Sushi Mambo — Restaurant in Calistoga

Rude and belligerent

According to their web site they are open 7 days per week until 8pm. I called on Tuesday to place a to go order and message came on stating closed Tuesday open every other day till 8:30. ‘ if this call is within business hours, please hang up and call back’. Ok so now it’s Wednesday at 6:30. I place a call and I received the same automated message as Tuesday. I tried calling back several time and nobody picked up. We decided to walk to restaurant to 0lac3 a to go,order. We get there , 2 waitresses are walking back and forth serving others but not once did they say , please wait I’ll be right with you. Finally we approached 1 of the waitresses and stand w3 would like to plac3va to go order. She reply’s back, do you have a reservation? What ? We want to place a to go order. She turns and very rudely says oh you need to wait an hour and walks away! What is going on here! No customer service. I understand we are recovering from a pandemic and businesses just opened up and may be overwhelmed with the work and no help, but you need to be rude and hostile??? Further more update your web site with correct information about days and hours open, also state that you we will not pick up the phone for reservation or...

Food is not authentic Japanese by any measure and only decently prepared. The only Japanese person was the waitress? I Ate here twice. Once for sushi and once for ramen. Almost all sushi rolls involved either cream cheese, spicy tuna salad, or crab. Very American options, but maybe they are decent for fusion. I ordered sashimi and it was fresh enough.

The pork ramen was light and flavorless, no salt, lots of sesame oil. The small handful of noodles were overcooked. I ordered more and they were also overcooked. Pork was hard boiled and flavorless (not chashu), no soft boiled marinated egg, spinach instead of nori seaweed... still cost $16 for weak soup and soggy noodle.

Edit: My wife is Japanese. I live in little Tokyo, L.A. And I have a family vacation house in Tokyo, Japan. I'm not sure what owner means by open minded, but let's not redefine authentic Japanese. I would have been less disappointed if I was expecting fusion food although ramen was definitely lacking. Food was fresh and well presented. Many people may like what is offered, but if you're looking for authentic then the menu options are limited....

I was so excited to go to Sushi Mambo and have a lovely meal in charming Calistoga, but it wasn't meant to be.

This was the worst service I have ever received at any restaurant I've ever been to. When you walk in, the waitresses ignore you for 5-10 minutes and then finally tell you where you can sit, in a sullen way. As you order, they are extremely rude and give you sassiness and attitude. The food took forever to come out (about an hour) and the waitresses did nothing to communicate or apologize. All of the tables around me were complaining about the wait for their food and were met with rude responses.

They also messed up our order and a few tables around us without even an apology.

The food was OK but wasn't worth the extremely long wait or rude staff.

My suggestion to the business owner....fire your wait staff and start over. Teach them that customer service is one of the most important things in a business or learn this yourself and embrace it. Otherwise, you should just throw in the towel. I've dined all over the world at the finest restaurants and this was hands down the worst experience I have ever...