Prova U.
Yelp
This place is ridiculously good. The food is divine. No matter what you order, you can't go wrong.
My favorite dish to order is probably the original chicken cutlet. They start you off with a flavorful miso soup and then, very quickly, you get a bowl of rice, your main dish, half a baked potato, and a side salad. The bowl of rice comes with one free refill of rice (which we are too full to get but it's nice to have the option). They could easily charge for that second bowl, but they don't, which I love. It shows the generosity of this place, tons of food for a great value.
Their weekday lunch prices are bizarre - $8 for a full plate of food that comes with soup *and* (not or) salad. Amazing. I don't think you can get value like that elsewhere, especially for how good the food is.
The kitchen is very small, and it's open for all to see. The kitchen staff are very efficient, and the small menu makes it possible to keep up with the high demand. When we were last there, it was a 20 min wait, and the kitchen was constantly churning out dishes for patrons, as well as delivery orders and takeout orders.
It's not a fine dining establishment, nor does it pretend to be one. It's a casual, small, and clean joint that will offer you a delicious plate of food served to you by a friendly & efficient but hurried waitress who is solely responsible for seating customers, maintaining the line, taking orders, bringing food out, refilling your waters, checking periodically if you needed anything, bringing you your check, bussing the tables, etc. (If you can't tell, I was very impressed by everything she was able to juggle since it was so busy).
My only suggested improvement would be to make it more obvious how to queue up for a spot when all the tables are taken. We accidentally lined up for the ramen restaurant next door and there was no line for Cafe Mami. We ended up also accidentally forming a line for Cafe Mami which grew to be very long, but I'm not sure if the spot we picked was the "correct" one. In the future, a sign or something indicating where to line up would be useful.
A tip on how to find this place because it wasn't immediately clear... the address that Google shows you will bring you to a locked door to Lesley University's classes or dorms. You want to use the doors to one of the "Shops at Porter" mall entrances, and there's a cluster of eating establishments
Oh, also, this place is cash only!