Mama's Boy Restaurant — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

This place used to be my favorite restaurant in Athens. The food is still good, but it's been going downhill for the past couple of years, and it's something I've talked about with many friends—especially the Oconee Street location.

#1 Since the pandemic, they changed their concept to counter service. It's 100% ridiculous.Even if the restaurant is empty and all the tables are available, only 3 people can come in at a time. If more then 3 people come in, the line starts to form outside. The problem is that Georgia has 90 degree weather in the summer and 40 degrees in the winter. Why would they assume it's a good idea to have patrons waiting outside to order? Just today, two older ladies were looking at the menu for about 5 minutes, trying to figure out what to eat. Instead of the employee saving time and not putting pressure on the two older women to hurry up and order, he asked me to wait for them to make up their minds. 5 minutes isn't a big deal, but it was unescecary. The smart thing would've been to let me order since I knew what I wanted and let the ladies take their time. There was no one else in line except us.

#2 the past several times I've been my order was prepared wrong. One time I got the wrong dish, another I got the wrong side, and lastly I received cold grits. Every time, my problem was taken care of and the staff was easy to work with. Just inconvenient.

#3 this is a personal experience. I live up the street from this restaraunt. For about 6 months I stopped here on the way to work for breakfast 4/5 times a week. I got to know the staff so well that they knew my order by memory. One day I forgot my wallet, but I had checks. I attempted to pay with check, but the manager asked for my id. I explained I lost my wallet, and he said it's his policy and they will not sell me the food. Mind you, the employees know me by name, the check had my name on it. It was frustrating after dumping money into the restaraunt 4 or 5 times a week for about 6 months. The managers attitude was also frustrating.

I was a server for 5 years in Athens, so I understand problems happen, orders get messed up, it's no biggie! The problem is when problems start happening consistently and the ridiculous concept of having to wait outside to order if there's a line, is 100% avoidable and ridiculous. This place is poorly managed. The food is still good, and if your in Athens, I still reccomend you try this place(if the line isn't long). But to make it a place you go weekly, is a bad idea, you will...

My family and I came to eat here for breakfast today, and I can honestly say I was rather disappointed. We paid 77 dollars for food after tip, which I regret to say was not a price that reflected the experience. We paid upfront, and took a table to wait for food. Our drinks, diet cokes and piping hot coffee, were served in plastic and paper cups respectively. To me, this is not acceptable when you’re having people pay upwards of 75 dollars for food. The dining area was extremely loud and echoey, which is absolutely no one’s fault, but if you or someone in your party has sensory issues with loud noise-filled areas, I would caution that this might not be an easy venue for you. Our food came to us, and two of us had cheese grits. One of the grits came in a bowl, however one was plated, which to me seems odd. We anticipated them being in a bowl, and not a plate, where they were more spread out. It made eating them a bit difficult. While one of us was eating, he found a hair cooked into his food. The rest of us had a very difficult time eating after that visual. Another in my party went to try and speak to the manager, but the manager was on the phone, so she spoke to an employee instead. The employee offered to have the meal with the hair found in it remade, but knowing that the issue occurred during meal preparation, we politely declined. The employee claimed she would let the manager know, but for the remainder of our experience, the manager never stopped by our table. As we were heading out, the manager passed by and told us to have a great day, and we let her know the situation. She did not appear to have known about our issue. Her response was short and simple. She didn’t offer anything to fix the situation, only that she would “address that.” Usually, my family has a lovely time here, so this was a very out-of-left-field experience. But I think it will be a while before...

We got the goat cheese platter, the Georgia peach french toast, and the biscuits and gravy. The goat cheese platter was GREAT. Perfect ratio of cheese to honey to fruits and nuts. And the warmed pita was the perfect carb to shovel the delicious flavors into your mouth. I did think the blackberries were a bit out of place, but the blueberries were the perfect accompaniment.

The other two dishes were extremely disappointing though. The peaches in the french toast were slightly spiced and very tasty, but the french toast itself (the star of the show) was very tough. Like they used stale bread. The biscuits and gravy were just plane bad. It was bursting with thyme flavour, but so much so that it was out of balance with anything else on the plate. The gravy was slightly grainy and mostly void of flavor beyond thyme. But the real sin was the biscuits. They were just really bad. None of the flaky, tender, moist, melt-in-your-mouth goodness that biscuits should have. They were huge slabs of something closer to bread than biscuit. Gummy and chewy instead of crumbly and tender. And they poured the gravy over the biscuits before bringing them to you! Inconceivable! Biscuits should be served on the side so I can dip them in the gravy at my own pace. The dish overall is in serious need of a revamp. I am insulted they brought that out to me. The conception of the dish was fine, but every component of it was...