Mambo - Mountain Italian — Restaurant in Montana

Though the food is good, the service was horrible this evening. For not being very busy, the server still forgot to submit our order into the cooks and when she finally did, she tried to skirt herself around the fact that she forgot and blamed the excessive tardiness on the kitchen and how long it takes to cook chicken in a parmesan/formaggio style. She tried to rectify things as our meals were now over 45 minutes delayed by telling us all that she was buying our dessert and to save room for it. Our meals finally came out 1 hour after we submitted them. And our server still encouraged us to save room for that dessert that she or the restaurant was buying since it was her fault that our meal was so delayed. Worst yet, this evening was our son's birthday....we informed the hostess as she poured our waters and sat us. After we ate a portion of our dinners she took our food to be boxed to go and came back for our dessert order only to instead say she would be paying for maybe 2 instead of the 4 of us as she promised minutes earlier. Through the whole situation all we ever heard was how it took so long for that chicken to be cooked for that formaggio on top of it being her fault of forgetting to place the order anyway. Unfortunately for our server, I have over 20+ years working in the food service industry. I have been the cook as well as the server and hostess. I know how to make the very dishes that were being served to me this evening in my own kitchen. For her to repeatedly say it was the chicken's fault for the delay in addition to the fact that she merely forgot to place the order bewildered me. The chicken is breaded and fried. It's not a long process at all. How does one explain to a server who only sees you as a guest who knows nothing about food prep in an industrial kitchen that you know exactly what took so long with the food order. You forget to submit our order and then when you realize it we are already behind the last guest table that came in later......cooks dont want to hear "on the fly" because you made a mistake, they need to hear it because you maybe dropped the plate and need a remake.....dont say it's because that darn chicken just takes so long to be cooked and you want them to make sure it's not raw when served to us. Chicken takes maybe 7 minutes to cook all the way through.......So, dont volunteer the restaurant to buy our dessert when truth is, you never truly intended to buy 4 patrons a dessert for your mistake......which is why they were put on our bill anyway in the end. Not once did a manager come to handle the situation....not that we were looking for a free meal or dessert, we were out celebrating someone's birthday and the restaurant took an hour to get us our meal when it should only take 20 to 30 mins in turn...

I have been going to mambos for years and the food has slowly gotten so subpar. The place itself has lost its charm. The waitstaff no longer writes their name upside down on the table. Little not important things. They used to have the most attentive waitresses and Jessica last night just didn’t care about her job at all. She seemed very put out when we asked for anything. The Boccocini were cold in the middle, she never came back to ask how they were or I would have sent them back. It’s fried mozzarella they just didn’t fry it long enough. When our main courses arrived my sons pasta was crunchy on some bow ties and rubbery on the other I have no idea how they accomplished that but he didn’t want to eat it and I showed the waitress and asked for some fresh pasta, she left and immediately came back with another bowl. You could visibly see that it wasn’t fresh pasta it should have never left the kitchen. She did take it off the bill. I’ve gotten the pasta Ravenna for years and years and it’s changed too. It came out a watery broken sauce. Also our second bread basket was burnt. I was planning on ordering something to go for my husband but the food was just too bad. We got the zeppolis as always and they were crunchy strips of pizza dough, not good and they’ve replaced the hot chocolate dipping sauce that was a thick delicious chocolate that was always too hot to eat right away with cold Hershey syrup. It was my first time bringing my son here and I told him about all these delicious things before we arrived. I believe change is good but ruining old favorites is not. These chefs are new or have gotten lazy and uncaring. Sad to see a favorite go. They also used to have a spumoni ice cream cannoli that was to die for and they killed that...

One of the best restaurants in Whitefish/Flathead Valley.

Delicious and CONSISTENT. Consistency is so important in the food industry. This place is always on point - every time. I’ve never been displeased with my meal - which is - every time - the fettuccine alla rustica (no peas) - it is a perfect creamy dish and hits the spot, every time. The Italian nachos are also a MUST if you have two or more adults. Even with two adults, we can never eat half of our meals because the nachos are massive. They are an Alfredo sauce with PASTA chips and sausage and prosciutto. You kidding me?! They’re unbelievable.

I enjoy the staff. I will say some of them are a little scantily clad, but I think it’s fun and adds a different vibe than most uppity places in WF. The waitresses are friendly and very knowledgeable. Most of them have been there for a long time.

This place is very family friendly - however - very cramped. It doesn’t bother me but I can imagine some people feel a little claustrophobic. The ceilings are low and covered with old crayon paper drawings from past customers. The tables are covered in one use paper and they provide crayons for kids and adults to draw :) they will also provide a small amount of raw pizza dough for the kids too upon request. My daughter loves playing with the dough.

They also provide free DRENCHED garlic bread that is to die for.

Only thing I don’t love about this place is that they are, understandably, always slammed. On weekends and holidays, expect a potential hour wait. They don’t take reservations for smaller parties which totally sucks. Try to go early, like 5:30 to get in and out before the dinner rush. I’d also recommend having a light lunch prior - you’ll want to eat as much...