I wish we had known about this restaurant earlier in our trip. For some reason, we tended to focus our walks, research and dining in *the other* direction from our hotel, away from this side of the city. Had we expanded just a bit, we could have had good meals at reasonable prices that didn't put us in the piazza or have us walking out of our way to eat.
Mama Eat is a cute little restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating. We were shown to a table inside right away - despite the fact we didn't have a reservation - and provided with only a wine menu. We flagged down two different people to ask for food menus, and the third person we got actually brought them over to us.
We started with a bottle of red - naturally - then ordered the Mama Croquettes to share (€15). I went with the A Bolones (€16) and my husband ordered the "why is it named this" Decomposed Filling ("Scomposto") stuffed pizza (essentially a calzone) for his main (€12).
The croquette came out first - it was potato and cheese-filled, and not as crispy as I would have liked. Still, it was filling and had good flavor...is it "too American" of me to say it would have been that much better with a sauce?
The pasta Bolognese was good, not as meaty or as flavorful as I was hoping for. It was a large serving, which was a nice surprise. My husband took a few forkfuls and said he felt like it was lacking something. I got that, but also didn't want to waste the meal so consumed as much as I could.
The stuffed pizza (calzone) was the most "pizza" thing my husband had had at that point, so he was very much looking forward to it. He did enjoy it, pizza-adjacent as it was; he liked the filling of salami and cheeses, but did say he would have liked the crust to be a bit more done.
We did end the night with a pistachio tiramisu (€6.50) for some reason (we were full by that point, I honestly don't remember who's idea it was to cram a dessert in our faces, but when in Firenze...) The dessert was definitely share-able, so naturally we ordered one for each of us. It was a tasty, not-too sweet ending to the meal featuring the nut we grew to love even more while in Italy.
All in all, it was a good dining experience, just not so great from a customer experience. read more