Dining With Mama Pasta- Restaurant Review

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Restaurants

Sunday, 29 November 2009 05:55

By Ricardo Pasccunini

Perched high above the beautiful Long Bay, Mama Pasta  is a small, relaxed, family restaurant. While not diverse from a culinary perspective, Mama Pasta offers dishes from several backgrounds. These include simple sandwiches, Italian classics, and traditional Caribbean specials.

The restaurant itself has a very distinct Caribbean style, being completely open, painted blue and littered with conch shells, and even going the distance with palm tree-leaf roofs. The view is simply spectacular, the food, surprisingly delicious, and the atmosphere, very warm and homey.

While it doesn’t have appetizers or desserts, Mama Pasta does have quite a variety of main courses. Drinks are plenty, featuring soft drinks, juices, and a surprising collection of alcoholic beverages.

After enjoying my day at the beach, I headed up the short climb to Mama Pasta. There, I was greeted by Cecile, owner, chef, and waiter. Mama Pasta is solely run by Cecile and his wife Rosie. When I was introduced to the menu, it wasn’t so bewildering that the majority of the dishes were pastas. They had gnocchi pastas, fettuccini pastas, cannelloni pastas, heck, they even had lasagna!

Speaking of Italian dishes, Mama Pasta also offers five variations of pizza, with small, medium, and large sizes. Now I hadn’t come all that way to eat one of their hamburgers, so I ordered one lasagna, one seafood pasta, and the special - “Rasta Pasta” . While I have eaten lasagna and seafood pasta many times before, the Rasta Pasta was a mystery.

The dishes arrived, not a minute late, and for this calibre of restaurant, they were simply excellent. The seafood pasta was teeming with shrimp, calamari, and other good seafood eats. The cheesy white cream sauce was done well, and gave the pasta a very rich flavour. The dish wasn’t badly proportioned either, but I had to leave some room for the lasagna.

Speaking of the devil, while I knew you couldn’t go wrong with lasagna, I wasn’t expecting it to be this right! The lasagna was perfectly cooked, but more importantly, it was balanced. Lasagna needs to have its distinct Italian meatball flavour, with the melting cheese accompanying it. The whole dish had this “melting” sensation to it, and had a very full taste. The pasta within the lasagna was also cooked well, and it wasn’t tough, nor did it fall apart.

Then, at long last, came the mysterious Rasta Pasta. The Rasta Pasta is a vegetable dish, and its strength lies in its simplicity. All it really “boils down to” is some pasta, cooked to perfection, some vegetables, fried perfectly, and a twang of spice. Put into a dish, these make a deadly combination. The Rasta Pasta must have been the best dish, and I have to give it to Mama Pasta, it is one great pasta.     

Good food aside, Mama Pasta does have a few negatives. Firstly, there are NO desserts and NO appetizers. While the main dishes are pretty well-sized, it’s not a full meal. Secondly, even though the view and the restaurant are breathtaking, the flies are aggravating. Every few moments, I had to wave them away, making consumption quite slow and very aggravating. I was there quite late, so it is certainly possible it isn’t like that all the time, but those flies really know how to get under your skin.

Last but not least, the service isn’t “all that”. I wasn’t told about the specials, which were written on a small chalkboard near the bar, I wasn’t recommended anything special, and when Cecile was around, he was usually very robotic and “only required input,” and didn’t seem exceptionally welcoming. He just kind of stood there, asked if we wanted drinks or were ready to order, brought our desires, and left.     

Overall, Mama Pasta is a great place for families, friends looking for a bite near the beach, or just casual dining. Far from a gourmet restaurant, Mama Pasta does lack in some areas, but makes up for them with its great food, breath-taking beauty, and the convenience of being on the beach. Its menu is neither small nor large, its beverages suitable for all ages, and its atmosphere is welcoming to all. I don’t know about you, but I sure will be back for more at Mama Pasta.        

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