Mama Lor — Restaurant in Melbourne

Mediocre, at best. I don't usually post restaurant reviews but the experience here was so disappointing, I had to.

Having tried dozens of Filipino eateries and restaurants around Melbourne, this takes the cake of being the most underwhelming. And no, this isn't my first time trying Filipino dishes as I am from Pampanga - the culinary capital of the country.

We were a family of 5, and we traveled 30 minutes to check this place out and here's how things went:

We waited an hour just to get a table. That would have been alright if the place was full but NO, as it had just 5 tables occupied. But even after placing our orders in advance, we still did not get a single dish after being seated. A number of the dishes were not available (kare kare, lumpia, etc) but that was still forgivable. However, what got us dumbfounded was being allowed to order a dish only to be told 45 minutes later that it isn't available (even when not a single new customer was served of it in our wait). First dish, lechon baboy. The skin was rock solid. Tough as the plate it was served in. But the meat was very tender, juicy and fragrant. The sisig was an awful, borderline disgusting rendition of the true dish. No chicken liver tasted (though I can let that slide if not for...), half of it were chopped bell peppers. Fancily served in a hot plate, but the most odd tasting sisig we have ever had. Tokwa't baboy... again, who serves this dish with bell peppers? It felt like the bell peppers in the nearby grocer were on sale so Mama Lor's chef has decided to use sacks of this ingredient on that day. Save the bell peppers for the chop suey, please. And oh, not a hint of celery was tasted. So wrong. The chop suey we ordered never came, so we got ensaymada to replace that instead, which by the way was 'OK'. Nothing special really. We were lost for words on the sotanghon, just DON'T even bother. The choco crinkles we had were the hardest such cookies we have ever sank our teeth into. Their hopia was pretty good though. Crusty pastry on the outside, with a flavorful filling. Staff members were mostly clueless, except for the aussie young lad who was somewhat the main highlight of our stay there. Attentive to detail, swift to respond and really friendly.

I'd probably understand why the dishes tasted like so if they named their cuisine here a fusion of some sort. But this should never be called as Filo food, much less an authentic one. Time to send the kitchen staff to Pampanga, so everyone gets to know and understand what those dishes should really taste...

Mama Lor restaurant surprised me! I migrated from the Philippines in the mid 80’s as a small child and never was impressed with the Filipino restaurants that came and went until recently! Cue Mama Lor! Filipino restaurants are rare, most of them are takeaways with food already prepared in bain maries, carenderia style, pre ordered from a caterer or at the Annual Filo Fiesta but never an a la carte professional run restaurant. My family had the pleasure of dining here on 27/12 for lunch and had pre ordered a few dishes in advance. When we arrived I loved the bright, fresh, clean ambiance and the friendly, helpful staff. It was busy for a Monday and we saw that was a good sign! My parents pre ordered crispy pata, pork bbq, bbq chicken, chop suey and pancit canton. Upon arrival we added spaghetti, stuffed squid (I forgot the name), crispy palabok and halo halo to the order. I must say the crispy pata was the BEST i’ve had in my life! I was blown away, it was crispy and stayed crispy but also so so tender and the meat pulled from the bone effortlessly, the sao-sao (vinegar dipping sauce) cut through the salty richness of the fried meat and complimented it well. The crispy palabok was a major highlight as it was the first time we had this modern take on the traditional palabok, it was 1000% better than any palabok I’ve had and it was all due to the fried noodles. If you’re familiar with traditional palabok you’ll know the rice noodles tend to be a gluggy mess beneath the shrimp sauce/gravy but this palabok was heaven to eat! The texture of the noodles had more structure and was definitely a better way of serving palabok. Will definitely return for both! The halo halo looked amazing and was throughly enjoyed by my son. All the dishes were served fresh, hot and well flavoured. Overall a 5/5 experience and will return soon to sample more...

It’s such a shame, because it could’ve been such a better experience and review! My family and I arrived for dinner and swiftly ordered 5 dishes, order taken with little hassle, so far so good… 25 minutes in we receive our noodle dish but not accompanied by any main dishes to eat with but we’d peck at it so it doesn’t get cold. 15 minutes later the fried rice came out, bland, and still no main dishes to eat with. 10 minutes later one of the appetisers came out (we realised that they served ours earlier to a different table that arrived after us), so we asked the waitress politely to check on our other dishes. A prompt nod, we thought she’d head to the kitchen but instead went to clear tables. Giving the benefit of the doubt we waited. After a full hour has passed since our order, we checked with another waitress as the first waitress never checked for our meal or came back to us. We were then told that the kitchen forgot about our dishes so they’d give us a discount for the trouble. We agreed and thanked them, went to the register to pay served by a different staff who we clearly saw was briefed, didn’t give us a discount. We mentioned this to him only to be replied that the discount is removing the items that didn’t get served. I said that’s not a discount, so he hastily typed in the POS a full 1% discount off our bill. I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation, I was noticed by the waitress who promised the discount, she came over and overrides to 5%. By then I just wanted to pay and leave, we left hungry, the food that did come out were average at best tonight but the lack of service really spoilt the meal for the family. Shame guys, it’s a nicely presented, clean restaurant, but the slow service, bland flavour, odd serving sizes and lack of care by staff would mean I’m not coming back...