Mama's Place — Restaurant in Angola

We made our first visit to Mama's Place this past Saturday morning for breakfast. The culture among the staff is incredible and unlike any we have ever seen in a diner type restaurant. The teamwork was a marvel. Rene was our server and she did a spectacular job. We noticed seating, drink refills, bussing and genuine warm interaction was promptly executed by several people during our visit at each table.

There is a Mama but we did not meet her. I think I might have identified her when a lady was adjusting three tables to accommodate a large party.

My breakfast order on my first visit to any hashhouse is two eggs over hard, sausage patties, potatoes, and toast. The food was excellent. It came out of the kitchen quickly. My only suggestion would be that Mama experiment with a signature breakfast potato. The hashbrowns were fine but they were a product I have had at many other breakfast joints. I am partial to the restaurants that chop up baked or boiled potatoes, douse them with a butter product and other secret seasonings and let them crisp up on the grill.

I made too big of a deal about the potatoes. Let me tell you about the bread. Mama BAKES her own bread. Mama's toast selections include white and wheat. THEY ALSO include Sourdough and Raisin. Wow. I quickly went for the raisin and Rene suggested I use the cinnamon butter for it. I said Yes and less than a minute later a young man dropped off a portion of butter.... that teamwork I was talking about. The raisin toast was incredible.

Suze went for the half order of sausage gravy and biscuits. It was more than she could eat. They bake their biscuits from scratch and it is a larger, "cakier", biscuit than what you are used to from other joints. It was very good. I know because I snagged a bite.

Toss two cups of coffee in the deal and the check was $21. We felt it reasonable and we are looking forward to our second visit primarily to see if the friendly faces and teamwork were a fluke or if this is simply the terrific culture Mama has built. Plus they had some omelets and skillets that...

Mama's has been an Angola staple for as long as I can remember and when they announced the closer we were so disappointed. BUT then...Mama's 2.0 was opened!!! Today we tried it and the food is absolutely delicious and what we all know as Mama's. We were expecting the new location to be a lot bigger (they need it) and hoping for some of the same staff because a friendly face also makes the environment. My husband had the OMG 5 Egg Omelet, no tomatoes and LOVED it! Normally he would never eat taters in an omelet but he actually enjoyed it because the taters were cooked just right. I had 2 eggs over-medium, taters and links...YUM!!! The original Mama's had that quaint cozy feel we all got used to, 2.0 feels a little sterile and overcrowded (the food is THAT good). The only negative was the overly long wait we had this morning, but honestly, we'll just have to get used...

I can't review the food since we didn't stay long enough to eat, or even see a server. We walked in and sat at a booth in the front of the restaurant, only to be stared at by employees passing by, but nobody greeted us. My husband waited about 5 minutes and then decided to set a 5 minute alarm to see if anyone was coming to take our order. Another 5 minutes had passed and all we got was looks from servers walking by, but no one greeted us. We had arrived 45 minutes before posted closing time. After acknowledging that we were clearly noticed, but being ignored we got up and left. The entire time we were in this restaurant not one person said a word to us. We will not be back EVER and the Pizza King down the road got...