Mambo Wine and Dine — Restaurant in South Tyneside

Went for staff night out. 22 of us in total. Gorgeous surroundings but downhill from there. Huge cocktail menu but a lot of them are too sweet indicating an over use of syrup. Drinks are very expensive just under £5 for a corona. With it being a big table food did not come out at once as expected, but staff asked if everything was ok before we had tasted many of the dishes. As the organiser of the meal i got up and asked everyone if everything was ok, at this point 3 of our party pointed out that the 2 surf and turf dishes smelled fishy and did not taste right, and were told by staff that it was their fault for not saying anything when they were asked if everything was ok. They had replied that they had not tried it yet. I took both dishes myself to a member o staff to complain as no-one was interested in coming to the table. I pointed out that these people were chefs and knew when a dish did not smell right and that the dishes smelled fishy, only to be told that they smelled fishy because it was a fish dish. I'm no expert but in my experience seafood should not smell of the sea after being cooked. They refused to change the 2 dishes even the seafood. We didn't want money taken off just the dishes cooked like they are supposed to be. At this point someone came out and presented a video of a live lobster as if to point out that the lobster in the video was the one which was served and it was fresh, I'm sorry but a video of an unrelated lobster proves nothing. In the end the 3 people shared a pizza and left the 2 dishes picture provided of how they were returned. No apology, no replacement and no money taken off. No staff came to our table at all to clear the dishes even though everyone was finished until we requested the bill. We paid the whole bill including £75 for 2 returned dishes, suffice to say we left without a tip and a promise not to return for the most appalling service and...

The good bits: Very generous portions and very yummy. I’m 52 years old and I couldn’t finish a soup + child’s portion of the Sunday roast pork dinner. Meat was moist and tasty and the gravy was spot on. Even got a generous portion of apple sauce and steamed veges. Staff was polite and helpful.

Suggestion for improvement: When one / some diners in a group order starter / soup and the others opt to go straight for the main course, it would help to ask if those who order only main course would like their main course to be served right away, instead of them waiting for those who order starters to finish. Otherwise they are kept waiting until those who order starters / soup finish. Perhaps it’s an English restaurant custom but I prefer the North American approach where diners have a the option to get their main course right away. It was a bit embarrassing to realize halfway through my soup that my co-diners weren’t eating because they were waiting for me to finish my soup. :)

Anyway.....

A spotlessly clean open and airy restaurant serving Italian and Eastern Mediterranean food this place is worth a visit. Our starter was a shared crispy cheese and garlic bread. This chef knows his job. Perfect. My better half had Sea Bass in lemon sauce which she really enjoyed. Mine was the N’duja, italian sausage and pasta. This was spicy, as you would expect with N’duja but spot on for my taste. Add to this the friendly staff and you get to my rating which is excellent. We’ve tried the other Mambo restaurants in South Shields and our regular spot in Hebburn but this restaurant just has the edge over the other two. Having said that we will still be going back to all three eating places. Subtle differences in their chef’s offerings means that variety is literally the spice of life for me and my better half. Maybe next time I will go a little more hungry and try the dessert menu. Portions a generous in all the Mambo’s so sometimes a coffee is all I can manage after...