I was in Hamilton with a buddy today, and he had a craving for pizza.  After messaging a local friend of mine, we were told that the two best places for pizza were Chicago Style (which has made an appearance on You Gotta Eat Here), or Mother's.  Since I've been dying to revisit Mother's for a while, we decided to go there.

We started with buffalo wings, just to satisfy curiosity, and they were pretty unremarkable; not bad but nothing special.  They weren't overly breaded, which is nice in my opinion, but rather lightly dusted with flour for extra crispiness.  Since they weren't breaded, I thought they might have been better with a more substantial sauce (which I usually steer clear of).  In my friend's words, they're reminiscent of Jack Astor's wings, but in my opinion, Jack Astor's uses a bit more breading.

I know, who cares about their wings, right?  Ok, so we also ordered a large pizza, with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms and extra cheese.  I would say the pizza was as good as I remembered it from my childhood.  The nearest similar pizza would probably be Pizza Hut, but Mother's is less greasy, with better sauce (in my opinion).  Toppings were fresh, crust was slightly crispy on the bottom (again, without the oil from the pan that Pizza Hut uses to achieve the effect) and soft at the same time.

The service was excellent, except for the wait for our bill at the end, and the food came quickly (we ordered the wings as starters, and the waitress warned us that she would put them in first, but the pizza may come to the table first, since the wings take a whole 12 minutes to cook.  The wings got there first, but not by much, so if I felt the need for time between starter and the pizza next time, I would order the appetizers first and say we need more time to decide on our mains).

The atmosphere was sort of an updated version of what I remember too, with the stained glass lampshades and classic decorating.  I remember there being checkered table coverings in the old days (though that part may be a case of creative memory), and the new place has no coverings on the tables.

A guy who I took to be a manager came over to talk to my friend, who works as a golf professional, and I found out that not only was the manager the Food and Beverage Manager/Events Coordinator at the last country club my friend worked at, but he is now one of the partners in the new Mother's venture.  He told us that they've kept the original recipes for the sauce and crust, but went with a better cheese, and fresher toppings.  He also said they're looking at eventually opening stores in other cities (like Kitchener and London), but they want to get a good grip where they are first.  The next location is likely to be in Brantford though (and a waitress hinted that they've already bought the property there), because the original chain had a management training facility there - a store where managers would go to learn the ropes before being transferred to another location.

As for price, it was quite reasonable.  The pizza was $13.99, plus $2 for each topping (total of $22 plus tax), and the total bill came to something like $49 after tax but before tip, which included the pizza, one pound of wings, a beer for my friend and a Diet Coke for me.

All in all, I'm sure I'll go again, especially if they open a location closer to home.

Mother's Pizza is open in Kitchener now.  I took my parents there yesterday, and the place was packed!  It's first-come first-serve for seating.  They won't start taking reservations until June.

What I learned from the visit:

• It's NOISY!  I haven't been to a noisier place since East Side Mario's on Highland during dinner rush.
  
• Patrons can't seem to park within the lines.
  
• I honestly can't remember what Mother's Pizza tasted like.
  
• Our pizza was good, but surprisingly reminiscent of McCain frozen pizza flavour.  I think it was just the olives and onions.  (We shared a large "Grandmother Pizza" without Anchovies or Peppers)
  
• Milkshakes were good, and came with extra container for refilling
  
• The birthday dessert (ice cream sandwiched between chocolate, topped with whipped cream) was reportedly really good.
  
• They do serve take-out pizza, which we might do next time and go to a nearby park if the weather is nice.
  

My wife, son and I stopped in to the kitchener location for lunch earlier this week and it was a fairly underwhelming experience.

The Food
The calamari appetizer we ordered was on the expensive side ($11 or $12 I think) and was mediocre and definitely not something we would order again.  
The custom pizza we ordered was good (great crust but bland sauce - they claim to have homemade sauce and it tasted close to our homemade sauce which is somewhat washed out since it isn't loaded with sugar like most store brands are).  The toppings we ordered were mushrooms, hot peppers and Italian sausage... The first two were fine (although a little sparse for $2.25 per topping)... But the sausage was just awful.  I will say that as we left, the aftertaste was the pizza left in my mouth was fantastic.  I attribute it to what I felt was a nearly perfect crust.
Ironically the best thing we ordered was my son's meal... He wanted chicken fingers and fries.  The fries were good, for fries, but the two chicken fingers he got were huge and fresh chunks of chicken.  He wound up not eating much so I got to have one of his chicken fingers and they were excellent.  I would go there just to get chicken fingers if I was in the mood!

The Service
The service was also a little on the amateur side, but they are newly opened so we were willing to excuse that at this stage... The servers were not bad but not on the ball.. It was like serving was new to them.  I think this will improve with experience, I guess I just felt like as a newly opened restaurant , you'd have people with experience to make a good first impression.
As Diddly  pointed out, it was crowded and noisy even on a lunch hour.  Our bill with taxes and tip was on the high side and while I liked the pizza I can get more quantity at Pizza Prosciutto for less than half what what we spent at Mother's Pizza and I think their sauce is awesome there.

Overall Review
I will go back again, but Pizza Prosciutto will remain my main goto for pizza.