This two-story restaurant is centrally located in the heart of Hua Hin. Walls with stone facings, two-tone paint, and cream-colored woods are joined by some hanging artwork by a couple of popular European artistans. The ambience is relaxing and comfortable partly due to the quality soft chairs.
The menu is ambitious with Italian culinary styles ranging from pizzeria to trattoria and fine dining to seafood all listed in the menu with most traditional selections, often with a twist, offered to guests.
My friend David and his wife joined me for this special opportunity to enjoy some central and northern Italian cuisine at Mamma Mia which has been an icon for almost 15 years. It has been copied by others, while many have come and gone, but this restaurant seems to be the place everybody goes to when they venturing out for authentic Italian, be it the locals or the holiday crowd.
We were greeted at the door by two young hostesses and taken to a table in the center of the restaurant. The staff was friendly and the place obviously puts out great food but does it in a casual and unpretentious setting. The owner stopped by right after we were seated to say "welcome" and told us a little bit about himself and the restaurant. Our conversation turned to quality and freshness and he made it clear that his seafood and vegetables are carefully chosen daily while beef, veal, and lamb come from New Zealand and Australia with the fresh herbs, like; sage, basil, and parsley being imported and all breads, pastas, and desserts are homemade.
The three of us chose to start the evening with a glass of one of the house white wines and quickly began to investigate the menu as we all seemed to have a large appetite. We chose our appetizers from a choice of 9 selections. I chose the Rolls of Smoked Salmon and Rocket Salad and my friend David chose the Caesar Salad that offered fresh bacon pieces, parmesan cheese, cashew nuts and Caesar dressing and went on to enjoy the Nest of Parma Ham, Mascarpone Cheese, and Fresh Strawberry in Balsamic Dressing while one taste, it proved to be as decadent as most desserts and it was certainly on my checklist for our next visit. Dave's wife selected the Beef Carpaccio, thin slices of raw beef fillet, ricket salad, and Parmesan Cheese literally melting in your mouth.
Standby dishes like seafood soup or heavy, rich dishes like orecchiette with broccoli and gorgonzola cheese works well as do many of the 19 different pasta offerings including spaghetti, lasagna, ravioli and penne. Pizzas are considered a house speciality due to a wood-fired oven on the second floor and 12 are offered along with a couple of calzones. For main dishes we started with the Bucatini Pasta. It is homemade, with Italian sausage and sheeps milk cheese. We also enjoyed the large size Fettuccini in Hare (jack-rabbit) Ragou Sauce and the Braised Lamb Shank with grilled tomato and corn-meal porridge plus a house favorite, the Sole Fillet sauteed in butter with lemon, minced parsley w/capers,black olives and mushrooms. The fish was delicious and understandably the house favorite of seafood dishes, however, there is also seabass fillet, grilled salmon steak, and grilled pomfret. Dessert offers some great choices and Panna Cotta was the pick of all three of us. It was as delicious as much as the rest of the meal.
All wines are Italian and many of the 40 choices are low priced, at 1,200 and up per bottle.
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