Oakland: Mama's Vietnamese Restaurant

SY wanted to grab lunch at Duende, but apparently, Duende's lunch menu is still in the works.  So instead, the three of us walked around downtown Oakland until we came across Mama's Vietnamese Restaurant:

Mama's seems like a really popular place for business lunches:

I'm usually pretty wary about trendy Vietnamese restaurants, particularly those that are filled with non-Asians.  It's usually a sign of mediocre and overpriced food.  (Those of you who're Asian know exactly what I mean.)

What do you know?  Mama's turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

We started off with some complimentary soup:

It was cute how each of our soups came in different vessels.  Mine was a cup.  Not much in the soup besides some veeery thinly sliced vegetables, but it wasn't bad.

SY ordered grilled chicken with crispy rolls on vermicelli:

VN got the tofu curry in a claypot:

Whereas I got the crispy sole fish rice plate:

Fried fish plus fish sauce and rice?  There's no way that combo can be wrong.  The fish was freshly fried and actually quite flaky and juicy.

I wish the salad didn't come with ranch dressing though.  Blech.  Never liked ranch.

Not bad, Mama's, not bad.  And the lunch prices were reasonable too.  I'll be back...maybe.


Mama's Vietnamese Restaurant
365 19th St
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 251-8878
http://www.mamasvr.com/