We were recently advised of a new Thai restaurant in East Ridge that has been open for several weeks, so we decided to have a Friday night dinner at Mama’s Thai Kitchen, 4330 Ringgold Road (near Moore).

It has the atmosphere/ambience of a Waffle House, so the decor isn’t really a comparison to other Thai restaurants in town. We were hoping the food would be a contender.

The first section on the menu is entitled “Hot Bar” for $6.99, but we were informed this was lunch only, so we looked through the rest of the menu. Under Appetizers, Wayne wanted to try the Steamed Spring Rolls ($1.99). An order consists of two and it is described as “shrimp or vegetable with carrot, onion, garlic, black pepper and cabbage wrapped in a clear flower wrap”. The rolls were quite good, but not as tightly packed and wrapped as most we have eaten. We would order them again.

There are eight different soups listed, priced from $3.99 to $6.99. I ordered my favorite Tom Kai Chicken and Wayne ordered the Wonton. I was hard pressed to find any chicken in my soup, but the soup itself was delicious. I would have enjoyed it better if they had brought it after the Spring Rolls, but it seems our server “forgot”.

When she brought our entrees I asked if we weren’t going to be getting soup and we were told she “forgot”. Usually we would have canceled it, but I wanted to compare it to others. It really was delicious. I believe my chicken was accidentally dropped into Wayne’s Wonton soup as I was hard-pressed to find any chicken. The Wonton is described as consisting of ground pork, which is what we expected, but it was also full of sizeable pieces of chicken, which isn’t mentioned on the menu for Wonton.

We both ordered from the “Cooked to Order” menu items – Yum Talay (hot and sour seafood combo) for $8.99. This dish consists of shrimp, squid, scallops, mussels, imitation crab (huh?), Chinese cabbage, lemon grass, lemon juice, red and green onion and cirango. As our plates were placed in front of us, our server said, “be careful, these are very hot”. You know me, gotta touch it! There was nothing hot about this plate. In fact, there was nothing hot about this food.

Everything on the plate was less than room temperature. In fact, some of it tasted as if it came directly from the fridge. Worse than that, parts were like chewing rubber. The next time I got our server’s attention I asked about our rice. We heard her return to the one lady doing the cooking and ask if the entrees are served with rice. Yes, they are. . . it says so right on the menu (steamed white). Our server said she was there from the beginning, but she really didn’t know the menu.

Needless to say, this was not an impressive visit. I doubt that we would venture back unless we hear it has really improved. Only one person is preparing the food and she seemed overwhelmed. Even though it looks, and is set up like fast food, it is not. I know when food is cooked to order it should take a bit of time, but I also expect it to be both hot and appetizing and the main course was not.

I will say that Wayne, King of Hot Spicy Food, met his match at Mama’s. The spice levels are hot, Thai hot, and Mama’s hot. If anyone can eat Mama’s hot I am certain their faces must be melting off! Wayne ordered the Thai hot and thirty minutes later he was still burning!

Hours for Mama’s Thai Kitchen are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Mama's is closed on Monday.

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cdojanet@chattanoogadineout.com