Cafe Mangu

I’ve gone back to this place 4 – 5 times because the Tres Leches cake is incredible but won’t suffer through another meal to have it again. The service is beyond slow, last time they actually forgot about bringing our drinks and we had to flag down the staff and ask a 3^rd time to finally receive them 30 minutes into eating our entrée. What made matters worse is that the food was inedible. Literally. It was way over salted and was impossible to consume. One taste and the chef would have gathered this. The previous visit the problem was the pork being dry and overcooked. Again apparent even to the eye if the cook cared. Always poor service. I would not mind the higher prices if the food was made with care and the staff did a better job waiting on your table.
I enjoyed this spot when it opened but in my opinion they have gone downhill and lost their passion. It is a shame.
**Hope springing eternal I’ll dine one more time and update my review accordingly. Fingers crossed.

I went in having no idea what the food would be like, I was very excited about the prospect of a new cuisine. They are alittle pricey but they are doing a 2 for $ 20 thing right now. My friend and I were shocked when we ask what on the menu was included in that deal and the response was «anything on the menu» it comes with 2 sides each.
The portions are smaller than normal but is more than enough food to leave happy. They didn’t have Tres Leche cake and that made me really sad. They are not serving alcohol, I guess they lost their license again .
I wouldn’t mind going back, the meat was not the highest quality but the seasoning was very good. The blanco beans are amazing. I had the tilapia in some kind of red sauce. Tasty but the fish was dirty, had that «been sitting» or «didn’t clean it off well» fish taste. Happens. It didnt deter me from dominating it, but if you are sensitive to the fishy taste, I’d steer clear.

*This review was for Café Mangu, I have not tried this restaurant since the change of ownership
Ever see a place on a street not known for restaurants that shares its parking lot with a questionable auto body place? And you think «Who the hell would eat there?» We’ll then you’ve seen Café Mangu. But trust me, make the U turn and find an empty spot next to the «why are they fixing this car» in the lot and go inside.
This is Caribbean and South American home cooking made available to you: the Austinites and Round Rockians who are over loaded on Tex Mex, barbecue and everything else you can get everywhere else.
Everything is good here. Everything.
«What about the roasted pork shoulder and the carne guisada and the …»
Stop, I said everything.
Oh and get the Camarones al Ajillo for an appetizer, pro tip: the best part is not the shrimp themselves, that’s why it comes with bread. You’re welcome.
This is a small place with excellent food, expect no frills and expect to pay what the excellent food is worth. Oh, also expect to break out the five words you know in Spanish, there are the occasional language barriers with the waitresses, but whatever they end up bringing you will be awesome, so don’t sweat it.

This place is pricey (iced tea, dinner plate & 15% tip for one person was $ 23) but you get a TON of food. One plate could easily feed two people. The food was good though! I honestly couldn’t say anything bad. My steak was overcooked but everything on my plate was honestly very flavorful.
My running group usually does a monthly luncheon where we all get together and just eat rather than run. This month we picked Café Mangu. We were a 20 top table so at about $ 20 per person… this place easily made $ 400 on our group alone. We came in with a 10% off coupon and they wouldn’t honor it! Pretty disappointed with that decision but they did at least run separate checks for all of us.
I would eat here again. Kind of wish it was in a better location though. I think it would get a lot more business.

This place never disappoints. My gf and I really dig this place. An update I just saw on Unilocal says they got their liquor license back. I sure hope so. They made some tasty and strong drinks back when they had their licence. This place is well worth it in my opinion. Extremely tasty food.

On my way to take my Foster Pup to a Vet appointment in Pflugerville I passed Mangu and the first thing that popped into my mind was Keri B. in a bikini on a beach somewhere… It was over a year ago that I read her review of Mangu but I remembered her review down to the «island time» reference as soon as I saw the bright building and sign:)
So, after 3 hours at Hometown Animal Care on empty stomachs the family that was adopting my Foster Pup offered to buy me lunch/​dinner!
I called Mangu and Yeah! They said our pups could join us on the patio!
The service was slow and it was hot as hell on the patio but they more than made up for it in super friendly service.
I started with a Mango cocktail that was more like dessert — Mango Rum, Bacardi, orange, pineapple and lemon juice –YUM!
Jessie and I shared Pineapple Rum Shrimp (lightly breaded and fried large shrimp drizzled with a tangy pineapple rum glaze) and a Mahi Mahi with a fresh flavored Mango Salsa. The shrimp was the yummier of the 2 but the Mahi Mahi was a flavor packed more girly figure option:)
David raved about his Carne Guisada!
I am so glad I had the pleasure of eating here yesterday since I doubt I will ever again have an excuse to be in Pflugerville… Since I live in Mexico er south of the border of Austin:)

It saddens me to write this update. My husband and I took some friends to see the matinée of In the Heights yesterday and wanted to top off the experience by driving out to Café Mangu for some Dominican fare. There were only two other parties in the place when we arrived.
We picked some cocktails to drink, but were told they weren’t serving alcohol due to a problem with the liquor license. I wish the waitress had said so before we got our hopes up for a mojito.
We were all starving, so we wanted to order an appetizer. The waitress said what we wanted was not available, so we had to order something else. It was very tasty, but not what we originally wanted.
The waitress came to take our orders. I was all geared up for the lechon asado, my favorite. Well sorry, no lechon today, so you’ll have to order something else. I went with the pollo guisado, which again was delicious, but not what I originally wanted.
We finished off our meal with the excellent tres leches cake that I was glad to hear they actually had in store to serve that day. While the food was great and good quality, this visit was a big disappointment, especially since we drove clear across town to eat here and were raving about it to our friends before we arrived. Unfortunately, I will not be eating here again until Café Mangu gets their liquor license back and these availability issues sorted out.

We had dinner here with my inlaws last week and it was fantastic. The pork was amazing. I am on some weird pork kick right now. Go «other white meat»! Be prepared to answer the big question when your server comes about what sides you want. They have a million to choose from and they were all good, but their new rice dish rocks.
Oh, and you must get dessert. They have this cake, pudding, frosting, yumminess that is insane. If you don’t like sweets, stay away. This is one of the sweetest desserts I have ever had.
One more thing, we didn’t look at the prices and were shocked when the bill for four was over $ 100. Yikes! Food was great and I would have given this place five stars if it wasn’t so expensive.

I had a long day at work and was out running errands before meeting up for drinks and I was starved. In the mood for Latin, as usual, I stopped at Café Mangu with a book. Without even looking at the menu, I ordered the Lechon Asado, fried yucca, maduros and white rice.
Lechon Asado is slow roasted pork, the kind they make pulled pork sandwiches from and each country/​person has their own secret recipe, but it definitely has garlic, salt, pepper as basics on it and slow roasts. It is FANTASTIC. Café Mangu always makes it right. Yum! It pulls apart, you do not need a knife, just a fork and some rice and the pork juice gets on the rice and you want to eat the whole thing. The fried yucca was perfect and crisp. Yucca is not like potato, it’s more rooty, so don’t let people tell you that «it’s like french fries,» ’cause it’s not. The maduros are a ripened to black plantain, that is fried and ends up being sweet and delicious. The problem with this is the plantains were not really ready for this, nor are they in season, so the taste and texture was wrong. I don’t blame mangu for this, we’re not in Cuba, we’re in Texas. So whatevs.
Go and have the pork. They also have good lunch specials and everything comes with 3 sides. Jesus. Get sweat pants or a to-​go box. It’s a lot of food.

I had dinner here Saturday night and was so impressed i ate lunch with the wife the following Tuesday to make sure this place was as good as i thought it was… It was. Mangu offers Carribean/​South American style cuisine. The varied tastes and textures here surprised me and i also discovered a new drink. They have a beautiful covered outdoor patio area that lends itself to the relaxing mood i needed.
I had my first, and most assuredly not my last Caipirihna. The national cocktail of Brazil. I had never had one before and it was oh soooo good. Made with lime juice, sugar, Cachaca. I got to sip their Mojito as well and they were really good.
Our waitress was very friendly and helpful in explaining the menu items which i admittedly was not familiar with. I had the Mahi with fresh Mango Salsa on a bed of rice (Arroz Congri). The Mahi was a healthy chunk of fish beautifully presented and cooked. I chose sides of Maduros (sweet sliced fried plantains) and fried Yuca. I almost fell off my chair when i ate into the Maduros. The textures… slightly crisp outside and sweet and tender inside. This was a treat for me as i had never had these before. The Maduros were a perfect taste contrast to the fish. Our other entrée was the Lechon Pork. Pork shoulder slow roasted with cider onions and rice. Sides of fresh vegetables and more Maduros. The pork was very tender, tasty and flavorful.
We ordered the Tres Leches for dessert. A light yellow cake drenched in a delicious three crème sauce and topped with Suspiro and drizzled with homemade carmel. One order is plenty for 2 persons.
Be advised that the parking is weird but please don’t let that discourage or distract you from experiencing the wonderful food here. If you are looking for something a little different from the ordinary… even ordinary great food… Café Mangu is someplace you should give a try.

Unique food. Cool place. Good prices. Decent quality
If you like to try some flavorful and unique (not scary) dishes go here…

Living in Austin, TX for a while & been Dominican. I always wonder where I could have Dominican cooking since I miss my mother cooking. Doing Research I found it. Café Mangu as it is call and by definition Mangu is smash plantains. it is eating usually for breakfast with eggs, fry onions, salami.
Me and my other half enjoy ourselves when we were there. I got a chance to talk to the owner while there. The food was pretty good and it satisfy my belly. The only things for me is that the restaurant all the way north and I live in south austin. will I recommend this restaurant to other people, of course. I will go back again next time I go to IKEA.
if you want to learn more about Dominican cooking check

«A comer pastel, a comer lechon, arroz con guandules, y beber ron…*» That’s what it’s about during celebration time in a Latin Caribbean household, give or take the rum. Each auntie crafts a holiday dish for a dinner that will be consumed around 9:30pm on Christmas eve, followed by 8 hours of salsa, merengue, and bachata, and the occasional ballad for the ladies to sing along with (think Ana Gabriel). You will pray your uncle didn’t bring his snooty girlfriend who makes the awful flan and dances like limp spaghetti. You will hope you don’t get stuck with the pot-​bellied old man who dances way too close and moves like molasses during an impossibly long salsa. By 6am you can find children under 10 passed out and scattered throughout the house, eager to return home and open presents. You will have leftover food for days.
With those memories in mind, my dear Puerto Rican friend giddily introduced me to Mangu. While my family is Dominican, we share similar stories on celebration, dancing, and, above all, food. Living in Texas for a few years now, I’ve become accustomed to Mexican and Tex-​Mex cuisine. It’s quite good depending on where you go. But Mexican food is vastly different from Latin Caribbean food, which is very different from Caribbean food you’d find in the Bahamas, let’s say. So when someone says «hey, why can’t you handle spicy? You’re Latin, right?» I want to smack them, lovingly, because our food has spic-​ES but is not spi-​CY. You dig?
The food at Mangu is seasoned like mom’s, and that’s insane. Herbs in delicious sauce with the shrimp, and inside the rice, and soaked into the pork. The dishes I’ve had are amazing, and the arroz con guandules (rice with pigeon peas) is remarkably accurate. My mom invests way too much energy on healthifying otherwise questionable dishes, and Mangu’s food also does a good job keeping oil levels low and sticking to seasonings and sauces to intensify the flavors. Big points there. I have always had leftovers, the portions are so large. And while the prices can seem comparatively higher for lunch, I bear this in mind: it takes a lot more time and effort to craft meals based on flavors and ingredients. When you throw jalapenos and cheese on everything, it’s much easier to mask careless cooking. AND… Mangu makes the tostones (fried plantains flattened out) perfectly.
I occasionally make mangu, a very filling dish which I usually eat with some white cheese, an egg, and/​or a salad. Mangu consists of smashed plantains that have been boiled. The way my family renders a smoother version is to add a small potato for every 2 plantains boiled, and reserve some of the water the plantains have been boiled in. Work in 0.5 cups of that water with the plantains+potato as you smash them, and add some lowfat butter (Brummel&Brown), pepper, salt, garlic, and lowfat milk until you get the desired flavor and consistency. Yum. I listen to Juan Luis Guerra while I eat.
[*El Gran Combo, «Fiesta de Pilito”]

Soy Carretero
Son De La Loma
El Cuarto De Tula
Sabor A Mi
La Negra Tomasa
Lagrimas Negras
Perfidia
Dos Gardenias Para Ti
How did they know all my favorite songs
from the island where I was born?
How could I not dance
with my love every number?
How could we’ve had any more fun?
Congas and keyboard, trumpet and sax, two singers and one violin.
Nelson Saga and Arma del Alma play Saturdays at Café Mangú.
OK, so the band’s not as good as the venerable Brew
who play The Oasis on Sundays
but out on this dance floor there’s plenty of room
to dance your heart out without crowding
plus, they have more interesting food
the fish with the mango sauce had very fresh flavor
though the king fish had way too much salt
but the waitress replaced it with a grilled tilapia
that just melted away on your tongue
the yuca was good when dipped in the mojo
the maduros should have been more ripe
instead of green salad they brought out a cole slaw
but all in all it was a great night

Me and BFF ate here for the very first time. It was delicious.
The restaurant is located a small house off a busy street just east of I-​35 on the road that is the continuation of Wells Branch Parkway (FM something or other). There didn’t seem to be any parking for the restaurant itself, so we rather doubtfully parked in the sorta dismal empty lot for the auto repair shop next door. Where was everyone? However, once we got inside, we relaxed — the place was bustling (where did all these people park?), lots of tables were filled, and servers were zipping about.
The menu is a stiff laminated set of pages in a spiral binder, and you get lots of bright close-​up pictures of what the food looks like. Definitely a WYSIWYG-​theme here. There are many great choices — meats, seafoods, but not much for vegetarians. I got a garlic tilapia, my friend got shrimp in tomato sauce. I was really really impressed with my tilapia — I got a huge filet smothered in a bright orange garlic sauce, and the fish was so fresh it seemed scallop-​like in texture. Mmmm. The shrimp were good too — very fresh — but the tomato sauce just didn’t seem as interesting to me. Each meal came with three sides, of which there were about 10 to choose from. Rices, beans, plantains and a smattering of vegetables. My favorite side was the yucca.
The food was really tasty, and the flavors strong and quite unique (especially the garlic — yea!), but nothing was particularly spicy. The food was pretty heavy — you could tell there was a whole lotta butter going on. And portions were HUGE — I saved about 2/​3rds of my dinner and spouse and I split that for a light meal the next night.
Service was fast, friendly, and almost too hovering. I’d say our waitress stopped by about 8 times during dinner, each time interrupting our conversation by asking us how the food tasted (3x), whether we needed anything (4x), and once to tell us that she was going to sit down for a bit to roll silverware into napkins, so please don’t think she was ignoring us. I did appreciate the heads up, but it seemed slightly TMI.
Given the cute house exterior, the inside of the place was surprisingly bland. It was almost as if they worked hard to emulate a Denny’s-type atmosphere. This is not a good place to take a blind date — it will not impress. Better to come here with a person who you are certain values good food over ambiance.
Overall, a great experience. I don’t know of anywhere else in Austin that has Caribbean food, so I’ll be making the trip out here whenever I get a craving.

You’ve all heard of «Island Time», right? You know, when you’re on vacation and go to a Caribbean island and everything just slooooows down, including food service, but you just don’t care cause you’re on vacation? They run on island time here at this Caribbean style restaurant, very authentically. So if you have post-​dinner tix to a show, or you have very little to talk about with your dining companion, this is NOT the place for you. If, like me, you ARE on vacay and wish you WERE on an island, it’s the perfect illusion.
This place is tiny. A bright little yellow house, kinda hard to find as it’s surrounded by trees and vegetation (odd for Pflugerville). Has a nice patio for less hellish months. Last nite, it also had only one server/​bartender. And with about 8 tables to tend, everything was slow in coming, but worth the wait. Drink-​wise, my mango martini was refreshing and not overwhelmingly fruity sweet as they can be. ANd the piña colada (fondly referred to as the penus colossus) was so creamy and smooth and rich. But if you want the most bang for your alcohol dollars, get the Caribbean Tea. Like a Long Island but with coconut rum. Hubby had two and was unable to finish the second. I’ll repeat: WE WERE UNABLE TO FINISH THE 2ND ONE. That never happens! If we had some more time maybe, but it’s definitely not a tossing back drink.
The food was varied and tasty. I was a little disappointed there was no Jerk anything on the menu, but there is plenty of plantain options and rice and bean options. Hubby had the mahi-​mahi which was smothered in a mango salsa. I had some kind of slow-​roasted pork, which tasted like pot roast. It was tender and juicy but I was hoping for something a little more exotically flavored. Each dinner comes with THREE SIDES. We both got the pigeon peas and rice (more peas please!), the mixed veggies (sauteed fresh bell peppers, onion and squash), and the maduros (those yummy caramelized plantains… now THAT can always take me back to Jamaica!).
What with the piña colada and the complimentary fried plantains we had snacked on, I only got about a quarter of the way thru my plate and I was comatose. But I have enough leftovers in my fridge to do it all over again. Good thing I’m on vacation and have no schedule! Bad for bikinis tho! And definitely worth the trip to Pflugerville to get you’re island illusion on (so weird)!

The plantain chips and garlic oil dip was different — nice departure from chips and salsa.
We had a party of nine on a Saturday night and had the whole patio to ourselves, there was a stage not being used in the back that the kids played on while we ate and talked — it was so perfect!
I love eating up north on the weekends because of crowd control.
With 4 different kinds of rice, you pretty much can’t go wrong… they have a new one cooked in coconut milk with pigeon peas. Cool, eh?!
The tres leches was awesome — HUGE portion, I don’t like the whipped cream on top, but the cake itself was spot on.
Different tastes, spices, and flavors — that’s what I love, plus the building’s bright yellow-​orange! It’s a converted house, love it!
Service was good, we’ll be back!

We went here for a friend’s birthday dinner, and had a small group of 7 eating together. We arrived at 7:20, and by 7:30 everyone else had arrived and we put our orders in for drinks. The drinks were all a bit on the sweet side, but really, what can you expect from melon and mango based drinks? I was anxious to put my order in quickly, since I had movie tickets for 10 back in Austin. But normally, 2:30 hours for dinner and travel time should be more than enough.
Not here. Or atleast, not today. I ordered the Pollo Guisado, chicken stewed in a flavorful sauce, and three types of plantains for my sides (what can I say, I love plantains). All our orders were placed by 7:50.
8:30 comes, and we don’t have our food, nor have we seen our waitress since ordering. Several or us are hoping for water, while others were wanting to place another drink order to hold us over. We actually had to venture into the kitchen where our server was leaning against a table to ask if we could order drinks, while another of us tracked down where she kept the water pitcher. She didn’t offer any sort of explanation for the delay in receiving our food, let alone why she hadn’t been in the dining room for over 40 minutes.
Finally, around 8:55, our food arrives. Despite the extended wait, it was delicious. When the food was brought out, neither our server, nor one of the staff members from the back that carried our food to us, presented an excuse or apology for our temporary starvation. Seriously, I understand being busy, or understaffed, or anything like that. As a customer, I want affirmation that you haven’t forgotten about me, and you recognize that waiting over an hour for your food is not the norm for your restaurant. I can easily justify these problems with a simple «I’m sorry, we are very understaffed today, but your food should be out shortly,» or something similar. This still does not excuse our server’s complete lack of attentiveness to our table, which just worsened the situation.
I ate what I could of my meal, boxed ¾ths of it, and had to leave quickly to make the movie. All in all, the food was great, but no way was it worth the combination of waiting over an hour and horrible service. Maybe this was just an off day for them, but I definitely won’t be back to give them a second chance.

I love this place. First of all their plantain «chips» and sauce that they give you is very tasty. It has a very potent flavor that some will either love or not care for very much.
Personally I think their Mahi Mahi is delicious! It comes topped with a spicy mango salsa that is fresh and handmade. Recently they cut the portion of this fish so it doesn’t make it as great to split if you’re very hungry. The 3 sides you get to choose are very filling though. If you and a friend are light eaters then this place becomes a very economical decision. My favorite sides are the black beans, yellow rice (I put the black beans in the rice), and the stewed desert plantains. The salad, fries, and fresh vegetable are also very good choices.
I’ve also had the chicken dishes which were tasty but not as tasty as the Mahi mahi. Their food is always fresh and delicious and very well cooked. We’ve tried the queso frita (fried cheese) as well which is an interesting twist on mozzarella sticks. We enjoy it but we usually save it for a group gathering since you get 6 cheese squares.
Keep in mind I’m not from this region so I can’t say how it compares to real food from this area. I do know good flavors when I taste them, and for fresh food you’ll be wonderfully surprised.
PS: Plantains do not taste like traditional bananas.

We heard about this place from a co-​worker right after it had opened. You can easily drive past it because it is tiny and sits directly next to a body shop (in fact I believe they share the same parking area). Let me just say, this place rocks!
The food is like nothing I’ve ever tasted. I guess it’s what you would call Yucatan-​Caribbean and maybe Cuban/​Latin infused ??? It is so fresh and the flavors are terrific in everything they make. I haven’t eaten one bad dish there. We have ordered the food to go and also eaten inside many times.
For starters, they have a delicious dip with some sort of cilantro, lime, oil/​vinegars mixture (I know it sounds weird, but it is so savory and a leap away from the typical hot sauce and chips appetizer). They have great plantains (baked, fried, you name it) and when you order your meal you choose your main dish of meat as well as THREE sides! It’s amazing how much food you get for the price. Yes, you will look on the menu and see some high prices, which can get up there depending on what you order, but believe me when I say that you could easily eat 3 or 4 meals on what they bring you. And I have done that very thing. The owner and wait staff are very friendly. We have had some pleasant conversation with them. Some of the servers may seem stand offish, but if you just give them a smile and talk to them they are very sweet.
I was at first afraid that this place wouldn’t make it because 1) it’s in Pflugerville 2) the only way most will find out about this place is by word of mouth and 3) the food they serve is very specialized and tailored to a certain kind of crowd. Some people are just afraid to try new things which is understandable, but who knows how many great eateries we lose every year without even knowing it because of people who are stuck in the chain-​restaurant rut? People should support this local establishment and make their bellies happy!