Mama Do's Kitchen

Salmon spring roll

Hubby found this place when we were looking up for a place to celebrate our anniversary. It was Sunday night and we went there around 6 pm. The place was quiet and there was only another table occupied and was just finishing up.

It took us a while to decide on what to order. First we thought we were going to order from the set menu of $24.95/person which came with salad, appetizer, pho, lemon grass chicken or shaken beef and banana flambe. But we thought that sounded like a whole lot amount of food. Beside we didn't feel like having pho (Vietnamese noodle soup). Yeah..hubby is a pho lover that's why it's even harder to stir him away from that option. But he also agreed that the set menu wasn't a good choice.



We ended up ordering lemon grass with garlic noodles, Mama Do's claypot rice and salmon spring roll. While waiting we had time to look around the restaurant. On one side they had open bar and the other corner they had a grand piano. On the advertisement flyer that the waitress gave us later on advertised that they had live music on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. But we left at 7 something and still didn't see the pianist showed up. When we asked the waitress, she just smiled. Hmm ?

Claypot rice with mushroom, chinese sausage, and bamboo shoot

The salmon spring roll was a twist to the old fashioned Vietnamese spring roll that normally came with prawn. The sauce was a light combination of fish sauce and sugar. We were also brought a tiny saucer of chilli sauce (sambal oelek). They went well together. Dipped the roll in the light sauce and finished it off with the chilli sauce. Yum.

Lemon grass chicken with garlic noodle

The lemon grass chicken on the menu came with garlic rice. But I felt like having garlic noodle instead. So I asked the waitress if I could have it with garlic noodle. She said yes. Later on I noticed on the bill that we were charged $3 extra for garlic noodle which she didn't let us know prior. They did have garlic noodle as side dish for $5. Oh well. I didn't mind paying that but I would have liked to be notified ahead of time.

Fried banana getting bathed in rhummed flame. Me in background waiting impatiently.

Hubby 'grilling' the banana

The lemon grass chicken platter came with side of salad with a bit nutty tangy sauce. The chicken was flavorful and tender but didn't have the distinct lemon grass flavor. Or it was very subtle that I couldn't taste it. The garlic noodle was awesome. Garlicky and buttery. So sinful but delicious.

Hubby's claypot rice came with a cover. It seemed that the claypot was just used as a serving dish and not the cooking vessel for the rice. Not like the Korean dolsot bibimbab (Korean claypot mix rice). The claypot rice supposed to be garlic rice with pork, mushroom, bamboo shoot and chinese sausage (lap chiong). The rice wasn't very garlicky but tasty. Very homely like what my mother-in-law would have made. And the bamboo shoot actually didn't smell like the distinct bamboo shoot smell.

Outdoor holiday lights

We finished everything cleanly and decided we still had room for dessert. So we ordered the banana flambe. Our waitress brought out a fried banana with some sugar sprinkled on top. Another guy came behind her with a cup of vanilla ice cream and a tiny saucer of rhum which he poured on our fried banana. The waitress then lit up the banana with her lighter. She gave a spoon to hubby and showed him how to scoop up the rhum and pour on the banana. It was quite a scene to watch our banana get fried up. ha..ha.. Finally the flame subsided which was perfect timing since I could see that one side of the banana was getting really tanned. We cut and divided the banana. Arranged the ice cream next to banana, pour some chocolate syrup and sprinkled some chopped peanuts and we were ready to enjoy our dessert. Yum..yum..

Mama Do's Kitchen
4660 Pearl Ave , San Jose, CA 95136
408 267 1233
408 267 1212