Mambo Cafe

It’s fine. Food is alright, service can be slow and it can get pretty congested with tourists. There is nothing unique about this place, and it ain’t cheap. Unfortunately, it is one of the better Bayside resturants. (Never eat at Bayside). But if you have to, you may like the taste.

I am a local and service was so inattentive first and last time I am here… not sure if it is because I am a local, but horrible.

Not good. Food is horrible!
Mofongo is boiled mashed plantains; not authentic at all. Fajitas were a total fail. Cesar salad does not offer Cesar dressing.
Just not good food.

Omg I order an expensive plate at mambo café and guess what there was a bug in my meat!!! Disgusting!!! The manager came to apologize offering dessert. hell no!

Very poor service. The only way they can get a tip is they add it in before you pay. Would not recommend if you don’t want to wait for everything even the check.

This place deserves 0 stars if it was possible. I could write an extremely long review of how terrible the service was at this place, but I’ll just give the short version.
I was with my wife, her father and her sister for one night in Miami. We stayed right by the Bayside Marketplace and wanted some Cuban or Puerto Rican food for dinner. Mambo’s looked like what we wanted.
They do not have waiters or servers, they have men and women standing at the corner trying to convince people walking by to eat at the restaurant. The person that seats you takes your order and brings your check. That’s about it. It took 15 minutes for him to even take our drink order. If you want water, even if your order a different drink, you have to pay for a bottle. Took another 10 minutes to get our drinks, and asked him to order food as he was abruptly trying to walk away. My sister in law wasn’t going to order food and the guy was insistently rude about her ordering food and convinced her to get the fajitas Took almost an hour from that point to actually get our food. My sister in laws fajitas were cold upon arrival. My Cuban Especial sandwich was simply a hot ham and cheese with nasty fries. My wife’s mofongo was a gross slop of mashed plantains with little flavor other than plantains.
The «waiter» didn’t bring the food, didn’t check on our drinks, but instead was at the corner trying to convince people to eat at the restaurant. After almost 2 hours at this sad excuse for a restaurant we had to go to the corner and ask the same guy for our check. He charged me double the amount shown on the menu for my drink. Brought back a new check, but instead of fixing it he charged me for a other drink. I went to the bar to speak to the manager, I was telling him what the problem was and as I was talking to him he said «excuse me, I’ll be right back.» He started walking around the restaurant and never came back to me. I had to speak to what I think was a different manager and eventually after much trouble fixed our check.
This place was beyond terrible and no one should ever go here.

I just simply loved the food. Service not so good… definitely going again though :)))))

OMG the food here was amazing! Cute location on the water. Good margaritas. Grilled chicken was great. Tree Leches dessert was superb. Bakery was cute with a good variety of desserts. Wait staff was very attentive and offered good food recommendations. It IS in a tourist area but the food was good.

The Cuban burger was a joke. Over cooked, dry and bland. The bun was hard as a rock. Service was not great to say the least.

The service is unbelievably awful. My friends and I were seated by a waiter and immediately were asked if we are 21 years old (we are). The waiter gave us a drink menu and when we declined to order any alcoholic beverages, our waiter became very angry and unattentive to our table. The food was fine; it was very simple. I had the breaded chicken steak and it was a very basic meal (something that I could make at home by myself). When our waiter gave us our checks, my friend and I put in both of our cards for the check to be split. When our waiter saw that we had put down two cards to be split, he started yelling at us, saying, «WHY DID YOU GIVE ME TWO CARDS.» I have no idea why this man was so angry, but it was extremely uncomfortable and unpleasant. Do not recommend! Go somewhere with nicer service!

Very bad service, probably one of the worst times i ever had that kind of service, the food was beyond stale and the waiter did not know anything about the menu. He even lied to us and told us they don’t have certain things but when we asked another waiter they said they did and they brought it for us. The wait was almost an hour for just a chicken sandwich that i never finished because of how stale it was. The bread was hard not crunchy. Word of advice to the owners, i understand this is a tourist place but some of us live in the area so work on hiring better employees thats have good customer service skills and don’t forget about the food as well. I don’t usually give bad reviews but this one was a must.

Horrible food and horrible service took 45 minutes to get 4 sandwiches then the bread was stale chicken was overcooked and covered with onions. We asked the waiter what comes on the sandwich and he didn’t mention onions but we still all made sure to mention that we do not want onions just to be sure, but some how he missed all that and they didn’t even try to do anything about it. I’ve never had costumer service like this before seems like they need a new manager.

Worst place ever !! We waited 45 minutes for a signature dish
Fried Snapper. … It was Burnt, not overcooked, Burnt. Save your money and time. Don’t go

Went to this place last night, I’m only giving it 2 stars because obviously the beautiful view of downtown, the mixed drinks were good and the live music was entertaining.
Now the food, I ordered a pan con bistec, the steak had no flavor, I had to add salt to it. My brother in law ordered a churrasco and again no flavor. My girl ordered the frita cubana which was surprisingly good. The waiter didn’t know what the plates came with, didn’t speak any spanish and was picking up the plates without asking if you were done. Don’t get me started with the bathrooms, completely filthy! Looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in days.
Would I come back? If I’m in the area maybe for drinks and the music, but wouldn’t go out of my way for this place.

Me gusto el restaurant platos abundantes y de buena preparacion. Los Mojitos muy bien preparados, recomiendo este restaurant 100% lo unico que mejoraria seria los postres

As at least one other reviewer has mentioned, Bayside is what it is — It’s (primarily) a tourist trap and full of (primarily) overpriced but mediocre restaurants, catering to people arriving to Miami to board cruise ships, or visitors staying downtown and looking for a place to go within walking distance that stays open relatively late and is active. If you come here with that mentality and set your expectations accordingly, you’ll be fine.
I had a few friends visiting from England, they were staying at the Epic Hotel and they called me at around 9:30 on a Friday night to let me know they’d had dinner and were now heading to Bayside for drinks and invited me to join them (one of the guys used to work in Miami and Bayside was his choice — for nostalgic reasons I guess).
The first place I thought to direct them to was Sharkey’s, but I’d forgotten that Sharkey’s mainly features craft beers and microbrews, and my friends were looking to drink «spirits» as they call hard alcohol in Britain. Right! We simply walked a few more paces here to Mambo Café. There were plenty of open tables right on the water/​boat docks, a nice breeze and an extensive drink menu. Perfect!
While I’d probably never come to Mambo Café for the food, on the night we were here for drinks, this place was just fine for what we wanted. Mixed drinks were generous pours, and the karaōke and interestingly dressed, inebriated tourists dancing to it provided hours of entertainment. Also, because this place is so touristy, I who’d just come from the Critical Mass bike ride and was in a T-​shirt and shorts, and my friends who’d flown in from England and were in polo shirts and shorts, were more than comfortable here, as this place is as laid back as it gets. The «Guidos» we saw walk by every once in a while who were dressed to the nines in dress shirts unbuttoned down to their navels, Hugo Boss belts, Italian dress pants and highly polished shoes who evidently thought Bayside was a classy place where they could come clubbing and pick up the ladies? They were the ones out of place at this touristy mecca… As were the past reviewers of this bar/​restaurant who evidently came to Mambo expecting gourmet Cuban cuisine!

I have come here for over 10 years every time I visit Miami they have good food, good service and the BEST mojitos I have ever tasted! My favorite is the mango mojito. They serve all their drinks with a sugar cane which I absolutely love!

**ALERT READ** BE AWARE OF THIS PLACE!!!
PLEASE READ THERES A RESON FOR THE BAD REVIEWS AND IF YOUR WONDERING THATS WHY THIS PLACE IS EMPTY!!!
check your receipt…
first off they are going to automatically charge you $ 10 for there stupid cup that they serve you soda or lemonade in… they will not tell you up front its a souvenir cup that no one is interested in because there not a famous place.
second of all there food sucks ass, for lack of a better word. do not order the mofongo, im a local and of Puerto Rican decent. this shi% is not mofongo. its gooey and no garlic and they put bacon in it. WTF?
third they are going to charge you an automatic 15% tip regardless of party size…
read your receipt…
if your a sucker and end up there like I did, challenge these charges like I did, the manager was named Ernesto. he looked at me and said this is bayside… which means we sucker any and all tourist.
never the less he removed the 3 $ 30 lemonades and he kept the dumb cheesy cup which he will probably wash and sell to you for $ 10.

Terrible service and filthy restrooms.
After we ordered, I overheard the people at the table next to us say that the service had been horrible, but I blew it off, attributing it to one patron’s experience. We waited for nearly an hour for our food and no one even came by to check on us, despite it being fairly empty. We flagged down TWO different waiters who said they would tell our waiter but he never came. We finally got up to leave and saw the manager say to a waiter who alerted him «let them leave» and then he literally just waved at us and sarcastically said goodbye. It was the most bizarre experience.
Also there was actually feces on the toilet in the women’s restroom. Just no.

Pros:
1.) great food entrée
2.) friendly services
3.) lovely view of the beach
Cons:
1.) 15% tip auto — big mistake — what if I want to give 20%. Some customers might be mad if this is auto gratitude.
2.) sold margarita cup drink automatically. Again, if I’m traveling, I don’t want a glass drink in my luggage. I told the waiter I didn’t want the cup, maybe he didn’t hear me.

Went for lunch here during our «Downtown leg» of our Miami trip.
We strolled in due to the following reasons:
1) Prices appeared cheap.
2) Adequate seating as we had Ian in a stroller.
3) Portions appeared decent.
We ordered the following:
1) Roast Pork (Lechon Asado)
2) Steak Sandwich (Pan Con Bistec)
3) All beef hotdog (Perro Caliente)
Food was bland, fatty, and was kind of cold when served? Bill with tip came to $ 48.00.

Péssimo serviço, não recomendo. A comida não é saborosa e muito gordurosa. A única coisa válida é a vista, mas tem outros restaurantes ao lado melhores.