve surely noticed the turn toward places that offer a good balance of value for price. It’s the spirit of the times that demands that, and restaurants are hurting. Especially the high-end ones. But the middle of the road places that appeal to the pleb in all of us (even the rich, once, ate their fava and bakaliaro skordalia at laikes tavernes) still need to provide a comparable relationship between price and value. That said, my inner red light goes on when I see a lentil salad for 7.60 on the menu!

We ordered a slew of mezedes at Mamacas and imbibed just a few glasses of house white wine. Even the simplest stuff needed help. The melitzanosalata was passable but very acidic. It was the best of the handful of dishes we tried. The eggplant baked with cheese, which came highly recommended by the waiter and is, after all, a classic taverna dish, was awful. Flat in taste, color and texture and covered with the same over salted fat strips of grated regato as the peppers baked and stiffed with cheese. Both dishes tasted almost identical! The pie of the day was a cheese pie, far from homemade by mom’s hands or anyone elses! The crust flew off the filling as we cut it and the filling was one solid slab of cheese the color of alabaster. The last thing that came out was the bakaliaro croquettes, three hearty pieces of extremely bland fried salt cod that tasted like “freezer.” My friend, a chef, who often dines with me, noticed the whiff of almonia in the fish, too.

Five mezedes, one glass of wine and a cup of chamomile tea came to 56 euros. That’s not bargain when much of what we had was mediocre at best. As we winced and wondered, though, folks kept piling in, glad to be here digging their teeth into what has become the paradigm for modern taverna fare.