Mama’s in Hackettstown, NJ - Gluten Free Paradise

About a year age I had come across a reference to Mama’s in Hackettstown, NJ as a gluten free restaurant. We live about 60 miles from Mama’s, but I read their gluten free menu and thought it would be great to check it out and dine there. I put it on the back burner because of the distance and just thought someday when I am in the area I would stop in. Last night we were passing through, and we stopped at Mama’s for dinner. Wow, I should have never waited so long for my first visit. It is well worth the drive, and it is a gluten free paradise.

Upon arrival at the restaurant we were greeted by the owner, Tom. He asked how many regular menus and how many gluten free. As a GF person, there is a worry at every visit to a restaurant: Will I be able to eat? Will I have more than one choice? By being offered the GF menu in advance, it immediately took away the worry and put me at ease. Tom asked if this was our first visit, and as it was, so he gave us a tour of the restaurant. There are individual rooms and outdoor seating areas. Each room had its own theme. They have a coffee house room with live entertainment on weekends, a pizzeria style room, take out area, and Italian dinning area. As we took our tour with Tom, he greeted everyone he saw, making everyone feel welcome and appreciated, customer service at its best.

We were seated in Italian dining room and were given beautiful regular menus and a beautiful GF menu for me. The GF menu was so extensive, and it had everything I could imagine. I could order just about any appetizer I could want, which is very rare at a restaurant. The selection of meals, wow, everything GF. We started our order with GF mozzarella sticks and GF zucchini sticks. They are homemade by Mama’s and they were awesome. Everyone at the table thoroughly enjoyed them, even my family who is iffy on GF food. Our waitress brought us a small plate of pasta and a small plate of rice, complementary, so we could sample their pink champagne sauce. The sauce was wonderful. The waitress made it a point through our meal to say, this is GF, this is not. Next she brought the bread for the table, normally a sad point of the meal for a GF person, but then she said the GF bread will be right out! What a wonderful touch to my GF meal. My selection for dinner was hard, because there were so many dishes I wanted to try. I ordered the cheese ravioli, one of my favorites, and it was the best experience I’ve had with pasta. My family also loved their meals, ordering off Mama’s regular menu. It was really nice to enjoy our meals at a restaurant. No one had to compromise on a delicious meal.

At his point, I was thrilled from my meal and was full from eating so much. Tom walked by and said that we have to have dessert. We were all so stuffed, but hearing about the selections, we all suddenly had room for them. They had GF cannoli, chocolate cake, and many others. Our waitress brought out the beautiful dessert menus, mine gluten free, with so many choices. Tom sent to our table a sample of the GF chocolate cake and it melted in your mouth. I choose a cannoli, also one of my favorites, and it was amazing. It was a perfect conclusion to a stunning meal.

It took me a long time to make my way to Mama’s. I now will make it a part of our dining out rotinue. It is well worth the drive. There are so many items I want to try from the menu. Thank you, Tom, for taking the time to make your restaurant welcoming to the GF person. Mama’s is a wonderful Italian dining experience for everyone, you and your family should be very proud of what you have created.

As for me, I have found a Gluten Free Paradise!