Roberto's Cafe — Restaurant in Mammoth Lakes

We gave this restaurant 24 hours to reply to our complaint regarding the waitress’ lack of concern over a potentially fatal allergy. Now the gloves are off. (Warning: detailed message)

I have enjoyed eating at your establishment for at long time, and my family has been coming to mammoth since 1976.  I have also spent 20+ years in the restaurant industry (managing, serving, training, bartending) so I hope you take this feedback seriously.

I’ve never sent an email like this, but I am shocked at the “service” we just received. My brother is allergic to pepper, and it has never been an issue before at your establishment. In fact, some of the best Mexican food he has ever had was served by you, and we are from Southern California.

We came in tonight looking to have a nice dinner and a few margaritas, but the server was so rude about the allergy that we left. She said from the get go that we have “nothing you can eat,” which was a surprise as you have accommodated the allergy before (and let’s be real, he could eat a salad or something else there as he is very flexible with a difficult allergy). She told us “when I’m done with everyone else (as a server-she was not that busy), I’ll check with the kitchen.”

I have dealt with so many allergies and diet restrictions in my years of serving, and to have a server say no, without checking with the kitchen was shocking. We mentioned it wasn’t an issue before, and she asked when we came in, which floor we were served, and that we were “lucky” that they served you. I cannot wrap my head around the rudeness.

Since she was “too busy to check” our friend went downstairs, which apparently has a separate kitchen, to ask about the allergy. They were pretty full, so I at least understand his comment that he would check after taking care of his other customers. At that point, though, we were fed up. We felt very unwelcome, and decided to leave.

Considering how many great options for food there is these days in mammoth, perhaps a conversation with the server is in order as that was so rude. In similar situations,  I always said I will check with the kitchen before telling a person there is nothing we can do and would at least present options even if they weren’t ideal.

I believe we have been coming to your place for 20 years but hesitate to think we will ever come again after the rudeness and lack of simple compassion. I hope to hear something back from you.

Thank you...

Excellent Mexican food in the heart of the mountain!

This place was recommended to us by a random stranger we met while warming around the fire pit in the village. About 2 nights later we decided to check it out.

We were pleasantly surprised and impressed with the quality of every dish we tried. But woefully unprepared for the quantity of the bounty that was set before us.

What we ordered: 1 cup of albondigas soup, 1 cup of pollo y arroz, 2 flauta plate with 1 beef, 1 chicken, all rice, no beans and no guacamole or sour cream, and an a la carte shrimp taco.

First and most importantly: everything came precisely as requested.

The soups were amazing. You can taste the quality in the broth and I easily could have eaten these as a meal unto itself. They were both so delicious. Both my wife and I said “wow” upon the first drop of soup hitting our tongues.

Then the main course arrived. And we realized we had made a grave mistake. A delicious, yet grave mistake. And we don’t regret it for one second.

The flauta were huge. I was expecting something small, like a taquito size, that’s the size of flauta I’m familiar with. These flautas were each about the size of half of a burrito. In the picture I included a full size knife for scale.

I cut them in half and we each had half of each flauta. My wife had the shrimp taco to herself.

So once we got past the size, we got to the taste. Just perfect. The meat was flavorful just by itself. Mixed with the rest of everything was just great. I cannot recommend this enough. My wife also greatly enjoyed her taco, but due to the quantity of food, ended up just eating the filling of the taco and leaving the tortilla behind, just too much food.

The rice was also very flavorful just by itself. I could probably just enjoy the rice if I had nothing else, and for me, that’s saying a LOT, I usually find rice to be somewhat bland and just have it to fill out the plate, this definitely complemented the dish.

The salsa with the chips was excellent, and a nice medium heat. The chips was literally the only thing I would improve, and that is a very minor improvement to make, they needed more salt, that’s it. Just a touch more salt.

If you want Mexican, take the drive to Roberto’s cafe. You will NOT be...

Hands down one of the best mexican food I have ever had. It started off with their freshly made nacho chips & salsa, oh my god there salsa was so amazing, it was so fresh and it had all flavors well balances , specially it had that kick of spiciness which is usually lacking the hotness. The chips were hot right out of their kitchen with some good crunch. I can come here again and again just for their chips & salsa.

Then we got the Virgin Mango Margarita , it was great as well with some fresh whip cream on the top. The Mango flavor was real good which felt like it was very freshly made.

For entree we got the Chicken Tortas (mexican sandwich) & chicken Taquitos ( Tacos served with rice , beans , sour cream & guacamole) . There is no doubt that the sandwich was so great with well made grilled chicken, along with lettuce, onions , tomatoes and served with chipotle aioli. The bun was fresh and warm with some light buttery flavor and again I cannot stress enough the grilled chicken was top notch.

For the tacos , the rice , guacamole and beans were great, however I was very disappointed with the chicken tacos ( deep fried tortias with chicken), the reason being the chicken felt raw , I could not eat further after trying one bite. May be I should have told the chicken to be well done. This is the only reason I had to give them 4 stars.

Definitely if in Mammoth , I highly recommend this place if you want to have some authentic...