Mama's Noodle House Food Review
What you need to know about this home based Korean restaurant is that they are big on their side dishes, they offer bottomless hot or iced coffee for FREE and their customer service is superb. It's as if you’re at a friend’s house feeling at home and being served delicious food by his/her mom.
What I tried:
JJamppong (Php 150)
Shin Ramyun (Php 80)
Kimbap
Bibimpap (Php 150)
Bibimguksu (Php 150)
Beef Bulgogi (Php 200)
Korean Pork Curry (Php 150)
Mango Float (Php 60)
JJammpong is a hot and spicy seafood and vegetable noodle soup. Mussels, squid, shrimps, and slices of pork with cabbage, napa cabbage, carrots, and green onions are stir fried with aromatics and are cooked with an anchovy and dried kelp soup base. Seasoned with salt and hot pepper flakes dissolved in sesame oil, the components are then poured in a bowl on top of the cooked udon.
Mama Noodle House's JJamppong
The first time that I ordered Mama’s jjamppong, the only ingredient I liked was their home made udon. It was thick, chewy and was cooked perfectly. The broth was spicy good but lacked richness. I almost wished I was eating Lucky Me’s Instant JJamppong instead. The seashells were small (probably wasn’t in season) and the squid was tough. The paltry pieces of napa cabbage and carrot strips were overcooked. On the side dishes, the kimchi was okay but the eggplant and the string beans were overcooked and were a bit too sweet. Craving unsatisfied. I got to give this dish another taste when my friends ordered jjamppong for dinner. I thought food tastes better when it’s for free, but the dish was as lousy as before, although the mashed sweet potato side dish was nice.
However, on my third try, the jjamppong was very delicious. The big pieces of mussels tasted fresh and added its flavor to the broth along with some pieces of mushroom. The udon was the same chewy and earthy carbohydrate and the pieces of cabbage and carrots were distinctively flavorful. I guess third time is the charm. Kudos!
Shin Ramyun noodle soup
Shin Ramyun is a Korean brand of instant noodle. You can actually buy this in major supermarkets nationwide. Basically, what you get is a bowl of spicy instant noodles, which is triple the cost and size of local brands, along with three side dishes or banchan. Will I order again? Yes. It was good quality instant noodles, the kind of comfort food that you crave on an ordinary afternoon.
Shin Ramyun, kimbap, and banchan.
Basically, gimbap or kimbap is a seaweed rice roll made of gim (a sheet of dried seaweed) and bap (rice). Served in bite-size slices, each roll has pieces of carrot, cucumber, egg, spinach and other choice ingredients. Deeply rooted in the Taoist concept of yin yang, Korean food showcases balance and moderation. In the case of Mama’s kimbap, the rolls were unequally sliced and the vegetables were overpowered by the thick and too sticky rice. This was probably because one of the kitchen helpers prepared the kimbap. On other occasions, their kimbap tasted pretty decent.
We were served six side dishes (which I think are refillable). My favorite was the green mango kimchi: crunchy, sour, spicy, salty, and not to mention very healthy. All fermented vegetables are beneficial to your gut health since they are rich in prebiotics. The seasoned eucheuma (local name “guso”) was also crunchy, sour and salty with the added texture of the sesame seeds. I did not care much for the sautéed string beans because I know they were overcooked just by looking. They also have pickled cucumber and carrots, all crunchy and spicy but juicy. The crowd favorite was the peanuts encrusted with sticky soy sauce and caramelized brown sugar. You would want to ask for more.
Bibimpap to go
A colorful combination of stir fried beef, carrots, eggplant, string beans, and fresh lettuce strips on top of cooked rice, the bibimpap was seasoned with red pepper paste and topped with sunny side up egg, seaweed strips, and sesame seeds. I was very hungry at the time, and I couldn't remember if there was any cucumber in there somewhere. Once you mixed all the components, you can taste the saltiness of the beef, the creaminess from the egg yolk, textured with the crunchiness of the lettuce and carrots, elevated and brought together by the flavorful kick of the red pepper paste. The spiciness makes up for the oiliness from all the stir fried ingredients. Overall, it was a great meal although I was a little bit annoyed by the again overcooked string beans. I was also looking forward to eating some bean sprouts. We really enjoyed the seasoned guso side dish, though. Will I order again? No.
Bibimguksu directly translates to mixed noodles as bibim means mixed and guksu means noodles. The ingredients include thin noodles (somyeon), cucumber, egg, kimchi and kimchi juice, sugar, hot pepper paste, garlic, vinegar, sesame seeds, and sesame oil. Mama's version had no egg but I'm not complaining because there was savory ground beef instead. This dish had me at the noodles. It was thin, not too sooft and it carried all the goodness from the beef, the kimchi, and the sesame oil. The cucumber sand carrot slices were fresh and crunchy. I will definitely order bibimguksu again.
Bibimguksu
Bibimguksu after mixing
We were lucky to be served with an introductory side dish: the seasoned Asian chives buchu. A garlicky plant with a strong onion scent perfect for scrambled eggs, dumplings, or in this case, as a side dish.
Fermented in soy sauce, fish sauce, garlic, turnip, sugar, hot pepper flakes and drizzled with sesame oil and seeds, buchu is a crunchy vegetable salad slightly stronger in flavor then green onions. I quite enjoyed it and am keen to make my own batch but please be advised that this would be an acquired taste to people who are not used to eating spices per se.
The beef bulgogi was tender and a little on the salty side which is perfectly fine matched with a bowl of steamed rice. The savory beef with soy sauce and garlic really gets the juices going in your mouth.
At first look, Mama’s Korean Pork Curry looked like the Filipino dish pork ginamay. It had pork, carrots, and potatoes cut into cubes in a fair amount of curry sauce. If you are not a fan of curry flavor, I encourage you to try this one as it is a mild version of Filipino-style curry, which is also a mild version of Thai or Singaporean curry.
Mama’s mango float is a snack-sized dessert perfect for the hot weather. It was creamy and not too sweet, though the pieces of mango left me wanting. But it’s okay considering the high prices of mangoes nowadays.
As a summary of my experience, I daresay that the food in Mama’s Noodle House is a “hit or miss”. There are times when you experience such a good homemade meal that makes you feel full and light at the same time. Sometimes, you feel cheated and disappointed. A dish could be missing an ingredient on the first order, appearing only on the next orders, or vice versa. But I'm glad to say that the high times outweigh the low ones. They are still improving. If they are aiming to serve authentic Korean dishes, they’ve got a long way to go. Otherwise, they’re doing great in job in creating Filipinized Korean dishes. And if they are going to let their helpers prepare the food, they could at least give them the proper training and understanding for each dish.
Nothing can beat their personal approach in customer service coupled with their high regard for your health. They use only the freshest ingredients available in the local market, just the ones that are in season (which is probably one of the reasons for the case of the missing ingredients), wash with purified water and cook using canola oil, sunflower seed oil, and the purest homemade sesame oil.
Mama’s noodle house is located at Acasiahan St., Datoc Compound, Digos City. They are open every day from 11 AM up to 10 PM.
