Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Today’s dining adventure took us to the Caribbean. Mammy’s Restaurant, which opened in early December, is located in an old two-storey house at 271 Provencher Boulevard. Updated with bright colours and a gallery of Caribbean artwork (incidentally it’s for sale if you’re interested) it felt both homey and foreign…like having dinner at someone’s house in Trinidad. Thus it is aptly named in dedication to the owner’s mother.

Climbing the stairs to the second floor, the walls are painted with interesting colloquial phrases; a good topic of conversation while waiting for dinner. One example is “crapaud smoke yuh pipe”, which, when we asked the waitress, we found to mean something along the lines of “you’re out of luck”.
The owner spoke to us of how he partnered with his uncle to bring a more “up-scale” Caribbean restaurant to the city featuring both well-known dishes (such as roti and jerk chicken) as well as some signature dishes created by the chef. Something to look forward to is a patio being built at the front of the building for the summer time crowd that likes to watch the traffic while sipping on tropical drinks, basking in the sun and listening to steel drum band music, imagining a far-away vacation…

There are numerous choices in the menu including soups, salads and tapas to start as well as larger meals under the “Belly Full Time” listing and desserts that sound absolutely divine…making it hard to choose just one. Whether a meat eater, vegetarian or in the mood for seafood, they have something for you.




The dishes are very well presented with an artistic flair. Nathalie started with a spiced pumpkin and squash bisque, served with a drizzle of maple syrup and coconut crème fresh on top in the shape of the restaurant’s signature “M”. It was delicious, tasting like a combination of ginger bread and sweet potato pie. The tapas are a particularly good choice if wanting to try several different dishes or don’t have a lot of time. As they had a dance class to get to, Nathalie and Jacques shared 4 tapas, all of which they seemed to enjoy immensely.

After they left, the rest of us had quite a long wait for our meals…some longer than others. One unfortunate soul was told hers was accidentally burned, so she ended up with just a salad despite being famished by this time. Was it worth the wait? I suppose that depends on whom you ask. Our meals were very tasty, however, the scallops were somewhat overcooked and the roti was no tastier or larger than at Deen’s but about 3 times the price.

Still, we had room, and patience, for dessert. Our table ordered one of each of the desserts. We struggled with the decision, finally deciding on the Mango Crepes. It was very interestingly presented with one of the crepes rolled into the shape of a volcano and the sauce flowing down the sides like lava. Besides appearance, this was the least impressive of the 3. It was tasty, however, what was described as a light mango and Grand Marnier syrup looked and tasted more like raspberry jam, overpowering the flambéed mango altogether. Nina’s Dream obviously tasted as good as it looked. Sandwiched between pieces of coconut shortcake, bananas and vanilla custard were drizzled with caramel…”mmmmm” is all we could hear as it was being polished off.

Though the staff were very friendly and eager to please, they seemed a little overwhelmed by such a large crowd and had some difficulty remembering the drink orders. Perhaps in a smaller crowd, the meals would have been quicker, or maybe it’s just one of the new business draw-backs … then again, it may just be the Caribbean laid back attitude.

Unfortunately, the second floor dining area was not conducive to mingling for a large crowd such as ours and a little music, as was heard playing in the lounge as we left, could have added to the atmosphere as well as taking our minds off the long wait for food.

Bottom line: I’m still keen to go in summer for drinks but may stick to tapas as they were very tasty, reasonably priced, and were served quickly.

Tina