Mama D’s

Friendly, excellent food and perfect service. Jay is the best waiter in town ;)
Thank you!

I think I’ve tried almost everything on their menu except pizza. Sometimes when I’m feeling a little healthy but guilty for having Italian, I ask for angel hair pasta in garlic extra virgin olive oil with sundried tomatoes and broc. This special dish seems to be the best dish so far. The gnocchi and squash ravioli were both disappointing.
The food itself isn’t all that special, just the norm. I think collectively with the dining expereince makes it worth coming back for.
I come here for weekend dinner and get valet. I think it’s just a few bucks plus tip. At most, we’ve waited 30 mins. Since it’s a small mom n pops-​type place, we’ve had to wait outside under the one gas heater. The hostess is usually friendly, always bringing out small apps for us to have while we wait.
The service itself is good, too. The dishes aren’t cheap but not too pricey. I think I’m paying more for the cozy, warm feeling of dining here than anything.
Overall, I enjoy coming here and will continue to do so when I crave a cozy Italian meal.

NO CORKAGE FEE!
How awesome is this place. Service is usually really good, although once out of ten times coming here I had a not so great experience. Everyone working here is very friendly and if your waiting outside for a table they bring appetizer samples for you to try. Also its common while your eating for them to bring something by for you to try as well.
There pastas with there pink sauce are delicious add chicken and make them even better. The bread they serve here is really good too, and they happily bring you as much as you want.
I also really like there calamari here for an appetizer. Not too chewy and there sauce is dynamite!

I am SO glad I bought a $ 20 for $ 40 Unilocal deal from this place because if I hadn’t I would’ve been missing out on one of THEE best Italian restaurants ever!
The ambiance: It’s a cute small homey hole in the wall place by the beach.
The service: This place hands down had one of thee best customer service i’ve ever had. The staff worked as a team serving us & each one of them were very friendly & informative about their food & menu. JR was our main waiter & he went out of his way in making our first experience at this place nothing less than amazing with a long lasting positive impression on this place. JR if you’re reading this, thanks for being so awesome!
The food: (we ordered)
+ mozzarella sticks
+ Luciana’s lasagna
+ Jr’s chicken limone
+ Spagetti & a meatball (yes just one because it’s huge!) with Mama D’s pink sauce
AMAZING. I had no complaints about ANY of the dishes we had because it was THAT delicious! Their sauces are simply delicious, their meat is tasty & their pasta… amazing!
This place is now officially my go-​to Italian restaurant!
HAPPY EATING!
–Gen

I’ve been to Mama D’s in Manhattan a few times, and I never thought it was anything special. Hell, I still think the food is just average, but I’m giving THIS specific location 4 stars because the service was AMAZING.
This was my SERVICE experience only:
Beginning: We were just outside looking at the menu, and one of the waiters come out and offer us WARM bread during a cold night. I’ve never been offered this service at the other location, so I was really surprised! That definitely tipped us over into eating there.
Middle: Our waitress was really helpful, knowing that it was all my friends’ first time. She also brought us more bread + dip during our first encounter, which was pretty on-​par to me. What REALLY made me in awe was how we each got one huge cheese ravioli ON THE HOUSE. That was extremely unexpected, and I really appreciate such welcoming gesture!
End: Our waitress really checked up on our progress throughout the meal. We were also given WARM chocolate chip cookies at the end — they were usually cold at the other location, and sometimes, I was not even given any!
HOWEVER, FOOD WISE… it’s really nothing special. Collectively with other friends, I have tried their: pizza, lasagna, multiple pasta dishes, ravioli, multiple chicken entrees, italian salad. It’s home-​y alright, but I don’t think it’s worth it to come with its more expensive price tag. It’s about $ 13+ for a pasta dish, when I know I can get same quality for a cheaper price at other locations.
But come here if you must, not the other location! The service will win you over and make you disregard the mediocre food!

Wonderful service here on our visit Sunday night, not too crowded, easy to find a table. Great linguini, sausage and chicken dish with fresh buffalo mozzarella, delish, a special for the evening. Chicken and artichoke with sun dried tomatoes and capers was tasty, but came in second place. Just FYI, specials for the evening ran us $ 20 per plate. AND-​new corkage fee of $ 7? Hermosa has lots of great Italian, sans the corkage…
Stephanie, our server did an awesome job, checked in with us multiple times. Fresh baked cookies at the end, hummmm! We left full and satisfied.

I was having trouble deciding between two and three stars, and rounded up to three (you’re welcome, Mama D’s).
Mama D’s is simply «OK.» Not bad, but not great… and when you live in South Bay, there are tons of restaurants that are better than just OK, so I haven’t been back since.
I gave this place three tries, and each time the service has been pretty bad. I’ve always been seated quickly, but the server or anyone else is super slow to come greet you and get your drink order. If you’re not ready for me, don’t seat me yet. And when you do seat me, can I please be at a table that is not uneven? During every visit I’ve made to Mama D’s, I have had to wedge some napkins under one of the table legs. I don’t like having to ghetto rig my table to stop if from rocking back and forth.
The wine glasses are TINY. If I am going to buy a glass, I don’t expect to be done with it in five sips. I’m not expecting any restaurant to give me the big «I’m gonna be on the couch for a while» sized glasses I have at home, but please get some that are a little bigger. It’s embarrassing to say you’ve had three glasses of wine and aren’t even feeling it yet.
One time, I ordered the Chicken Picatta, which was WAY too buttery. My chicken looked like it was sitting in a bathtub of melted butter. Although this may have been a plus for someone like Paula Deen, I was definitely turned off by it.
Some good things are that that have free valet parking, which is nice if you drive there; free chocolate chip cookies at the end of your meal; good location to walk The Strand after your meal; and it’s pretty kid-​friendly, which also may mean the occasional loud children during your dinner date, but hey, you were probably one of those kids back in the day.

I haven’t been to the original location in Manhattan Beach, but I do wonder if there’s a difference in service.
After having visited this location twice, I think the food is good, but not great. I’ve had the chicken alfredo and the broccoli pesto pasta with chicken. I liked both, but the pesto was a little bland. Yesterday, we also shared a special crab cake appetizer. The crab cakes were served over a pink sauce, which was very tasty.
All in all, the food was A-​OK, but the service was a little irritating. Our server came over to say «how is everything, girls?» literally every three minutes, even when we hadn’t received our food… Even after we’d paid our check and had finished our meal. It’s nice to have service check up on you, but there’s also such a thing as overkill.
In a previous experience, another server asked us to Unilocal about her specifically, because she had the chance to win some extra money if she received more reviews than the others. «If you could just say how good of a server I am, that would be great!» Um, where’s my food?

Chris:
I am very dissapointed with Mama D’s as of late. Its not terrible, but for those who have been eating there for years would see a big difference between old school Mama D’s and today’s Mama’ds.
Mama D’d used to just operate in Manhattan; It constantly had a line out the door and was packed. Today, you can almost always just walk in and grab a table. The food was the best italian in the south bay, and arguably Los Angeles. The waiters were sharp. Female waitresses were absolutley gorgeous and the men were on top of it. You could always expect to go in and get great service.
Today is a joke. You will not recognize any employees from the last time you were there; turnover is high. Service is not nearly where it used to be. Its not terrible, but terrible compared to what it used to be. All of the servers are english as a second language which doesnt bother me and I am not trying to be predjudice or anything, but this is clearly a symbol of the new age at Mama D’s.
The bread was once a staple of the place. Now it comes all dried out as if it had been sitting around for a while.
The salads are a mess of cheese, cheap iceberg, and runny dressing. The salads at Olive Garden will rival these.
The pasta: OK, but very oily and the noodles are consistently overcooked.
The cookie: this was once the best part! Chris, the owner, is definelty cutting costs here. They have been somewhat stale the last 3 times i have eaten there.
The manager was just standing around looking like a chump.
STOP TRYING TO CUT COSTS, CHRIS!!!
Bring back the old Mama D’s mentality.

We came to eat before going to Comedy show across the street. it was a great choice!
Food: Delish! Pastas were fresh and the sauces had great depth. their bread and garlic at the start of the meal is worth the non kissing breath!
Ambience: comfortable tables, several booths, even has outdoor seating.
Service: Amazing! Grace was our server and she was great about explaining the menu and making recs. she even brough us out some ravioli that we didnt order so we can get a taste and at the end of our meal she treated us to cookies!
Great place!

Superb service and extremely friendly staff!
Delicious food! We ordered the Baked Ziti and Veggie Pizza, both subbed with their famous pink sauce and everything tasted amazing!
Please note that subbing for the pink sauce does cost extra, and we were surprised at the end with the $ 10 additional charge, but it was stated on their menu so I guess that was our bad.
2 entrees (both subbed with pink sauce) + 1 soda = $ 45 with tax and tip
Since it was our first time, they even brought us out a sample of their cheese ravioli! How sweet!

We were on vacation in California and made one visit to Mama D’s. I’d normally not write a review of a place I visited only once but our server Jay insisted that the owner wanted feedback so bad on Unilocal that he was paying his waiters a bonus for soliciting them, so here goes: This place is nothing special. Ok, so the food wasn’t so bad. If you’re looking for Italian American fare, this is well done. I had the Chicken Parm and the rest of the family had pizza and pastas. Everything was tasty, hot, and hearty. So many restaurants of this ilk make such a gloppy mess of Italian American dishes that when you come across a place like Mama D’s, it’s notable. It’s clearly a step above the crap dished out by Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill. But then, you’re paying a bit more than those places as well. The pastas were a bit overcooked, not al dente, and everything, from the fried calamari to the sauces, were on the oily side. Like Lidia Bastianich (of the PBS cooking show), their cooks seem to add an extra shot of olive oil to finish off everything they serve.
The service was good; but it can’t go without comment how long the wait was to get a table. It was a Saturday night, so we called ahead of time to find out what the wait was and was told it was 15 minutes (they don’t take reservations). We arrived at the restaurant and again was told by the young hostess that it was 15 – 20 minutes. One hour later, we still weren’t seated, and other parties were leaving after never getting a table. The place was clearly slammed by a large birthday party but a restaurant just has to be honest with the clientele and tell them that the wait is much longer so they can decide whether to stay or leave. We finally got our table after an hour and fifteen minutes, and the birthday party was still winding down so it was loud and boisterous in the small space. Mama D’s did try to make up for the long wait with some bread and samplers served out on the patio and a complimentary appetizer after we were seated but it wasn’t enough. They got to take the hit for an inexcusably long wait.
Hope you get the bonus, Jay. You may be a bit chatty for my taste, but your service was impeccable.

This mama don’t cook like my mama.
The place is pretty small, and the seating is a little cramped. On the plus side, they have their own parking lot with free valet. This is quite nice, considering they’re right next door to all the hustle and drinking on Pier.
Ok ok, their bread is delish. The garlic dipping sauce, well… definitely too much garlic for my stomach to handle. But if you feel like scaring away the vampires, then by all means, dip away!
Their menu is extensive, but a bit on the pricey side. We shared the manhattan beach salad– tomatoes, cucumbers, artichokes, and celery in a «light» italian dressing. I was a fan of the veggies, but they were all drenched in the dressing. I almost choked from too much vinegar. I ordered linguine in bolognese sauce. The mushrooms were good (I’m a fan of the fungus), but the sauce was not good. This was all a shame since the portions are pretty sizable. He ordered his fave, fettuccine alfredo, and there were CHUNKS of garlic in the sauce. I’m pretty sure ingesting chunks of garlic in alfredo sauce is not standard. At first he thought it was tasty, but the garlic was just too much and he had to stop eating it.
Now, maybe we just ordered the wrong food, I don’t know. My sister’s pasta wasn’t particularly tasty, and my parents’ food just seemed meh. Personally, I believe I can make better pasta than I ate here.
And did I mention that service was ridiculously s l o w ?? When taking our order, the girl tried to take off without even taking my dad’s order, and when the food came out, she never checked on us once. It also took a moon and a half to get our check.
Sorry, Mama D, but for italian food in the south bay there are a dozen other places I’d rather go to.

3.5 stars.
MUCH BETTER THAN MAMA D’S IN MANHATTAN BEACH. Service is friendlier, wait is shorter and food is better.
I always order the Pasta Primavera ($ 14.99). This location has always been consistent with my pasta: never too oily, good assortment of seasonal vegetables, and enough flavor without over-​salting.
I have a few complaints that I seem to forget about once I start eating, but for the sake of a review:
— $ 14.99 for a vegetarian pasta is EXPENSIVE.
— There’s not much of an atmosphere here (same with the MB location). It’s a brightly lit room with tables and chairs.

Mama D’s smells so amazing outside — the most inviting aroma of garlic & italian goodness. Unfortunantly the food just is just not that good, most likely due to the fact that Mama is cooking with sub-​par unfresh ingrediants.
— Free bread: The BEST part of the meal. It’s thick, wonderful, flavorful garlic bread. I recommend filling up on this, and this alone.
— Italian Garden Salad: Ugh. Overpriced for being just chunks of white iceberg lettuce, a few slices of old tomato, and a small sprinking beans & olives & cheese.
— Minestrone Soup: Very brothy, very little pasta or vegetables, and on the bland side.

Mama D’s is one of my favorite Italian restaurants. And that’s saying a lot, because I don’t usually like to eat Italian food. It’s just something about them that makes me like it.
Now, between the two Mama D’s, I prefer the one in Manhattan Beach more. The tastes seems a little different to me. Also, the one in MB is smaller and has a more family feel. Although, I would think there would be a longer wait, at the one in Manhattan Beach.
The one in HB is not bad though. They still have the tasty bread and garlic dip. And, you still get a free cookie at the end of your meal :)
I came here and got the Chicken David. It was good. I had extra sauce in the noodles. It may be because the sauce was a little watery for me.
The servers were really cool.
Also, the parking they have out in the front is Valet?! There’s also metered parking in the area.

sucks

I’ve been to the other two locations — Orange County as well as Manhattan Beach and I have to say this one would probably be right in between those. The OC one is still my fav since their customer service is outstanding. The service at this locale was good and better than the MB location.
Food-​wise, it’s all very good. I liked that they had more of the similar menu as the OC one. The MB location was more limited on their menu.
Had the veal denni, the angelhair with pesto garlic oil and scallops and their spinach and cheese ravioli. All very good. Their stuffed mushroom were also yummy. Got free pizza while waiting and they came around with sampler or something that was pretty tasty too.
This location is bigger than the one in MB so if you’re in this area, I’d pick the HB location over that other one. Overall, good and would definitely go back.

Mama D’s is an old-​fashioned, Italian family restaurant. There’s a picture of her on the wall, and a large sign proudly displaying the restaurant’s mission statement — deliver a pleasant family experience at an affordable price so people keep coming back happy.
The first thing I noticed upon entering was this place was packed. It was just before 6pm on a Sunday, and we were seated at the last empty table of about 20. Fresh bread was served while we waited for our order. Normally, I defer on bread in order to avoid a carb overload when eating Italian, but this bread looked so good, I had to have some, and it did not disappoint. It was amazing… mouth watering… garlic-​ily delicious.
Our waitress (Cassie or Cassidy?) asked us for our names at the beginning of the meal, then called us by our first names when checking up on us, and when writing the «thank you» note on the receipt. That personal touch went a long way towards furthering the image that this homey restaurant takes care of you. There was also a hostess who came by offering free samples of the meatballs (which were extremely tender) and cheese pizza.
As for the food, I ordered Mama D’s famous pink sauce over farfalle with scallops. My friend ordered angel hair with Bolognese sauce. Both were enjoyable, and the portions were so large, it was the perfect size for a second meal. If this were the extent of the review, I would have left a happy man, however there were a few things that detracted from my dining experience.
Mama D’s is extremely family-​friendly. To some, this is a major plus, for others… not so much. About half the tables in the restaurant were packed with families with babies/​toddlers. The table next to us had a screaming baby, which was taken by his parents out of the restaurant until he calmed down. If you’re looking for a romantic, quiet evening to share a glass of wine and enjoy some Italian food, this is not the place. The atmosphere is closer to Chuck E Cheese with all the noise and loud talking.
What really ruined my evening was a waiter serving another table. As he prepared to pour some grated cheese over a dish at the table next to us, he flipped his dish rag over his shoulder, and a large helping of shredded cheese landed on our table and all over me, without him even noticing. The quantity was so large I was in shock, and my first thought was he had a dandruff problem… but no, it was cheese… leftover cheese from a previous meal. Because this restaurant packs the tables so close together like sardines, it’s easy for an accident like this to happen. I remember the maitre D asked me to scoot my chair in briefly so they could get by in order to check on another customer, and I was already sitting close to my table.
If the recycled cheese had landed in my food, I would have immediately said something, but instead I shrugged it off. I was planning to inform the maitre D about it as we left, but he was too busy escorting in the next herd of people at the door to notice. If Mama D were still alive, I don’t think she would approve of this ‘quantity over quality’ mentality which seems to be going on now. It’s a shame, I was really beginning to like the place.

The new second location is up and running! It’s every bit as good as the original Manhattan Beach location & now I don’t have to drive as far (from Redondo) to get my Mama D’s fix. Woohooo!
I stopped by today to take a couple photos of the new place before I posted my review, and ran into the owner. He had not heard of Unilocal but his buddy had, and was quite impressed that Mama Unilocal was visiting Mama D’s with her camera in hand! haha… and I got special permission to photo the dining room ’cause of course nobody was in it before the place opened for the day.
This location is not yet open for lunch on weekdays (only on weekends) but it will be at some point. Doors open for dinner at 5pm.
The menu is exactly the same as in MB, and in Hermosa, I was told, they can serve booze on the patio, so you can have a drink while you wait for your order. In MB, no can do, no liquor out front on the sidewalk.
And another bonus for the Hermosa location is… drum roll… a parking lot!!! Holy crap! It’s small but it’s there, right in front. Unheard of for a restaurant that is half a block from the beach. And I was told there will be valet as well.
I can smell the aroma of garlic coming from Mama D’s as I sit at the stoplight on Hermosa Ave. What a lovely addition to the neighborhood.
As in MB, this is good pasta, good salads, incredible garlic oil, homebaked bread… all for very reasonable prices. Life is good at Mama D’s. Mama Y says so.