Mama Brown — Restaurant in North Island

Wow have things changed.

Our family have loved coming to Mama Brown's for years. It's been a family tradition to come and enjoy the delicious waffles and diner vibe as a date night or treat. Unfortunately, it seems that the owners have had a change of heart and have taken the soul out of the experience. The last few times we've left feeling disappointed with the menu selection. Gone are the big serving of waffles with variety. Now it's replaced with dessert replacements which are significantly smaller, and is mostly consumed by burgers, to which the one tried today was deemed average, compared to the previous experiences we have had there. I mean isn't the point to enjoy waffles that's what it's always been known for?!

The biggest change we have seen visting the venue tonight, after being regular patrons for years, is the new ordering system. What an epic fail.

You no longer get the warm inviting support of a staff member when it comes to ordering, nope gone are the days where they come up and ask what your order is. You're now asked to scan a QR code and order from your phone. I saw an elderly couple with their disabled son, struggle to order and ended up going to the front counter to order. We had customised items and the app would have taken precious time away from my family to whom I was there to spend time with. Not to spend it on my phone.

If I had done the app, it would have 10 minutes. I ended up going to the counter and had a really friendly conversation with one of the nice staff and ordered within 1 minute. That is the experience we come to Mama Brown's for. Not for more technology and automation.

There were staff trying to find things to do due to the empty floor. It was peak time on a Saturday night and there were only 4 tables full. Another table of 6 couldn't work out how to do the ordering and went to the counter too.

Whilst I'm all for technical changes, taking the human experience, out of what was an awesome vibe when coming to eat here, has made it really impersonal and not our fave diner to visit. Such a pity because now it means we're on the hunt for somewhere that can match the vibe this place once had not that long ago. Bring back the real customer interaction for decent...

If you like American Diner style food, you absolutely have to visit this place. It is a must.

Check out my full review on Instagram at: @sammysshakesandburgersnz and follow if you like burgers and shakes!

I have been here on numerous occasions and have been highly satisfied every time.

Let’s start with the milkshakes. Huge variety of flavours. Consistency is perfect, but again I do request they make it thicker and they do that, and no extra charge which is great. I usually go for the kit Kat or snickers one, but had a vanilla one today. The classic vanilla, tastes better than so so so so many other milkshakes made by other bars/restaurants. Why can’t people get it right like Mama Brown? There’s none of this ‘milkshake, or pay extra for a thick shake nonsense.’ A milkshake is always supposed to be thick! Otherwise it’s just flavoured milk!

Now let me warn you, most places make small shakes, and they are too thin and runny, so you drink them in like 3 seconds. The shakes here are huge, and because they are quite thick, they do fill you up. So make sure you either get it in a takeaway cup, and don’t under estimate how filling they can be.

The burgers also taste great, of course. The fried chicken waffles is also a classic, and highly recommend it. If you haven’t tried it, you must.

Chips are great too, they slightly over cook them so they are crispy, but I like it like that. Good seasoning too.

The kids meals are also great, well priced and decent size. If you have young ones, save some money and get the kids meals for them and they should do the trick.

We’ve always had great service there, but today we had exceptional service. 3 times we were asked if we needed a seat by 3 different waiters whilst we browsed the menu. I like that. Why? Because it tells me they are trained to not let anyone be unattended when they walk in. They didn’t know if we had been tended to already by other staff, but they didn’t risk it. As soon as thy saw us, they wanted to make sure we were ok.

Good stuff team.

Overall - fantastic place. Relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff. Heaps of great food options. Milkshakes are absolutely bang on...

Kia Ora, So my brother just flew in from Australia so we decided to come for lunch. Hearing so much about how great the food we wanted to give it a go!! What a mistake. I am quite fair and honest when it comes to reviews especially with food.

Service- server did not know the menu or the food in the menu when asked what was inside a burger. We were told that our order come with a Corona($11)as part of the special, we asked if we could swap it for a coke($6) that was not allowed so we were charged for the coke.. wow.. give free alcohol but not a cold non alcoholic beverage. Then we were told it’s not with a combo. The biggest thing that got me was.. they had no menu you had to scan barcode and order from there. When we asked what if people don’t have a phone? No answer was given. She asked what fries we would like with our order.. thinking ok it’s a option that’s free.. it was not.. we were charged a extra $3 per order for fries on top of normal Frieda cost. Like wow.. p.s no one greeted us at all then the server was asked to speak a little louder as I have a trouble hearing she replied “sorry I’m sick I have a cold”… wow

Atmosphere- felt it was dark, dirty looking we had to ask for the table to be cleaned, twice as we had to move tables Kos my 7yo niece found all this dirty rubbish shoved down the seat. Grose!! Just looking in the kitchen.. very untidy!!

Food- what a disappointment!! Ribs had hardly any meat on them and the meat that was on the ribs were so dry, smothered in so much sauce, the southern style fried chicken was flavourless and dry, the burgers the chicken inside dry and hard and thinner than a snitzchel. My niece wanted a $17 milkshake.. a hippo kinder milkshake.. for that price… again what a disappointment!!

Not a happy customer considering I spent $180!! My brother didn’t want to make a scene or a fuss so I kept quiet. I could have spent 80 at new world and made a beautiful lunch saved a $100 and ate in a warm clean environment.

Would never recommend this place to any of my family or friends!! Very sad we had to experience this as I was soooo looking to be wowed in a positive way not a negative...