- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of South Florida and help keep the future of New Times free.
This week in Dish, we review Mama Asian Noodle Bar, a 5-month-old pan-Asian restaurant located in the outdoor shopping mall Promenade at Coconut Creek. It's an attractive family-run restaurant bathed in red and black that serves a wide range of Thai entrées, inventive modern fusion dishes, plenty of Vietnamese- and Japanese-inspired noodles, and even Chinese style stir-fries. Here's an excerpt from our review:
Mama is actually the second restaurant from Mike and Lisa Ponluang, two
mainstays in the South Florida Thai food scene. For 15 years, the couple
ran Thai Pepper in Coral Springs, a gem of a restaurant hidden away in
a quiet strip mall. Fans of the place drove in from all over Broward to
try Mike Ponluang's take on modern Thai. He had a flair for combining
bold, authentic flavors with modern technique -- when he'd marry sea
bass with spicy red curry or elegantly pair crispy duck breast with
tamarind sauce, people would just about coo aloud at their tables. Thai
Pepper was also my folks' go-to Thai joint. When it closed in 2006,
they were inconsolable. Unbeknown to my parents, the Ponluangs went
on to open Coco Asian Bistro in Fort Lauderdale later that year, a
place equally well-known for its inventive take on modern Thai and
sophisticated setting.
Check out the full review now online in Dish.
Keep New Times Broward-Palm Beach Free... Since we started New Times Broward-Palm Beach, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of South Florida, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering South Florida with no paywalls.