Getty Chef Robert Irvine onstage during a culinary demonstration.
On tonight’s new episode of Food Network’s Restaurant: Impossible, Chef Robert Irvine revisits Mama E’s Wings and Waggles six years after he initially renovated the restaurant.
Irvine has visited the restaurant more than once, with the most recent visit happening in 2020. Before that, he revisited the Oklahoma eatery in 2017 for a follow-up episode. The new episode was filmed in February 2020.
According to the episode synopsis, “Robert Irvine revisits Oklahoma City soul food restaurant Mama E’s Wings and Waffles to see whether the owners have been able to overcome their marital challenges and work together to make their restaurant a success.”
Mama E’s Wings and Waffles Was Featured on ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’ Before ‘Restaurant: Impossible’
Mama E’s restaurant opened in 2005, and the restaurant scored a spot on Food Network and Guy Fieri’s show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives just four years later in 2009. After that appearance, business continued to grow, and the owners opened a second location in 2010.
That second location has since been closed and Mama E’s Wings and Waffles has become Mama E’s Soul Food.
Owner and Head Chef Keith Patterson said he expanded the business too quickly, and by the time Irvine arrived to rescue the restaurant in 2014, he found cracked tiles, sticky floors and a bug-ridden location as well as a salon being operated in the corner of the restaurant as a side business.
During that initial visit, Irvine discovered that Patterson and his wife Stephanie had some issues in their marriage that he couldn’t fix, but he did get the two to sit down and talk about their relationship.
Mama E’s Has Mostly Positive Reviews
On Google, Facebook and Yelp, Mama E’s Soul Food has generally positive reviews, averaging around four out of five stars on all review platforms.
In the most recent review on Google at the time of writing, the user wrote, “My wife, 3 boys and I ate at Mama E’s today and let me tell you when I say the best food I have ever had I mean it. The workers were funny and nice. We will be back and highly recommend.”
Overall, the restaurant has over 400 reviews on Google and averages a 4.2-star rating, and all reviews left in the past two months are positive. The most recent one-star review was left three months ago and mentions that the restaurant didn’t smell like soul food.
“I was surprised to see the sides were prepared and sitting on the line,” the user wrote. “My sweet potatoes looked like they came out of can and didn’t have any taste/seasoning. My cabbage was nasty… I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant on my worst enemy.”
On Yelp, Mama E’s has an average review of four stars with 130 reviews at the time of writing, and on Facebook, the restaurant has a 3.5 out of 5 rating based on the opinion of 245 people.
The majority of the recent reviews on Facebook mention delicious, authentic soul food. Multiple reviewers mentioned the wings and the chicken and waffles as well as the “super friendly” staff.
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