Pizza Mambo — Restaurant in Douglas

I'd like to preface this by stating that I've never left a review for a restaurant in my life. Pizza Mambo however has left such an awful taste in my mouth (no pun intended) that it's my duty as a citizen of the world to warn others away from such a traumatic experience.

I came to Saugatuck on November 6th 2015 to propose to my girlfriend of 3 years and wanted to make the weekend perfect in every way. I rented a beautiful cabin for the weekend and we decided to spend the first night in town at our place to just relax. She suggested ordering a pizza, and that sounded like a fun simple dinner idea, so after reading a few reviews we decided on Pizza Mambo. We went in and were greeted by a charming, clean and professional looking Pizzeria. Professional ovens, large counter-tops sprinkled with flour all bespoke of a tasty pizza pie. I placed the order with an older gentleman who was cold and seemed irritated at my presence. My girlfriend loves Pineapple and as most places seem to chintz on topping I ordered extra pineapple on half and the other half plain old cheese. He told me that it would be ready in 15-20 minutes so we ran across the street to the local grocery store and grabbed a few bottles of wine and some staples for the fridge.

When I came back to pick up the Pizza I found the same gentleman at the counter but this time he was friendlier and greeted me with a smile. I paid the bill which was somewhere around $16 and he handed me the box. This was my first indication of our impending disappointment. The box felt as if it were empty. I hoped for the best and drove back to our cabin which was only a minute or two down the road.

I poured some wine and we sat down to enjoy our dinner, but unfortunately there was no joy to be had. Upon opening the box I was first surprised to see that their idea of "Extra Pineapple" consisted of a half dozen or so tiny pieces of chopped pineapple that tasted as if it were out of a very cheap can. There may have been 3-4 small bits per slice. More concerning than that was the fact that the pizza may have been as thick as a saltine cracker with a lot less flavor. The crust had the texture of stale crackers and absolutely zero flavor. The sauce tasted like a generic chef boyardee straight from a can. The cheese was somewhat sour and complemented the other ingredients with appropriate consistency.

We tried to persevere but were only able to finish about half a slice each before giving up and tossing the whole thing into the trash bin out behind the cabin. I wouldn't call myself a Pizza expert but I've had plenty of pizza in my life and Pizza Mambo easily made the worst one I've ever had. There was absolutely nothing redeeming about this pitiful excuse for a pizza.

This place needs to seriously reevaluate its product and business plan. As a small business owner I realize that my product and the quality thereof is essential to my success. How this restaurant has managed to stay in business is beyond comprehension. Consider yourself warned.

In case anyone was wondering, even though I served her such an awful dinner, she still said "Yes" and we're happily engaged. Pizza Mambo is now just an anecdote of our engagement weekend but its been nagging at the back of my mind to leave this review and potentially save someone else from suffering the same...

I called in to order a carryout on the way home from work. Having never been there, I was not sure what to expect, but I certainly was NOT prepared for the absolutely bland, cold and impersonal discussion with the person that answered. I asked with whom I was speaking, which I always do in this circumstance, and was asked "Why? Who is this?" Okay, I played along. Once I was able to order, I again asked her to identify herself, and she replied "Margaret.... but that's not my real name." Seriously!!?? Not a great start. Once I arrived to pick up my order, I walked in and asked the woman at the counter if she was "Margaret". She quickly said "No" and turned around to accomplish something busy (??). I did pick up on a couple of the people working there, as well as two customers that arrived while I was waiting, referring to her as Margaret, but I wrote it off to simply paranoia. Got the pizza (16" specialty") and DID get a big smile from the woman that boxed it up, who said she thought I might be there to write a review. Wasn't, but at this point I decided I should... So, for a first impression, I would say absolute FAILURE to attract business up to this point. Took the pizza home (5 minutes away) and found it to be a very acceptable thin crust (which I was told was all they offer, and that's fine) with a fairly bland combination of toppings. Not a lot of flavor, but on the other hand it left us comfortably full without the heaviness one experiences with a lot of other pizzas. All in all, had the initial impression been favorable, I might be interested in trying another of their specialty pizzas, or if the pizza was spectacular or even average, it might be worth overlooking the simply atrocious initial customer interaction. The woman at the counter seemed friendly enough to a couple of obviously return customers while I was waiting. For me, however, I've found it enjoyable to return to a place with average or better food if the PEOPLE who work there are enjoyable, but if the PEOPLE working there are offensive or offer a negative demeanor it does not matter how good the food is or isn't, a return trip just is not...

We stopped into Pizza Mambo Tues eve about 40 min before closing. We were staying at The Pines Motor Lodge (great place, awesome rooms). We are from out of town & had to put our beloved 13 yr old husky-wolf mix dog down about 27 hours earlier & were heartbroken & devastated & had to get out of our house to mourn & grieve losing our best friend. So, after placing our pizza order, David approached us from behind the counter & the only way to describe his conversation with us is divine intervention. He sensed we were hurting & mentioned to us his 12 yr old Yorkie dog was on medication because of congestive heart failure. We told him where we were from & what we were doing there because our house was basically a shrine to our wonderful dog we had to put down the previous evening & we needed to escape for a few days. We clicked. No other explanation for it. Our 20+ min conversation got pretty deep & emotional. Thankfully we were the only customers in there at the time. David was really compassionate & understanding of our grieving & had to put his previous dog down so he could relate how heart wrenching it was for us. Anybody who is a pet lover and has had to cross that bridge knows how hard it is. As we paid for the pizza to take back to the lodge with us, David threw in a couple complimentary pieces of key lime pie for us. VERY outstanding! The delicious pizza was just what we needed back at the room. A slice of key lime pie later helped heal the hurt. A HUGE thank you to David for the wonderful conversation and sincere compassion he showed us dealing with our loss. Our dog went everywhere with us, did everything with us and he leaves a major void in our life without him in it. Thankfully I have thousands of photos and videos of his memory we can cherish forever. Thank you to David, our talk was very healing for us and the best thing that happened to us that day was...