Mama San

We had a wedding party dinner here and the service was awesome — the staff all treated my brother and his now-​wife with such genuine excitement for their special occasion. The food was very good — plenty of choices across a broad breadth of food styles from Thai, Indonesian, and Chinese. The crispy shrimp bucket was a big hit and the cocktails were inventive and tasty. The ambiance is a little over the top on theme, but one more cocktail and you won’t notice.

Walking down the hall of the building to access the staircase certainly leant an air of mystery to the visit. Once inside, the atmosphere was hip, creative and stylish. There was an added festive air, it being New Year’s Eve and there were hats and 2016 eyeglasses at each table, nice touch!
Chloe took amazing care of us and I felt like a regular immediately. Specials were offered and the menu explained, we asked that our order be coursed out to pair with the variety of wine/​cocktails. They not only obliged, but the Sommelier (darn I forgot his name) upgraded our wine choice, enhancing the feeling again of being a regular customer.
All the food we ordered excited the palate; the salmon/​tuna sashimi, fried shrimp, ribs and green beans each stood on it’s own. If I had to make a critique, I thought there was too much coating on the shrimp for their size
After many drinks and a great meal, we had to try their desserts. Both the ‘Snicker Bar’ and and the Vietnamese crème caramel were as exciting as the entrees. But again, just to be picky, the coffee granita kind of overpowers the custard. That being said, both plates were picked clean.
Again, thank you Chloe!

Fusion Asian Food?
Never was a fan of «Fusion» things.
But I guess what makes this place nice is the ambiance and the atmosphere.
Otherwise, Skip the food, have a drink, and eat somewhere else.

Great atmosphere and good food, they have an entire vegetarian menu which is wonderful. 4 stars because the «spicy» was not spicy… but lovely cocktails

Pretty decent lunch specials, though the service was quite slow. Also, they charge a mandatory $ 1 extra for donating to some fund. I have no problem with charity, but one should be able to voluntarily donate to a cause.

Now I love a good Indonesian and I’ve wanted to try mamasan for quite a while. By luck, the girls picked here for our Friday night rendezvous. The menu put a spin on all things Indo, and I was a bit sad to see some of my favourite Indonesian dishes missing from the menu. In fact, it was probably a bit more Thai than anything else.
I settled for the chicken green curry. It is probably the best chicken green curry I’ve had in ages. The sauce was deliciously light and fragrant. The chicken was fresh and succulent. I am also a big fan of okra and the curry was lavished with tasty veggies including Thai aubergines, crunchy green beans and okra (did I mention the okra?). It was so tasty my dining buddies kept digging into my bowl and stealing the soup.
The rest of the group had a variety of dishes, including clay pot snapper, veal of some sort and a leg of lamb. It all looked quite mouthwatering, but as I was so focussed on my green curry I didn’t steal a bite. We also ordered slow cooked beetroot with paneer to share — which was cooked to soft and tender perfection.
To top off our meal, we dug into what tasted like a snickers — bar of cool peanut butter cream smothered in chocolate and sprinkled with nuts. Yum.
Throughout the meal I sipped on a few of their tasty cocktails, starting with a lemongrass and basil mojito, switching to wine, and finishing with a pineapple apple martini. If Friday’s aren’t made for cocktails I don’t know what their made for.
The bill rocked in at $ 575 per person. A bit pricey than an authentic Indonesian meal — but for the ambiance, superb staff, delicious meal and tasty drinks I happily paid up.

The main reason that i go here is that it is right next to my office and i can always get a nice table. Being gluten free tends to be a challenge in this city, but simply ask the wait staff to check with the kitchen and they can typically work something out for you. But as always be cautious.
At lunch there is a set menu which is changed rather regularly. This is obviously the go to price wise but don’t forget to check out the regular menu for some of your traditional favourites.
Of all the dining concepts restaurants this isn’t my favourite but is worth a try especially if you’re looking for a good spot to have lunch in central that isn’t overly crowded

I came here for a New Years Eve dinner, so obviously there was a lot of celebrating going on, but I hate to say there was a bit too much for me to be going on. Of course there where loud drunk people (expected) but I could help but get bugged by a random strobe lights going off for whatever reason, no sure if it happens every night, but it was annoying enough that patrons as for it to be shut off.
Anyways on to the food.
–Soft shell crab rujak salad with green mango rose apple mint peanuts sesame seed and tamarind chilli sauce: First thing I have to say about this was that the crab had a really off pungent brine to it. You know how when you taste shellfish you taste a clean oceanic brine? This brine tasted more like Newport Beach (sorry NP). When paired with the overly sugary sweet/​sour chili sauce, its a recipe for an upset stomach.
–Beef tartar with sambal ulek mustard seed shallots homemade cassava chips and ikan asin: Clean, incredibly refreshing. Not the first thing you would think about raw beef but it would’ve had me fooled in to thinking it was a fresh ceviche. Flavors where lively and the cassava chips paired very well.
–Slow braised veal cheek with Indonesian rendang spices: Big flavors, great off the bat but you get tired after a few bites. Why? Strangely enough I’m used to ordering a protein dish at a nice restaurant and getting a tiny bit with a whole lot of starch and veggies to compensate the price. This was just the opposite it was one big bowl of protein, generous as it may be, I would’ve appreciated a little something in there to mix up the flavor/​texture profile (rice?), so my mouth ended up getting bored of it pretty quickly. It’s a shame considering this was actually a pretty good dish.
I had such high expectations for this place considering the buzz going on about but, the combination of a bad ambiance and an off dinner really threw me off.

very pack. very noisy. mostly expats crowd.
having said that, me and my friend had a great time dining there on a busy friday night. we were actually clueless what to eat after walking around central /​LKF and was famished when I looked up this old building and saw a huge MAMASAN signboard. I remember reading the review in Travel+Leisure magazine so I candidly suggest that we should check this place out.
Going up to the 2^nd floor can be quite confusing as the elevator on the right only goes up to selected floors (that security guard didnt bother to tell us) so please dont take that one. Instead, take the one on the left or you can just walk up the stairs. It will lead you right up to the main entrance. We walked in without reservation on a very busy night and was told to wait for 20 mins. But little did we know that 20 mins turned out to be 40 mins? Lucky, the bar is on a full swing, so we grabbed some drinks before being seated by the corner surrounded by boisterous expat crowds. Not complaining on that.
Food wise — it was alright. Chef Will Meyrick definitely knows his South East Asia cuisine well as his extensive menu says so. We settled for oysters for appetizer. Plump and juicy oysters (4 pcs) served in their in-​house tangy, light sauce with a dash of coriander and crispy shallot. Then we have pomelo salad with chicken and our main consist of bbq babi guling served in 3 different sauces. A very generous portion (the give an entire thigh meat) of babi guling with juicy and succulent meat. Not overly cook or under, just perfect! I would highly recommend this if you;re feeling like a carnivore for the night. And of course to balance out the guilt, we have a stir fried french beans with sambal.
In total we paid HKD1,200 (approx SGD210) for 2 appetizers, 1 main, 1 vege, 1 dessert, 2 beers and 2 cocktails. It’s not cheap, but it’s not too crazy expensive too.
Since the restaurant is just 6 months old, there are still a lot of things to polish up such as the service. Service is still choppy from time to time to accommodate the crowd and during peak hours /​weekends. One of the waiters dropped the entire stack of plates to the floor when we were there and everyone got a shock for a mere second, then everyone started cheering and shout «OPPAH» just like in a Greek tavern. haha. But the manager on duty sure wasnt too happy to see that.
I would suggest to come on weekday nights instead of weekend if you want to check out MAMASAN and be blown away with the food.

vegetarian curry prix fixe lunch is pure gold, and the flavors are thankfully not overly gweilo-​fied. bonus: cocktails are tasty and refreshing. pisco sour please!

Mama San was really good. Dined here with friends while in town and it’s a great place to meet up for drinks and to share food. It’s easy to find on Wyndham Street and there’s plenty of other places to check out after for a drink in the area too. Not completely used to restaurants being on floors other than ground level, so if you’re like me, it’ll be easy to find the signage, but then look for the side door to walk up to the restaurant on the 2^nd floor (or in HK known as 1^st floor!)
My Moscow Mule came in a copper bucket (it looked like a plant pot)! Wish I took a picture but didn’t want to be ‘that’ person at the dinner table unlike my other posts, as this place had a cool vibe (didn’t want to embarrass anyone!). Well portioned drinks and tasty too!
Cool space, nice artwork, good drinks and food although no huge standouts on the food front. I think Hong Kong has just spoiled us because the food there is so incredibly great so Mama San in comparison to the other places we went to wasn’t as good, but still good.

Mama San is one of the most recent additions to the Dining Concepts’ family tree, and situated in a prime location, right next to The Centrium/​Dragon-​i crowd on Wyndham Street. The signage is impossible to miss, with huge orange letters screaming at you to get inside. So we did. After booking a table a few days in advance, of course.
I already knew I was going to love Mama San, after seeing their four varieties of mojito on their extensive cocktail menu. Coconut rum mojito? Lemon Thai Basil mojito? Yes, please. My brother went for the ‘Thai Thai’, a citrus vodka cocktail with Thai basil and ginger beer that was a lip-​smacking kind of good.
Chef Will Meyrick and crew call Mama San a «travelogue of food finding and cooking in remote villages and vibrant cities around Asia», which means: all the best Southeast Asian dishes, on one menu. A recurring fantasy of mine for Hong Kong’s dining scene. Who would have thought that Dining Concepts would be the ones to make my dream a reality?
We started with the oysters with a Thai nam jim sauce and crispy shallots — definitely recommended. The oysters themselves weren’t anything special, but the sauce and crunch of the shallots made all the difference. Could’ve ordered another round of this but I couldn’t wait to tuck into their Babi Guling, suckling pig, which had a respectable crackling and extremely tender, fall off the bone, meat served with sambal ulek.
We almost died and went to seafood Heaven when we tried their whole salt-​crusted barramundi with lemongrass and pandan leaf. You can try similar, likely cheaper, dishes in Kowloon City’s Thai paradise, but Mama San’s version was a worthy contender.
For herbivores, they do a whole other vegetarian menu, which is just as tasty. Great for vegetarians and people who just want to take a day off from the meat-​madness of Hong Kong dining.
Looking forward to many more return visits.