Mama Lou's Italian Kitchen - Ayala Malls The 30th — Restaurant in Pasig

EDIT: Please I am begging the owner/staff don't reply to my review with such a cringe hash tag #MAMArable moments.

I went here with a group of six people on my birthday, because the other Italian place we wanted did not have enough space for us.

If I was reviewing just the food, I would only give a 3/5. The portions are generous but the sauces aren't that special. My buddy who is a pesto fanatic was not impressed. The marinara sauce on the seafood dish was simply not adequate in either thickness, flavor, or quantity for the amount of noodles included. The "Mama's signature mango iced tea" tasted like mango flavored tang with some powdered tea, everyone agreed on that. Not really what we expected, pretty pathetic.

But the general idea was "meh, it was all right" - Honestly, even a friend of mine who is a trained chef didn't have any serious complaints. It was just standard American-style Italian food that you can find all around the world. It was a good price, and generous portions, but the flavors had nothing special about them.

The reason I'm adding an extra star is because the staff is on point, it's very affordable, it's large and roomy, and there's no obnoxious blaring pop music that makes conversation hard. Most importantly the seats are comfortable. It's just a pleasant place to be. So if you have a group of five or more people, and you're not expecting any super amazing authentic Italian cuisine, go here. It's a chain...

We wanted to try their marbled rib eye steak so we decided to have lunch in Mama Lou’s at Ayala Malls 30th.

When we entered, nobody assisted us to a table so we just helped ourselves by choosing the table by the couch.

I noticed that there are only 2 tables occupied in the restaurant so I expected the service to be quick since they aren’t full.

But boy was I was wrong!

It took 5 mins just to catch the attention of the waitress to hand us the menu and another 10 mins of trying to catch their attention so we could order.

That was a good 15 mins just trying to catch their attention given that there are only 3 tables (including ours) occupying the entire restaurant.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to taste their food because we got tired of waiting just to call on the attention of the waitress so we decided to just move to another steak restaurant on the ground floor.

The waitress saw us leaving the restaurant and that was the only time we were approached without calling their attention.

I told her that the service is taking too long so we will just move to a different restaurant. She apologized and we went our way.

I totally understand the other reviewer (Booie M) who was also made to wait for their food (at least they were able to eat).

I guess that is why there were only 2 tables occupied in this restaurant...

For a place that is on the top places to eat at Ayala Malls the 30th, this isn't a place that you would go to. Especially if you are hungry.

The service was very lousy. We ate there after the lunch rush so there were just a few customers. That didn't make a difference as we had to call the attention of the staff for a lot of things that they would a) forget, b) give after another follow-up, or c) give as a "just because".

The food was not great either for a restaurant who mimics Italianis or even Amici. The price range also is too much given the serving size and the taste. The ribs that we ordered was still tough, the spaghetti could have been cooked at home (without cheese), the risotto was quite salty and dry. The food came out one by one as well. So if the first few plates were ordered by one person, it would either go cold from waiting or the other person would simply have to watch the other eat.

Not somewhere I would ask friends or family to go back to given the experience that we had. I just hope that management would look at how trained the staff is at attending to customers and how...