Was looking forward to Mamo. The space is gorgeous. There’s pedigree. People seem to like it. I got dressed up and even wore closed toed shoes!
The bread, once you ask for it and it is provided, was delicious. TL;DR? you can stop here. Want to know more, read on. It’s not complementary.
This experience actually made me angry in a way I haven’t felt since a horrible evening at La Guerite several years ago. This place is cynicism wrapped up in beautiful chandeliers and a personality-as-owner.
The restaurant is incredibly loud, not helped by the table in the center of the room with two men who were drunk and sunburned- a horrible combination. It was impossible to hear each other, to hear the waitress, for her to hear us. Not that she was around much. She, like everyone else, seemed to completely not care about what they were doing. The service was just awful, and I don’t want to hear, “it’s new,” or, “off night.” This place has gobs of money behind it and several restaurants around the world and this is center Gustavia, no excuses will be accepted - especially at these prices for nothing special.
We were seated, and asked what kind of water, then if we wanted the wine list. Sure. How about an aperitif? (Also, who chooses wine before looking at a dinner menu?) No menu for aperitivos was provided, no food menu was provided. Easily 10 minutes go by before a food menu appears. Many minutes later, she returns, “ready to order?” A glass of champagne is ordered, ignoring her clear request to order food, with difficulty (see: Noise level). I notice a can of olive oil on the table, and small plates. Pity there was no bread. Or anything.
Waitress returns, “ready to order?” No, we want to enjoy our drink. Finally we order, and procure a bottle of wine - the wine list is crazy marked up, even for here. It’s not offensive in the way Kinugawa is/was, but ridiculous nonetheless. We order one of the cheapest options out of spite. As we wait for food, I notice several tables waiting for food, or menus, or the bill. There are plenty of staff. No One Cares About What They Are Doing. We interacted with at least 6 different staff and not one of them seemed happy, interested, or hospitable.
I took pictures of the food, but why share them? It was fine. It wasn't awful, it was fine. The artichoke salad was deemed a success. The tuna starter was fine, if humdrum. The other wanted bread to soak up sauce from the salad, and we had never been offered any at this point. A server tried to clear the plates, but we asked for “du pain”, at which point he presented to us a pen. You can’t make this up. Once international language issues were resolved, we got the bread and it was darn good Focaccia and lots of it. I must say now that from sitting down to first bite of any food was nearly 1 hour. And there’s no good reason for that but poor service.
Next was veal piccata, which was tangy and lemony, but also a bit overcooked and quite small for 58€. I ate it in 5 minutes. I’m glad I ordered a side of mash potatoes bc for 58€, you get a few small pieces of meat and not so much as a carrot. Nothing. Thank goodness we managed to commandeer some bread!
The other had Cacio e Pepe. This is a risky dish to put on a menu, it’s hard to do well and really it’s better to not order it unless you’re in Rome. But pedigree chef, blah blah blah. After adding olive oil and salt to it, not once, not twice, but three times, it was finally ok to eat. If you know this dish, you know it’s heresy to add either of those things. I don’t know what the dish was, but it was not Cacio e Pepe.
Our wine glasses would sit empty for 15 minutes or more, and since the wine was kept across the room, and there was no staff ever around, we couldn’t manage it ourselves. We finally asked to just leave it at the table and we poured ourselves. Several times the waitress would clear something from the table - a glass, the now empty wine bottle, and she would reach right in front of my face and it felt so rude. If I had moved a couple of inches, her arm and my face would have made contact. It’s a dumb thing to be annoyed at, but after everything else, I’m annoyed at it.
The dessert menu comes on a chalkboard on the table with a couple of obvious things (tiramisu, lemon tart), and then strangely named things like “a lovely day”. And no description or explanation is provided, just that it’s 22€, like all the rest. We asked, and I don’t care at this point, so can’t remember. A cake of some sort, I think. We get lemon tart that has some strange metallic flavor to it that 90 mins later I can still taste in my mouth. Not pleasant.
The place was packed, and the crowd was not my people. I felt like I didn’t belong, and I don’t know why. But this was not a room of people I wanted to be around so that didn’t help. The thing is, looking around, no one else seemed to be enjoying their food either.
I haven’t been so happy to leave a restaurant in a very long time. And the blissful quiet when you walk out the door is heaven! Nearly 400€ spent and I’m home and hungry.
Absolutely no, never again walking in there. No. Sereno or Isola are light years better in every respect. Really, just go anywhere else. The room is pretty, though.
The bread, once you ask for it and it is provided, was delicious. TL;DR? you can stop here. Want to know more, read on. It’s not complementary.
This experience actually made me angry in a way I haven’t felt since a horrible evening at La Guerite several years ago. This place is cynicism wrapped up in beautiful chandeliers and a personality-as-owner.
The restaurant is incredibly loud, not helped by the table in the center of the room with two men who were drunk and sunburned- a horrible combination. It was impossible to hear each other, to hear the waitress, for her to hear us. Not that she was around much. She, like everyone else, seemed to completely not care about what they were doing. The service was just awful, and I don’t want to hear, “it’s new,” or, “off night.” This place has gobs of money behind it and several restaurants around the world and this is center Gustavia, no excuses will be accepted - especially at these prices for nothing special.
We were seated, and asked what kind of water, then if we wanted the wine list. Sure. How about an aperitif? (Also, who chooses wine before looking at a dinner menu?) No menu for aperitivos was provided, no food menu was provided. Easily 10 minutes go by before a food menu appears. Many minutes later, she returns, “ready to order?” A glass of champagne is ordered, ignoring her clear request to order food, with difficulty (see: Noise level). I notice a can of olive oil on the table, and small plates. Pity there was no bread. Or anything.
Waitress returns, “ready to order?” No, we want to enjoy our drink. Finally we order, and procure a bottle of wine - the wine list is crazy marked up, even for here. It’s not offensive in the way Kinugawa is/was, but ridiculous nonetheless. We order one of the cheapest options out of spite. As we wait for food, I notice several tables waiting for food, or menus, or the bill. There are plenty of staff. No One Cares About What They Are Doing. We interacted with at least 6 different staff and not one of them seemed happy, interested, or hospitable.
I took pictures of the food, but why share them? It was fine. It wasn't awful, it was fine. The artichoke salad was deemed a success. The tuna starter was fine, if humdrum. The other wanted bread to soak up sauce from the salad, and we had never been offered any at this point. A server tried to clear the plates, but we asked for “du pain”, at which point he presented to us a pen. You can’t make this up. Once international language issues were resolved, we got the bread and it was darn good Focaccia and lots of it. I must say now that from sitting down to first bite of any food was nearly 1 hour. And there’s no good reason for that but poor service.
Next was veal piccata, which was tangy and lemony, but also a bit overcooked and quite small for 58€. I ate it in 5 minutes. I’m glad I ordered a side of mash potatoes bc for 58€, you get a few small pieces of meat and not so much as a carrot. Nothing. Thank goodness we managed to commandeer some bread!
The other had Cacio e Pepe. This is a risky dish to put on a menu, it’s hard to do well and really it’s better to not order it unless you’re in Rome. But pedigree chef, blah blah blah. After adding olive oil and salt to it, not once, not twice, but three times, it was finally ok to eat. If you know this dish, you know it’s heresy to add either of those things. I don’t know what the dish was, but it was not Cacio e Pepe.
Our wine glasses would sit empty for 15 minutes or more, and since the wine was kept across the room, and there was no staff ever around, we couldn’t manage it ourselves. We finally asked to just leave it at the table and we poured ourselves. Several times the waitress would clear something from the table - a glass, the now empty wine bottle, and she would reach right in front of my face and it felt so rude. If I had moved a couple of inches, her arm and my face would have made contact. It’s a dumb thing to be annoyed at, but after everything else, I’m annoyed at it.
The dessert menu comes on a chalkboard on the table with a couple of obvious things (tiramisu, lemon tart), and then strangely named things like “a lovely day”. And no description or explanation is provided, just that it’s 22€, like all the rest. We asked, and I don’t care at this point, so can’t remember. A cake of some sort, I think. We get lemon tart that has some strange metallic flavor to it that 90 mins later I can still taste in my mouth. Not pleasant.
The place was packed, and the crowd was not my people. I felt like I didn’t belong, and I don’t know why. But this was not a room of people I wanted to be around so that didn’t help. The thing is, looking around, no one else seemed to be enjoying their food either.
I haven’t been so happy to leave a restaurant in a very long time. And the blissful quiet when you walk out the door is heaven! Nearly 400€ spent and I’m home and hungry.
Absolutely no, never again walking in there. No. Sereno or Isola are light years better in every respect. Really, just go anywhere else. The room is pretty, though.
Everywhere else we have eaten has had some redeeming feature, even Chez Gus, which I didn’t love but we will maybe try again. We ate at le repaire a couple nights ago and had a lovely time despite the food being underwhelming. One bad dinner out of 10 so far is pretty good. 
