Mamaka Bowls — Restaurant in Charlotte

Great bowls and coffee, but disappointing service. I really enjoy Mamaka’s bowls and coffee. The quality of the food and drinks is consistently good. However, my experiences with the service have not matched that same standard.

Most times I’ve been in, the staff isn’t particularly friendly or accommodating, and the service can be quite slow. I understand that bowls and smoothies can be time consuming to make, especially when the shop is busy, but even during slower times, I’ve noticed a lack of urgency and customer care.

My most recent visit was especially frustrating. We went in about 15 minutes after opening. There were only two other customers who had already ordered. We got a drip coffee, a specialty latte, and one small bowl to share. The coffees came out quickly, but the bowl never arrived. After waiting 30 minutes, we finally went to check and it seems that our order had been lost.

From what I could tell, the ordering system involves writing orders directly on the cups and bowls, which means if someone forgets to do that step, the order simply vanishes. That’s exactly what happened. It seems our bowl was never written down, so it was never made. It took another 15 minutes after we asked for them to prepare it.

What was meant to be a quick stop turned into an hour-long wait, and there was no real apology or accountability from the staff. The lack of ownership over the mistake and the generally dismissive attitude made it clear that customer experience isn’t a priority.

I want to keep supporting Mamaka because their offerings are great, but I hope they seriously reevaluate how they treat their customers and consider implementing a more reliable ordering system.

UPDATE: Since posting my original review, the team at Mamaka responded to make things right. I’ve since returned, and I’m happy to say the experience was much better. The staff were friendly, the service was quick, and my bowl was just as yummy as I remember. I very much appreciate that they took the time to address my concerns. It really shows they care about their customers and are willing to improve. I’m looking forward to...

Was craving an açaí bowl and Everbowl in huntersville decided to close at 7pm so this was the next option. I’m not sure what I was expecting but this just didn’t do it for me. The bowl itself wasn’t bad (i.e. toppings were fresh, decent blend of ingredients) but it felt more like a big smoothie with toppings as opposed to a bowl. I think I was expecting some type of layers and for it to be less of a soupy texture. To be fair the flavor itself was good and maybe a small bowl would’ve been the better choice but overall this was still a little disappointing. Price wise they do have Everbowl beat because 2 regular bowls were about $24, Everbowl would’ve been $30+ so there’s a win. I got the salted caramel which was kind of deceiving considering there was only salt and no caramel. There is definitely a target audience for this type of bowl but unfortunately it was not me. Great service and friendly employees, will def give this place...

I’ve been here twice now and it’s my new favorite smoothie bowl place! I’m pretty sure I’ve tried every smoothie bowl place in the Charlotte area and Mamaka bowls are some of the best I’ve tried. Today we had the Salted Caramel bowl - so good! Tasted like ice cream, but with clean ingredients which I really care about.

My one suggestion is to get blender covers to dampen the sound (like what Smoothie King or a lot of other smoothie shops have). It’s so loud inside the store which makes it not very enjoyable to sit inside, plus I felt bad the the workers who had difficulty hearing customers over all the blender racket. Getting some covers would...