Mamma's Cafe - Best restaurant in Okinawa (Article bumped 'cause it's just too good! Originally written in 2/2005)

Mamma's Cafe, located South of Mihama Village off Highway 58 in Chatan-cho, is a small Italian restaurant with delectable food and a friendly Bi-lingual staff who quickly make you feel at home. This small cafe relaxes you the instant you walk in with an Italian country setting and Norah Jones lightly playing in the background. The food is nothing less than amazing with unique twists on Italian cuisine with menu items including hot and cold foccaca sandwiches, bubbling hot gratin, salad plates, creamy chicken and rice dishes and a meatloaf that's to die for just to name a few choices. Mamma's Cafe created an original Italian sauce that perfectly compliments the appetizers and entrees and is so tasty it keeps you coming back for more. Desserts include chocolate cake, tiramisu, yogurt cake and my favorites, Strawberry or blueberry cheesecakes, all of which are made from scratch by Ayumi-san.

Mamma's Cafe opened their doors after moving back to Okinawa from Los Angeles about six months ago and our office has enjoyed many lunches there since their grand opening - up to 3 times a week! I've taken my husband there twice and he fell in love with their food as well. In fact last night he had their mouth-watering meatloaf foccaca sandwich and two heaping side dishes of their potato salad and special sauce and could barely move afterwards, but at least he had a smile on his face.

I?m not sure I was able to touch on exactly how magnificent these guys are but if you ever visit Okinawa don't leave until you taste their food. It's just that good. Ayumi-san is our waitress every time I visit their place and it's like she never goes home. Last night she came up to me with a Japanese food magazine and I was surprised when I saw that Mamma's cafe had made the front cover! The photography was beautiful and I felt like this publicity was well-deserved. Here is a Japanese link to an excerpt of the magazine article.

Mamma's cafe is open Monday through Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 11:00pm and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. Last orders are taken one hour before closing time. Savings include an E-mail coupon club which includes a free monthly special and a separate stamp card that lets you earn free coffee/tea and dessert. Their E-mail address is mammascafe@galaxy.ocn.ne.jp