Mango Thai Tapas - Above Bar — Restaurant in Southampton

We ate in Mango last night as a table of 4 and the food was tasty, came quickly and hot. 2 of us shared Pad Thai, crispy beef, crispy squid & chicken satay. Pad Thai could’ve been a bit spicier and more peanuts would’ve been nice, but overall we enjoyed the food. The service on the other hand, was pretty awful. No one took our drinks order so we ordered everything at the same time, this does happen sometimes so not the end of the world. Drinks arrived before the food, which also came quickly but then no one checked on us, or offered more drinks. We then sat with our plates in front of us for 20 minutes. To the point where my partner ordered another tapas dish and the young waiter that brought it out took 2 dirty plates with him, he didn’t even attempt to clear the table. I ended up putting some plates on the table behind us, which had been vacated 20 minutes prior and not even attempted to be cleared - they still did nothing. Both members of staff (1x waiter & 1x manageress) were too interested in eating/making themselves drinks behind the bar. I appreciate there were only 2 of them but the restaurant wasn’t busy, the manageress gave off the impression that she didn’t care. We didn’t pay the service charge because we felt the 2 staff were not deserving of it. I hope the GM sees this and takes action because if that’s the standard of service your managers find acceptable, your staff will find it acceptable too! It’s a shame because I do like Mango but after last night I’d be reluctant to visit again for a while. It also isn’t cheap, £6.60 for a pint, so I expect much...

The service here is excellent, and the staff are always willing to give their customers tips on the best Thai food to eat. We had a selection of tapas, along with a golden Thai chicken curry. The best dishes, by far, were the Golden curry and prawn drunken noodles. The curry tasted like it was made from scratch and was full of subtle spices. The noodles, too, were beautifully spiced and made a great accompliment to virtually all of the main dishes. One slight letdown was the Thai pork salad; the meat was quite dry and really chewy. We had eaten this here before previously and the pork had been tender and moist. Another not so great dish was the sweet and sour pork skewers. These were overcooked and somewhat burnt.

The chicken satay sauce was delightful, although somewhat disappointingly, the meatballs were no more than ok, lacking any real depth in Asian flavours.

Being a bit picky, the restaurant is very hot during the summer months, with only a free standing fan and no air-conditioning. That said, overall, this was a really nice place to eat Thai food and I am looking forward to returning here soon.

Update: we went back to Mango today and a big shout out to Beth, who also looked after us last time. She not only remembered our drinks order from several weeks ago, but she also recalled that our Thai pork salad wasn't great. This time she was sure that it would be so much better, and in fact it was excellent, as were our other dishes.

Because of Beth's excellent service and fabulous meals this time, I have upgraded my rating of Mango Thai Tapas from 4...

We arrived as a group of 9 and were shoved out the way upstairs. When we got to what I’d describe as a pokey little room, the decor was nowhere near of the standard that they had downstairs. The lighting was very bright, the room was like a furnace, it was extremely noisy and everyone was packed in like sardines. Not the restaurant experience we were hoping for!

The service was prompt and quick, however members of our party were waiting for food a long time after the arrival of the first dishes. However, we allowed for this as our party size was fairly large.

The food itself was disappointing. We sent the potato croquettes back as they were bland and tasteless. The pad Thai was flavoursome but oily, the pork was dry as a bone, the beef chilli was extremely salty, the money bags were tasteless and came with a dip that tasted like hand sanitizer. The worst thing of all was that the room was so hot that it felt uncomfortable eating!

To add more to the misery, the bill came! We asked if they took blue light card and 2 members of staff said yes and that we could use two. For around 15 minutes, we worked out what everyone owed with the 15% off only then to be told they don’t take it on a Saturday! No apology and to be quite frank it was abrupt. Service charge definitely taken off now!

We will not return. You had your chance to try and keep 9 returning customers but you’ve blown it! Blue Jasmine or Edo...