Cafe Mambo — Restaurant in Maui

Local people BEWARE. We came to Maui to visit family and wanted to try some food down the road from their house in Paia. Which was unfortunately our biggest mistake this trip. We are severely disappointed in the service we received. When we first arrived we were looking at the menu they have placed on their door. After deciding what we wanted we waited in the front to be seated as per their sign. We stood there for 5 minutes without any acknowledgement. Finally the guy waiter asked if we were going to eat there. After being seated, the staff ignored us for 15 minutes. Then gave us water and proceeded to walk away. It was not busy at all, as there were only 2 other small tables of customers/tourists in the restaurant. We kept looking up to show that we were ready to order but they still ignored us. When we finally got to order the lady there asked, " What do you want?" Like we were being an inconvenience to her. Being hopeful that the food would be much better than the service we were receiving, we ordered and she quickly walked away. At that time 2 more sets of tourists/customers came in and the guy waiter quickly acknowledged them and sat them down right away and brought them water with a smile. Gave them a minute to review the menu and promptly placed their order. They received their food before ours. When we finally received ours it looked pretty appetizing, at first. I ordered a shrimp special and the sauce was oily and had a bitter after taste. I ate it all as it was almost $18 for a measly 6 small pieces of shrimp. My tutu ordered onion rings. When we bit into the onion rings some were doughy/undercooked and some were hard/over cooked. Which made us lose our appetite quickly. My tutu also asked the guy waiter multiple times for a refill on her water and he ignored her. He started pouring beers and more water for the other tables and never filled hers. She only ate 3 pieces of the onion rings and left the rest. At this point I became really upset, so we paid and left. I do not recommend this place for any locals to go here. The staff is rude, the service is slow, the atmosphere is off putting and the food was disappointing.

*EDIT: It's just sad to see that a business would rather hide behind a fake review to cover up their bad service instead of apologizing and taking accountability. I may never get an apology, but I hope in the future they can serve every customer equally and take customers' feedback seriously, so they can learn and grow from...

We come here at least once a year and usually get the duck fajitas which are amazing. I think this year we strayed off the beaten path too far. My partner got the fish sandwich and she said it was flavorless and dull. She was also suprised she got the top of the tomato and they didn't bother to remove the core from it. I got the mambo nachos and added duck. It was mediocre at best, the duck was nice and crispy but the beans look liked the can wasn't rinsed and drained. The amount of cheese was not substantial enough to call it nachos. I think calling it chips with a cheese dusting would be more fair. Just about everytime I have ordered nachos, even at a dive bar they layer the chips with cheese between layers. This just had topping placed on top. So after the top chip are eaten your pretty much just have a plate of chips. The last part of the nachos which seem quite a conundrum to me is that the guacamole was mostly filler of white and red onions. This island has avacado trees everywhere growing like weeds, they are redicously abundant and I just had like one scoop of guac on my plate. This first came apparent when I ordered a side dish of guac for my 15 month daughter who LOVES avacado. She usually just holds one chip and just scoops up and eats it. It had so much onion in it she wouldn't even touch it. I have photos of this baby with her face entirely covered in guac shovelling it in by the handful, not this time. The son however got a Duck burger and was very happy with it, the shoestring fries were...

As with any heavily touristed town coupled with the high demand for a steady employee, Cafe Mambo displays it's quality in typical fashon. Having lived on a small tourist island in Washington State, one gets to know the signs of a good menu and intentions for folksy quality suffer from having a staff that doesn't share the initial mission statement of the original owners. I had eaten at Cafe Mambo 11 years ago when it was a fresh new establishment with owners and staff that were clearly into their work. I had the crispy duck burger which was amazing! The fries and sides seemed that they didnt fall off the cheapest part of a food distribution truck and the staff was genuinely into their jobs, providing excellent service. Again, totally understandable that this quality tarnishes over time, given the high cost of food, the ever increasing building lease and the even more daunting task of keeping your product fresh and desirable. While the crispy duck burger was still good, it seemed the other key ingredients, the bun, the condiments, the fries, the service was reduced to the lowest common and mildly surley denominator. Tourists rarely care about quality much. Maybe the romanticism of being in such a beautiful setting makes the food taste better for them? At least I still have that first 5 star experience locked in my head. Otherwise, I'll have to sum up my experience at cafe Mambo like most bloggers do these...