Mambos Cuban Café — Restaurant in Jacksonville

I love Mambos. Their food is delucious and made with love and care. I visited yesterday and am glad the food is still as good as it was the day they opened. I am a bit dissapointed that the Mambo sauce was changed. It went from sweet, slighty spicy (somewhat resembled peruvian sauce) to a mustard and mayo concoction. 1 star to whoever ruined my sauce but 5 star to everything else.

I used to work at Mambos Cuban Cafe in Mayport and led the kitchen for the opening of Mambos Cuban Bistro. I share this only as proof that I know how much care goes into this restaurant and it's food. The owners care about every single dish that goes out. I remember every single day the owners would go into the kitchen and taste every single thing to make sure it was always made perfect.

The empanadas are delicious and made in house weekly. The cuban bread is baked daily. Everything is made fresh with good quality products (excluding the ham croquettes, stuffed yuca and stuffed potato). Some of my favorite dishes are: Chicharron de pollo. If you like fried chicken this is a MUST HAVE! Bistec Empanizado. A cuban twist on a country fried steak. The cuban sandwich is delicious. Fresh bread, in house sliced swiss cheese, daile prepared pulled pork and ham. This is a must have also wortg trying with the sweet bread (Media Noche). Grande Chicken Sandwich. Crunchy, juicy and cheesy. Very flavorful and very filling. The Paella us amazing and have plenty of seafood. The Ropa vieja and Picadillo are must have hearty meals.

Last but not least... If you like Tres leches cake this is where to go to get it the way it should be. This is made in house from scratch and is thick and rich. Very sweet but so worth it!!!

I can go forever JUST...

DO NOT ORDER PASTA HERE. TRADITIONAL DISHES ONLY. We’ve had meals here several times before both dine-in and take out that are good if you’re ordering traditional Cuban food. This particular time my husband wanted mambos but I wanted Italian as my pregnancy cravings have been for pasta lately. So I ordered the carbonara pasta that comes with peas and bacon in Alfredo sauce. It was through Uber for take out and by the time it was delivered, I opened the box to find just noodles and vodka sauce. No toppings. Not even the right sauce for what I ordered. So my husband had to run it back to mambos and waited for my actual order. They didn’t offer anything in regard to the mixup. No dessert or comp, or anything. Not even to keep what we brought back. Anyways, he brings it back home as the correct order, I open the box and start mixing it all around only to find a massive amount of oil at the bottom. I mean, it was like a soup there was so much oil. I even drained what I could out and still couldn’t get rid of it all. It’s as if they cooked the bacon and just dumped the whole skillet, oil and all into the pasta. The Alfredo was close to nothing in taste because all I could taste was oil. Absolutely atrocious dish. If they can’t make it correctly then take it off the menu. I would suggest to never order any pasta dishes here, traditional dishes only. Those are good. But I’m very upset and disappointed as a regular customer to have had...

Finally got a chance to stop by and try Mambo's.

We ordered our typical order to share when visiting a new Cuban place: Ham Croquettes & a Media Noche. Hubs upgraded from French Fries to white rice & black beans for an additional $2.00.

The Croquettes come 8 to an order, but they are half the size of traditional ones. The server confirmed they were from a restaurant supply but they were perfectly cooked crispy, the filling had perfect hammy smokiness and I would order these every time.

The sandwich arrived full of sliced ham, juicy shredded pork and oozing of mustard. Along with sliced pickles inside, there was no chance of calling this sandwich dry, it was classic and delicious.

Hubs apparently enjoyed the rice & beans, because when I looked up the bowl was empty, LOL

We never, ever order dessert, especially at lunch, but we decided to get a Flan. Just wow. Perfectly set, creamy custard with just a slight sweetness. So light that I don't feel guilty at all. It was a perfect finish.

Our server was sweet as could be, everything came out hot & fresh & nicely presented.

The atmosphere was light, bright, open and clean. My only teeny complaint was that the upholstered booths need to be repaired or replaced. I was wearing shots and my legs were being pinched the whole time.

Looking forward to trying dinner sometime in the near future, and I'll be sure to wear long pants, just...