this is life in austin & aspen

I have to preface talking about my experience at Mama Fu’s last night by letting you in on my bias: the other day, my parents and I drove by a Mama Fu’s and my parents started talking about how they had just gone last week and loved it. I looked at them puzzled and said, “But you know it’s like a chinese fast food chain?” They jumped to Mama Fu’s defense and told me that, no, it was a sit-down place, and it was really fresh and delicious and they wanted to go back again.

Oh.

So when an invite to dinner arrived in my email box a few days later, of course I was intrigued. Then I learned that Murphy Adams Group, an Austin company, took over the entire chain in March, and they’re doing much better things with the restaurant. Murphy Adams President & CEO plus downtown & Lakeline franchise owner Randy Murphy was on hand when I went to dinner, and he happily talked about the restaurant and the changes his company has implemented. He said with a big smile, “We won’t say we’re authentic Asian food; we’re Americanized Asian food. But you’re definitely going to like what you get.”

Right on, Mr. Murphy. We started with an order of spring rolls and an order of seared tuna. Both were excellent. I love spring rolls, but that doesn’t mean I’m just easy to please. These spring rolls were tasty and fresh with little peanut pieces in them. The peanut sauce was dark, not too creamy, and a little spicy. Mmmm. I liked the seared tuna; my companion thought it had too much pepper. But we devoured it, so it couldn’t have been TOO peppery.

For dinner, I ordered the steamer basket which more or less consisted of steamed brown rice and steamed veggies plus shrimp, which was exactly what I wanted. The menu said it came with Mama’s sauces, but our super sweet but obviously new waitress didn’t know what that meant. A chef eventually brought me out a cashew sauce and a pad thai sauce. The cashew sauce was excellent, maybe a smidge too sweet but I have a sweet tooth so I rolled with it, and the pad thai was tasty too. It was refreshing to be able to order a steamed dish and have it served to me literally steamed, rather than soaking in oil or butter or whatever else.

My companion ordered a Thai Basil noodle bowl with beef (sad cow! don’t think it’s free range). It was very spicy, which I liked from the bites I took, but at first it was a bit much for him. As he got deeper into the bowl, he found more flavor–or his taste buds exploded–so in the end he was happy.

I’d definitely go back and have that same meal over again! The Second Street location fills a little bit of a void in downtown eating, a price point between, say, Which Wic’s sandwich ($6) and Maiko’s bento box ($17). Maybe for lunch next week …