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Mama Baba: 21 Daly Street, South Yarra, 9207 7421
My score: 3.5/5
Mama Baba is a big, fun, noisy, semi-subterranean restaurant with cool aesthetics and mostly good food. It’s part of George Calombaris’ stable and the concept reflects the chef’s own Greek (mama) and Italian (baba) heritage. The menu is a cute culture mash but it does feels a little like an arranged marriage, strategic rather than an affair of the heart. On the other hand, I’ve heard it said that many contrived unions turn out happy and fulfilling, and that’s how it usually shakes down here.
A show kitchen at the entrance is a signal writ in white marble and gleaming machinery: ‘we make our pasta’. It’s good too. Bucatini (hollow spaghetti) is twirled with a classic, full-flavoured veal and pork bolognese. It’s a good example of the simple being great. Morsels of fried bone marrow garnish the dish – these rich bombs are unnecessary but winning. Bolognese sauce also makes a cameo in arancini (risotto balls) that should represent the absolute pinnacle of comfort food because they include mashed potato as well as rice and meat sauce. Our arancini were marred by undercooked rice but I still admire the excess of the concept. Among the Greek pasta dishes is a tortellini of prawns bathed in wonderfully flavoursome, fragrant shellfish oil that teeters on overpowering but is reined in by nuggety fried chickpeas and crumbled feta. Away from the pasta parade, there are scallops with garlic skordalia and a crunchy crumb topping, braised beef cheek with rich, cheesey polenta and gloriously crunchy chips. Salads add welcome balance, especially a lively composition of pickled beetroot, raw carrot and baby beetroot leaves.
There’s a dancehall perkiness to the mood: waiters serve up good vibes and a DJ keeps the good times rolling. You’d be out of keeping with the Mama Baba spirit to take any of it too seriously: go, drink, chatter, carb-load. Our waiter pushed hard for the $55 banquet menu – if the dishes of the day float your boat, go for it, because a la carte prices can creep up, especially with pastas and desserts. Sweets give further ballast to Mama Baba’s retro leanings: tiramisu icecream on a stick lacks the flavour layering of its inspiration but the fancy ‘Ferrero Rocher’ is a rich, satisfying chocolate assault.
Every Sunday there’s a $40 Greco-Roman yum cha. And if baba has a bubba, there’s a smashing baby food menu too.
More pasta:
Yak Bar Pasta Artiginale, 150 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, 9654 6699
Come for classics (such as lasagne or spinach and ricotta cannelloni) and lesser seen dishes (lemon and potato agnolotti).
Cafe Di Stasio, 31 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, 9525 3999
Some fans love Di Stasio for romantic memories or the lunch deal but I love it for the maltagliati (raggedy pasta with breadcrumbs) with calamari and radicchio.
Zia Teresa, 88-90 Lygon Street, Brunswick East, 9380 1218
Well into its third decade, Teresa is known and loved for spirited Italian dishes including homemade pasta.
First published in The Age, September 2, 2012
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