Mama's Restaurant & Steakhouse

The sign outside says "the best breakfast in town".__But in my opinion, Mama's Restaurant is just an OK place to go for breakfast.

I have a soft spot for Mama's Restaurant, located in the Moby Dick hotel, because I remember coming here as a small child in the 1980s for breakfast, usually as the kick off to a lengthy road trip across the Province. At the time, I usually ordered one of two things: the Belgian waffles or the Mickey Mouse pancake (a pancake shaped like Mickey Mouse, using Smarties candies for the eyes and mouth). And, from what I remember it was pretty decent to my unassuming pallet.Now, fast-forward approximately 25 or so years. Mama's Restaurant is still going strong (relatively speaking), and the sign outside boasts the "best breakfast in Rupert." Given the limited breakfast options in Rupert this isn't necessarily a tall order to live up to, so I thought I'd give it a try. In fact, I came here not only for breakfast, but decided to give them a go for dinner as well. I'll comment on dinner first.Well, upon entering the restaurant, I notice it has remained (mostly) unchanged in all of the years that've passed, but has nonetheless been well maintained. Surprisingly, the restaurant wasn't completely empty for dinner as there were a few tables with patrons. But, that said, it became evident early on that Mama's is more a breakfast place than dinner: the dinner menu was a relatively sparse hodgepodge of items with no apparent unifying theme. We had, for instance, spring rolls, chicken wings, hamburger steak, club sandwiches, and a vaguely identified steak on the menu. Not much else. So, I ordered the (Vietnamese) spring rolls, buffalo wings and hamburger steak. The spring rolls were decent and the wings were cooked nicely, but they were so cheap with the buffalo sauce that it was almost non-existent (see photos;) and if the hamburger steak hadn't been covered in a healthy serving of gravy, it would've been as tough as shoe leather (though the leather would've probably had more flavour). All in all, dinner wasn't that great.As for breakfast, well, at least the menu was more extensive (further highlighting the fact that this place is primarily a breakfast eatery), and the food came promptly, but was it the best in Prince Rupert? Definitely not, but that's not to say it wasn't good. In fact, it was decent -- certainly one of the better breakfast options in town. The price was agreeable, too.All in all, this was a nice visit down memory lane.FOOD: 2/5/5SERVICE: 4/5VALUE: 3/5RECOMMENDATION: Come for breakfast, but avoid dinner