Mao Asian Street Food — Restaurant in Mijas

Having great expectations, we went to MAO. Now, MAO can be described as “Fancy Chinese” or “You-know-you’re-gonna-pay-triple-for-eating-here Chinese” but we knew that. And we expected the food to be amazing. The place is gorgeous and welcoming. The view, stunning and the staff is beautiful. We were up for a treat! Our waitress was attentive and nice. She was always there in a second when we needed her and she obviously wanted to please her guests. We appreciated that. With the cocktails, we wanted to nibble on something and we started to salivate with their AMAZING-LOOKING menu. The dishes sound great. We were so happy. We ordered the Crispy Lotus Chips. According to the menu, the dish has lotus chips, kimchi, Char Siu pork, and Sriracha aioli. Awesome. The dish came and it looked simply beautiful in a square wooden box. The lotus chips were crispy and wonderful. The sriracha aioli was there and the Char Siu pork was… well, it was pork alright. But it lacked the beautiful sweet lacquer of a proper Char Siu and it tasted old. For the Kimchi… Nowhere to be found. We called the waitress on that and, after examining the plate at a close distance, she determined that it was there, in the sauce. But the aioli was mayo and sriracha and the kimchi was not in the plate. Still, we accepted this as an honest mistake. The dish was, albeit meh, tasty. I was super excited about the presence of Dim Sum on the menu! I so wanted a Dim Sum feast and we ordered the Chef’s selection with one modification to which the waitress agreed. We were to have braised short rib Chao Pao, corn-fed chicken Gyozas, and Vegan Crystal Dumplings. I was salivating. If only I’d have known that I was going to need that saliva to try to eat that “Dim Sum”! The gyozas were dry. Really, really dry. And tasteless. And the chicken was undetectable. Of course, they forgot the vegan crystal dumplings and served us twice the amount of disgusting chicken gyozas instead. The Chao Pao was awesome, though. Nothing to praise anybody over but tasty. OK. 28 euros down for two bites of food. The chicken gyozas were of course abandoned there and we notified the waitress of the insanity of the dish. Also, we asked for spicy sauce to try to help us swallow, and they brought sweet chilli and chilli oil, not a single piece of fresh chilli to be found. We then proceeded to order the San Choy Bow (stuffed fresh lettuce leaves) with minced aged entrecôte. That was nice and crunchy lettuce, tasty meat, and delicious sauce. A 7 out of 10. Good enough. With this taste in our mouths, we ordered the last dishes: Mao Signature Bao Buns (one with Truffled Peking duck, one with Char Siu pork and one with Crispy Chinese chicken) and Lo Mai Gai (steamed sticky rice, Char Siu pork, chicken, salted duck egg, wrapped in lotus leaf). It sounded delicious. The buns were just horrible. The bun itself was flat and whatever was inside looked, tasted, and felt like it was cooked the day before. UGH. The other dish was a mushy mess of random ingredients put together in an incomprehensible way and properly smothered in bean sauce, just in case. At this point we had complained several times, explaining our concerns, and we were sure they were spitting in our food, probably deservingly so. Still, we ordered a dessert. The dessert was Chocolate spring rolls. These travesties of food consisted of dry chocolate stuffed into a fried dough, rolled. There was, as explained in the menu, a toffee sauce with some peanuts. And there was again an ingredient missing. On the menu, this dish comes with “spiced vanilla ice cream”. Instead, the dish came with out-of-a-pressured-can whipped cream. We finished our wines, I ordered a Japanese whisky to wash this preposterous meal off my mouth and paid 133 euros. And that was after they took some things off of our bill. The excuse for this scandal? The head chef had the day off for the first time since they...

My family and I have been to Mao several times and have enjoyed the view and atmosphere. The food has never been anything that special, everythings a bit on the salty side if being honest.

Our last experience was appalling though. As my daughter was eating from her plate, the waiter stacked cutlery on it, preparing to take it away. I asked him what he was doing and he apologised saying he didn't realise she was still eating. Mate, shes scooping rice off her plate with a fork, what you not getting?

A minute later he came back to take away our drinks, my wife had to take hers back out his hand and tell him she wasn't finished.

I tried to have a bit of a laugh with the lad and ask what exactly was going on. He then tried to explain he was just doing what he was told. So a sort of admission that the mangement of Mao are encouraging staff to rush people out the door.

It was a bit late but we were by no means the last table.

I then see him chatting to who I assume was the manager. The chat however, was more like flirting or possibly mocking us for our complaint, certainly wasn't a discussion on how to resolve the complaint. If it's the former, I truely hope their love blossoms.

I stood up to pay the bill then get out of dodge.

Staff including head waiters clearly have no training or don't care. Hard to tell which. They had no idea on how to deal with a complaint, I'll tell you that much.

But listen, lovely views out over the ocean so people will continue to go. Go next door to Max Beach for similar levels of service as it's obviously the same group.

Summary - Good location, mediocre food, rubbish service all at a...

With offerings ranging from pecking duck to Vietnamese spring rolls to sushi, Mao is more of an Asian fusion resturant. The location, overlooking the Mediterranean is beatiful and hard to beat if you come during sunset. The food was good and the beer was cold and the waiters quick and attentive to our needs. They even started you out with a warm towel to wipe your hands before dinner - all well and good.

If it feels like there is a but coming you are correct. We had an edamame appetizer, a bowl of spicy noodles and a bowl of fried rice both of which were on the small size so we also ordered a king crab sushi roll - which also was quite small. We had 4 beers between us and the total bill came to 110 euros. As well, while the waiting staff was fast and attentive the food preparation moved on an glacial time scale even by Spanish standards. Considering there was at most 5 busy tables I fear when the place fills up the kitchen wiĺl move from a glacial to a geological time scale and you will need to set aside the entire evening for your meal.

Overall, good food but WAY OVERPRICED considering portion size and the incredible...