Before I dive in, let me re-introduce myself to new readers! My name is Krista and after living in London for over 11 years, I moved to West Palm Beach to be closer to my elderly mom who has Parkinson’s Disease. While I was in London, I ran one of the city’s most popular restaurant and travel blogs, Passportdelicious.com. Now I use all that knowledge about Europe and the rest of the world too — I’ve been to over 75 countries — as a luxury travel advisor. Please reach out if you need help planning an upcoming trip! I work with all the major cruise lines and can VIP your hotel stays with the Four Seasons, Marriott and pretty much any 5 star hotel. I am also a Virtuoso travel advisor which, if you are not familiar, means I am the best of the best.
OK, now let’s dive in to my review and talk about Mamam. Yesterday, I tried to have breakfast at Maman, the latest in a series of NY-transplant restaurants here in downtown West Palm Beach, The line was out the door so I made a plan for today. I woke up a 7:30 am, got dressed, and was the second to arrive.
Aesthetically, Maman is visually relaxing. Clean design. Nice tilework. Nice chairs and tables. EXCEPT…
The cafe tables are about 1.5 to 2 inches too short for comfortable eating. So if you want to eat at Maman, get a normal table or sit outside.
I ordered an iced americano and the coffee is really good. I meant to ask who they use for their coffee but I got distracted in talking about their salt shakers. (Will come back to this in a moment.)
The breakfast menu is interesting and fun. I went for the egg ratatouille which is only served on weekends. I’m still waiting for someone to serve me shakshuka in Palm Beach but I’ll survive on ratatouille in the interim. (If you know of a shakshuka breakfast somewhere in Palm Beach County, please COMMENT below!)
The ratatouille was also visually appealing. So Maman has that going for it. The eggs were nicely poached. The bread was great. But the ratatouille itself seemed to need some…salt. And really, all the British person inside me wanted was Maldon sea salt flakes. Not salt out of a saltshaker.
But all they had was a saltshaker. First world problems.
I could immediately tell that these guys are total rookies when it comes to opening a restaurant in Florida. Cuz guess what? The salt would not come out of the shaker. No matter how hard I tried. I debated opening the shaker up and taking a knife to the contents but 1. my knife was dirty and 2. I’m pretty sure I would have thrown salt all over the restaurant. So I talked to my server and the manager about using RICE in salt shakers in Florida.
And then I ate my somewhat poorly seasoned ratatouille. Honestly, many people would have liked this dish. But I was left wanting. It felt like it needed both a little more salt and a little oil/fat.
Maman is not far from me so I will give it another shot some other day and do another review. Maybe I’ll try them for lunch. We’ll see.
