Restaurant Review: Mom's Place

Overview:
A cozy little place with only a few seats, Mom's Place serves basic foods out of plastic containers. Look for the male waiter, since he is much more likely to offer sweets than greens. Breakfast served daily around 8, Lunch between noon and 1pm, and dinner at 6pm without fail. If you linger, you might even get a bath with your meal.

Food:
Mom's Place serves traditional American foods such as cereals, Warm Diced Pear in Cinnamon Rice Pudding, Banana Oatmeal Hotpot, Deconstructed Spanikopita, and Puree of Local Peaches a la Creme. All foods are prepared by hand in Mom's kitchen, and served to order.

While generally tasty, occasionally there have been problems in the kitchen. On one visit, our party received Acorn Squash with Freshly-Grated Nutmeg that was clearly too hot. In another instance, the spanikopita dish, so good once, tasted oddly of peas. I wonder whether the chef at Mom's, responding to the economic crisis, has begun to sneak cheaper, less desirable ingredients into the restaurant's old favorites.

But many dishes retain their quality. Puree of Local Peaches smells sweetly of local orchards, while the Warm Diced Pear changes weekly with the season's best selection. The kitchen's commitment to finishing some dishes a la minute means that diners can expect to enjoy Parmeggiano Romano dusted on their spinach with a micro-plane grater just before service, and whole nutmegs scraped over some dishes so that their perfume wafts to the table on a cloud of spicy goodness. The one fly in this ointment remains beverages. Mom's serves only milk, to the continued disappointment of guests.

Service:
I wish this fad for wiping the customer with a moist paper towel would go the way of creme brulee and "foams." If I'm not bothered by the sweet potato all over my face, why should the wait staff intervene? But that's a quibble. Overall, the service here is pretty good. The lone waitress offers a constantly changing menu of fruit, vegetable, dairy and cereal dishes, served one bite at a time. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and sometimes on other days, you can get lucky and be seated in the waiter's section. He refuses to serve the kitchen's green foods, leaving only deliciously sweet offerings such as banana, pear, and sweet potato. There can be annoying delays at times, but that's more the fault of the kitchen than the dining room.

The service at Mom's does suffer from one serious flaw. Have you ever noticed how waiters always come by at the worst possible moment? And then they act irritated with the client! At Mom's, this problem has been getting worse lately. You'll be in the middle of an important point, gesturing to your guests, and the waitress will thrust a bite of food at you. Then, when the stuff ends up in your lap, she blames the customer! I've spoken to the manager about this, without avail. Be forewarned: keep your hands down and your eye on the servers. They will dump food in your lap without remorse.

Ambiance:
Brightly lit and relatively charming, Mom's Place is relaxing but cheerful. The two dogs allowed to roam the dining room detract from the overall sense of hygiene, but they add a pleasantly Parisian feel to the experience. If we could change one thing about Mom's, it would be the seating. Whoever decided that restaurants ought to have high-chairs clearly never sat in one for long. At a diner, we would understand. But at a restaurant where occasional meals (for instance, the Chopped Pear with Minced Prune and Rice Cereal, $17.50) can take up to five minutes, such seating makes little sense.

Cost:
Personal service is not cheap. Despite its homey name, Mom's Place charges for the hand-made foods it serves, and the service cost is added to the bill automatically. I learned this when I tried to withhold a tip after the waitress spilled carrots in my lap (I was making a very important point about global warming) and then argued with me about comping my meal. In the end, I was forced to take the Complain-but-Tip route, because the restaurant would not remove the gratuity from the bill.

Rating:
Two stars (out of five). Mom's Place won't be winning any awards for food or service, but it's fairly dependable. You rarely have to cry for very long before someone will bring you a tidbit, and the standard fare, while not exciting, will keep you growing. We recommend the Pureed Peaches, Spanikopita, and Cinnamon Sweet Potato Gratin.

Key:
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One Star: Peas
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Two Stars: Peas and Spinach with Cheese
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Three Stars: Carrots
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Four Stars: Bananas and Pears
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Five Stars: Sweet Potatoes with fresh-grated Nutmeg