maman

"Maman is a chain café from New York spreading throughout our city like invasive Australian pine trees. The one in Coral Gables, like its five other healthstaurant siblings, looks like a Pottery Barn collided with a baby shower. The “French-inspired” food is more like Starbucks meets high tea. Most of the pastries in the display case look plastic and don’t taste that far from it either. Their savory stuff, like the croque “maman” and the everything croissant sandwich, are sad, dry versions of French sandwiches that deserve better. The only saving grace of Maman is their chocolate chip cookie. Order it, and get the hell out of there. Food Rundown photo credit: Ryan Pfeffer Everything Croissant & Salmon Sandwich The croissant has the consistency of drywall and there isn’t enough cream cheese or salmon to help it. photo credit: Ryan Pfeffer Crème Fraîche Pancakes These pancakes are topped with a basil coulis that’s quite jarring if you didn’t read the menu description closely and made the natural assumption that it’s pistachio. At least the pancakes are fluffy. photo credit: Ryan Pfeffer Maman’s Breakfast Sandwich It has floppy bacon, a fried egg, and comes on a brioche bun that also tastes slightly dehydrated. This is one of the more tolerable sandwiches at Maman, but we still wouldn’t call it good. photo credit: Ryan Pfeffer Croque ‘Maman’ Their version of a croque madame doesn’t even come with a fried egg on top (that’s an added charge). But we don’t know how much an egg would improve this dull turkey-and-soggy-bread situation. Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie It’s not the best chocolate chip cookie we’ve ever had, but it’s the only reason we’d tell you to go to Maman. Ask them to warm it up for you so that the chocolate chips are gooey." - Mariana Trabanino