Even without chips with Nutella and popping candy, Mumu lunch still satisfied

The task is simple – find somewhere on a typical lunchtime to eat that doesn’t involve waiting for too long, a drive-thu, plastic packaging or a sandwich/crisps/drink meal deal. A change from the usual lunchtime shrink-wrapped sausage roll or packed lunch at your desk, but still taking less than an hour.

MuMu is a pizza, burger, chicken type affair whose signature dish seems to be chips coated in Marmite butter and cheese or the more unusual Nutella and popping candy.

It opened on St Giles Street a couple of years ago, expanding on the first MuMu in Kettering.

It’s on the same site as many good, but sadly short-lived Northampton restaurants, most recently The Seafood Café, Cuba Libre and Grand Central, which was one of the Buddies restaurants in town.

MuMu is young, and by that I mean it isn’t a padded dining chair and afternoon tea type-of place. It’s rough-sawn wood tables and benches, tiled walls with graffiti-painted menu items scrawled across them – in particular the delicacy that is ‘Chavvy Chips’ (fried spuds smothered with, if you so choose, Marmite butter and Cheese, Nutella and Popping Candy or Dr Pepper BBQ sauce).

Being a lunchtime, and not open to such delicacies without the aid of several gin-based beverages, orders were instead made for a Mu Mu Burger (burger, streaky bacon, cheese, lettuce, burger sauce, pickle) with skin-on fries for The Bloke, and a Beryl Caprese pizza (cherry tomatoes, rocket, mozzarella and parmesan shavings). Since every sodding burger in the world now seems to come in a horrible, sweet brioche bun (just wrong), the pizza was for me, and the staff were happy to swap the mozzarella for goats’ cheese, even specifically coming ask if I preferred it melted on or added before serving.

MuMu is reasonably big and there were were about three or four other tables when we were in so the service was fast but not intrusive. The food was good – the pizza was huge but on a thin base with fresh toppings. The burger was judged a success but the chips, while a generous portion, were a bit soggy.

The bill came to £27.45 with a couple of bottled soft drinks – £2 for the streaky bacon on the burger seems a bit much, but they do have a £7.95 pizza/burger and soft drink deal between 12-2pm on weekdays. Specialities, other than the bizarre chip toppings, seem to be elaborate milkshakes and a decent children’s menu. There’s gluten free and vegetarian options a’ plenty too.

Overall, we were seated, served, fed and billed within 50 minutes, allowing a ten-minute rush back to work. We’d go again with the kids – at least they’d probably try the weird toppings.

Penda