Mambo Restaurant and Bistro Belize — Restaurant in North Ambergris Caye

Absolutely gorgeous place, the ambiance is the best out of everywhere we visited in San Pedro. We went with friends who had been here before several years ago and said it was their favorite meal on their last trip. We had our hopes up arriving into this beautiful place. Our waiter told us right away that he didn't want to be there but had to for work. That set the tone for the meal. The food was good but for what you pay, it wasn't spectacular. We tried the tuna tartare, it was mostly an avocado mixture and lacking in tuna. We tried the filet mignon appetizer- carpaccio- it was good and had a lot of flavor. I had the chicken with the pineapple, mango chutney. It was good but the chicken itself was bland. The chutney was great but in a small amount on my plate. My husband got the seafood platter with lobster, scallops, shrimp and calamari. The lobster was one of the best I've ever tasted!! But again, for the price, it was the star of the show. The calamari was a disappointment and seemed like a small amount of pre-frozen calamari that had been overcooked and was quite chewy. We ordered key lime pie for dessert and it was delicious. The presentation was impressive! The service was slow and our drinks were empty for over half of our meal. Then, they added a 15% service fee on top of the over inflated prices already. For the two of us, our meal was $255 US... BEFORE LEAVING ANY ADDITIONAL TIP. It wasn't bad but for what you pay in comparison to the other meals we had on our trip, it was our least favorite and the most expensive. It's such a nice atmosphere. Hopefully they can get it together. It really has potential to be the absolute best for an all...

The food was mediocre, but the real kicker was the way they charge you for the food etc. for one they hand you a menu with entree prices around $40-50 which everyone would figure be belize dollars. When the bill came the waitress said all the prices are in usd !? What ? and the Bill was over $200 usd. But that’s not all ! They added a 15% “service fee” plus tax plus they ask for a tip ?! So I figured the 15% was part of the tip and added another 10% making the “tip” a generous 25% even though food was just ok. The waitress came running outside after us explaining the tip needed to be in belize dollars now and not usd. Total scam ! I ended up paying like $240usd for 2 people with mediocre resort food.

Total weird/bad experience and it was the only bad experience on the island. Would never go back there with those shady tactics and of course the food wasn’t that great. Much better restaurants/food south of mamba. They need to revaluate how they charge the customer or at the very least explain the crazy fee you add to the bill and that the prices are in usd not belize, but In that case you probably wouldn’t be very...

Just had dinner there and it was outstanding!! I had their Deep Blue seafood platter which included fried calamari and snapper filet, seared scallops and shrimp, steamed Caye Caulker crab claw and roasted vegetables. Everything was prepared fresh and to perfection. My girlfriend had the filet mignon. Now she is one of those few who has to have her filet well done. We’ve been to a lot of restaurants and usually they won’t cook a filet like that or if they do it comes out so much tougher it’s actually just a really thick steak and not a filet at all. But not here. Her filet was cooked all the way through and yet was so tender it fell apart with a butter knife! The atmosphere is very relaxed and the service excellent. The only thing I didn’t like was it was the only place in Belize I’ve eaten where they pre-load a tip charge. When service is good I’m an over 20% tipper and I think I should be the one to make the call on the service I receive. However, that was a minor point and didn’t detract from the excellence of the food...