The Mango Tree — Restaurant in Coeur d'Alene

For several years, the Mango Tree was a favorite choice for splurging a little on a fun dinner when we could swing it; however, errors on orders became noticeably more frequent over the last year or so.

Tonight, after an interminably long wait for takeout, I was told my order had been “taken” by a delivery driver along with their actual order (as if implying they had just grabbed multiple unattended bags—but I saw the Mango Tree employees personally hand over every bag when drivers came to get them as I waited, so the error was totally on the restaurant’s end), and that I’d have to wait while they started mine over from scratch.

Frustrated by this, I asked for a refund (planning to pick up something else quickly on the way home), but the employee claimed there was no way to do a refund due to some aspect of my having ordered through Uber Eats. I reluctantly accepted this and waited an additional 20+ minutes for the remade order.

When that finally arrived, the employee tried to scurry off immediately after handing it to me, but I beckoned her to wait a moment, because due to the extra inconvenience and the original screw-up being entirely their fault, I felt like some sort of conciliatory gesture was merited, especially after refusing to refund.

A well-run establishment should probably have standard methods for handling situations like this: offering a gift card, a discount coupon, even just throwing in a little extra food in with the order as a way to preemptively say “sorry.”

The employee made it clear that she knew of no such thing. Not sure if that was because of poor training, her own ignorance, or the management just not bothering to plan for this kind of situation due to arrogance or incompetence. She just rather rudely asked: well, what do you want us to do?

I wanted my money back. I wanted some kind of apology for their completely self-inflicted botch. I wanted them to show a single glimmer of concern for screwing up my evening. And I wanted to not have to ask them for anything like a gift card or some extra naan when that should already have been included when she finally came out with the food.

I knew I wasn’t going to get what I wanted.

So I grumbled something inarticulate and turned to leave. As I opened the door, I heard her call out “have a good evening!” in a fake cheery tone, like she’d just delivered the most expert customer service of her career.

I’ll admit I lost my cool and moral superiority at that point, barking back (with phrasing that would get this review hidden from the public) that everyone who worked there was welcome to eat something commonly left in toilets.

On top of everything else, when I got home, the food turned out to be the worst quality I’d ever seen from this restaurant. Ultra dry meat, naan that seemed to still partially be dough, bland sauce.

Anyway, bravo, Mango Tree. After five years of fondly thinking your establishment was one of Coeur d’Alene’s bright spots and recommending it to all our friends (who will be told about your decline, count on it), you’ve flushed that goodwill down the toilet.

And while you’re there, you’re once again cordially invited to chow down on anything else you find in that particular bowl.

One star, only because this system doesn’t allow zero star ratings. And I’d use negative...

Food is always great which is the reason this gets any stars. Service on the other hand... I went about a year ago and they didn't have enough wait staff. It was hard to watch-I felt bad for those that were working. People had long waits and tables sat dirty for up to 20 mins. I went the other day and assumed things would be better. We made a reservation and told them we needed a highchair for our 1.5 year old. Upon arrival they tried to seat us at a countertop-height table. I told them we needed a table where the highchair could seat our son. They said we were going to have to wait. I saw two separate seating areas that had normal tables-both empty. One required a small table to be added (which was right there) and the other tables were the ones to the right near the bar at the end of the restaurant. I asked if we could sit at the empty tables near the bar. The server said she had to ask her manager. She came back and said the manager needs those tables for a meeting she's going to be having. I then asked if I could help her push the two empty tables together. She thought about it and then said "sure". While we're doing this, the manager comes out and tells us we can't do that because it will crowd other guests. We weren't going to be crowding anyone. You think I want to be crowded myself when I've made a reservation? No... They made our party go wait in their tiny waiting area and we eventually got seated after some others had left-about 15 minutes after our reservation time. Once getting seated, no menus! No silverware. Nothing. When the server finally came, I asked for a drink menu, no menu. I started to feel like someone must be playing a joke on me. Everything was pretty smooth after that and again, food is amazing. Whoever is doing the food needs to help the front lobby with customer service. And yes, I watched those empty tables to see if the manager ever needed them for a "meeting". They were empty the whole time we were there. Please fix...

Arrived at restaurant, waited to be seated 10 minutes or so. Waiter walked by 2 times and said “I’ll be right with you”. Then about 2 minutes before we were seated another couple came in behind us, the waiter came and grabbed all 4 of us. Seated us in two different seatings. Then took their order first, served them water and then we waited another 15 or so minutes before another waiter came and took our order. Ironic the mango tree was out of mango lassi. The server got our order. While waiting we noticed the restaurant is VERY smoky, our eyes were on fire the entire time and having asthma it’s not easy to breathe in this environment. But we sat it out. We got our food, my fiance ordered tiki masala and I the lamb plate. Right off the bat I noticed more than half of my garden salad was entirely white onion.. when I pointed that out to the waiter, he’s like “oh darn if I had know you didn’t like onions I wouldn’t of added so many”. I’m just thinking garden salad generally doesn’t have onions in it, and if anything sweet onions. Then I noticed my rice was clumpy and cold, whilst my fiancés was hot and fresh. I also never received a knife to cut my lamb off the bone. Obviously I’m not gonna be a pig with a very glazed lamb and eat with my hands. But the server never came back only to drop the check off, so I didn’t get a chance to even try the lamb or eat the cold rice. I did in fact enjoy the couple pieces of green leaf lettuce with the yummy ranch after I picked ALL the onions off. My fiance was a sweetie and I gotta say, order the tiki masala or butter chicken above anything over this, although if you like good NAAN, this isn’t the place for it! If I ever acted the way the staff acts here at my job, I wouldn’t have a job. Hope everyone else has better...