Mama Lor Restaurant & Bakery — Restaurant in Sydney

This Filipino restaurant located in Rooty Hill (Sydney) is a great find. I have been in so many Pinoy eateries and restaurants all over Australia to try out each of their best dishes. In my book, price is not a factor if the food is great. If it's worth the travel, my GPS will find it. I have heard of Mama Lors Restaurant awhile back but since it's a bit of a travel for me, I kept brushing it off, until March 2025, where finally I caved in and travelled to the west side of Sydney.

It turned out it was worth the travel because this is the best Pinoy restaurant I have ever dined in. They deserved a 5star rating from me in terms of food selections, prompt service & overall ambiance (day or night). The seats are very comfortable and they have a gadget on the table that you can press on to seek prompt service.

You don't have to travel to Cebu (Philippines) to taste the traditional Visayan style of cooking because this restaurant will really take you there. Kudos to a couple of Filo chefs they have, they deserve several pats on their shoulders.

At the initial visit, I tried their Bulalo (bone marrow) cost $45, served with a couple of corn cobs and generous Bok Choy. Oh wow indeed! If you can recall back home the famous phrase "sabaw pa lang ulam na", that's what I experienced with their Bulalo. When I asked for fish sauce (Patis) and Kalamansi, they delivered. Most Filo restaurants do not serve Kalamansi but Lemon. It was awesome to dip the Bulalo meat with Patis + Kalamansi. Bone marrow is not only rich in collagen, but also a key ingredient, contributing to the dish's rich and creamy texture. Just don't have it everyday. Scooping out the fat inside the bone marrow and then dip in Patis with kalamansi, made me smile because it's really yummy.

Their Visayan version of Chicken Inasal was to die for. I highly recommend to anyone to try this one. That smokey flavour will definitely take you back to memory lane.

On the following weekend, I went back to try their Crispy Pansit Palabok. Buoy that was yummy! Now other Filo restaurants' interpretation of crispiness is to serve Palabok with crispy pork on top of it. But not in Mam Lors for their version is to serve the Palabok noodles crispy, but when mixed up with the sauce, that crispiness melts down, leaving you with the overall enjoyment.

I also tried their version of Tortang Talong (egg plant). First thing my mouth had uttered was 'get out of here'! It was the best taste ever considering there was no added diced pork on top of it.

My third visit was with family & friends on a weekday. It was amazing to watch the foot traffic and that's a good sign. It is indicative of what this Filo restaurant has established and achieved so far. To get long-distanced customers to travel because of your food, well that alone speaks volumes.

They also have a bakery inside and a galore of traditional meriendas, individually packed and displayed on the shelves. Price-wise, it is not shocking compared to other Filo proper dining restaurants I have visited all over Sydney.

There's only one negative thing I can say about Mama Lors restaurant, in that, even though it's clean, it only had one toilet facility, and when I say one, I meant one toilet seat for everyone to cue up on when you need to use it. But overall 5 star ratings on Food, Service...

As soon as me and my fiance entered you feel unwelcomed and the staff do not even take the effort to smile or ask if you would like a seat, I asked twice to the young lady at the checkout she ignored me at both times. Couple of elders where purchasing at the bakery and pushed through and the lady at the checkout happily served them with a smile while failing to even acknowledge our existence. Utterly disgusted with this behaviour and being the only caucasian in the restaurant makes you feel sick to the stomach if this is how you get treated, the Male behind the counter at the bakery with the earpiece kept smirking and giggling every time I got ignored which makes the entire issue extremely disturbing, is being ignored amusing for a grown adult who works at this business? Also after finally being seated we sat there for 15 minutes waiting for a waiter to take our order but to no waiter answering us I decided to go up to the checkout and give them my order if it's so challenging to obtain a basic meal, which I stood for awhile at the checkout and had the cashier serve numerous other customers while just not giving me eye contact, I tried speaking to her also but she continued ignoring me, I've never once been rude or impolite I simply wanted to order a meal and make it easy for them, i had to text my fiancee back and forth for another 15 minutes until she came up and spoke english to the lady who finally served her and not me for some bread and we went off to doonside. I do alot of customer service in my business and have never in my long life experienced such disgusting customer service I would highly recommend the owner to educate the staff on respect for others and not to discriminate this is 2018 and its inappropriate to have your staff ignore a customer and refuse them service its actually illegal if you look up the ACCC website. clearly it was a deeper issue as I was the only caucasian in there during this whole experience and the only one who never got served or even looked at the place was not very busy for the 12 staff they had rostered on at the time, I've seen pubs with 3 cooks and 1 waiter/checkout staff serve 6 times those customers and be happy and provide customers with a smile. After we drove over to doonside and had some good food and I spoke some tagalog to kuya at the counter and he smiled and I had a good night to makeup for the shameful disrespect i was provided at rooty hill. Extremely shocked we eat out at new places twice weekly and after 5 years I've come across a place that ignores you intentionally I'm partially frustrated my fiance purchased the bread as you do not deserve...

People have to either be delusional, family/friends, or just hype followers. I find it a disservice, to rate this place so highly. I tried to call for take away, and after numerous attempts. There was no answer. I bit the bullet, and decided to just drive in and order in store.Giving them the benefit of doubt, that it was busy. As I arrived there was only a table of 5 dining in? With that many employees on, not one could of answered the phone? I approach the counter, I was just given a blank stare.... No how are you, how can I help you? So customer service, is clearly not a priority here. I proceeded to order one chicken pancit bihon. No receipt was given, there was no gesture to sit down and no time frame as to how long it'll take to make. As I say myself down, I called the store to test the phone ethic of the employees. The same young man, just looked at the phone and didn't answer it, letting it just ring out. Then he proceeded to look at his mobile. As 15 minutes goes by, I hear nothing from the employees. I survey the restaurant, and I just see several employees mucking around with a body temperature thermometer, one cook on his mobile whilst cooking. A little bit of professionalism, would be wise, considering the kitchen is open for the public to see. After 25 minutes I received my take away. A young lady served me at the time. Reconfirmed my order. There was no apology for the wait though, but atleast she said thank you sir. I get home and after spending $35 on the meal, I was severely disappointed. The dish was bland, absolutely no taste but the oil that it was stir-fried in. I ordered the chicken pancit, I found less than 4 pieces of pulled apart chicken carcass through out. I suggest you stick to the description of your menu. The restaurant should be ashamed to represent the filipino cuisine like that. I honestly don't think, that the majority people that rate this place so highly, have functioning taste buds. I ordered here for the convenience of take away, but it definitely fell off a cliff in regards to that. The restaurants decor, might create the illusion that it's an established eatery but don't be fooled by the facade. There are several places around the area, that are more affordable and damn sure better tasting. I strongly suggest, you retrain your staff, as they misrepresent the business that you've built. I for sure will not be coming back, first impressions...