MangoSeed Restaurant — Restaurant in New York

A friend and I had drinks at Mango Seed and dinner at Zurlee’s (sister restaurant/bar) last night in celebration of my friends birthday. She a lawyer and I a tenured NYC educator. Upon receiving our bill, I provided the bar tender my debit card (I was issued a temporary card yesterday as I lost my primary bank card on vacation and was awaiting my new card to arrive in the mail). The bar tender refused to use my temporary card because it did not have my name on it and inferred I could potentially be a suspect of scamming. Puzzled, My friend and I explained to the bartender calmly my temporary card was linked to my bank account and I had ID to prove the card was my own and not a gift card or scam. The bartender continued to refuse and dismiss my payment option. I immediately demanded to speak to the manager who provided me an inaccurate excuse about the restaurants policy and due to the “high volume of crime fraud and scamming from the neighborhood in the past” this absurd policy was in place. I was forced to use an ATM in a laundry mat where my card could have been potentially compromised to the pay. As a native of brooklyn and more specifically the Flatbush neighborhood I am completely appalled at the actions that took place at MangoSeed. It was embarrassing and speaks to the character and integrity of the restaurant. I have been a patron of MangoSeed for years and never had any issues until last night. It was extremely uncalled for and has left a last impression and bad taste in my mouth. With that said, I will be sharing this post on all of my social media’s and passing this to members of my professional organizations. I was discriminated in my own neighborhood which before my eyes is changing. I suspect if I were another race I would not have been treated the way I was treated. So thank you MangoSeed for showing your true colors. I will never again frequent any of your...

Went to MangoSeed for lunch today. Every employee that I encountered was extremely friendly and walked around the restaurant with a genuine smile on their face. I encountered more smiling faces in one afternoon than a year of living in NYC.

Anyway, for an appetizer I ordered the Jerk Wings; six wings for $9. Slightly pricy but the jerk flavor was on point. Flavorful but not too spicy. Next, I ordered the hamburger. I substituted a side salad for the default french fries. I asked if I could have plantains as a side but was told that the amount of plantains that id receive wouldn't be worth it (I'm paraphrasing). The side salad consisted of spring mix lettuce topped in a flaky cheese (can't remember what type), but I chucked the cheese to the side. The dressing was the star of the side salad. With a citrus taste it was absolutely delicious. The burger appeared small but was quite filling. The burger had a mayonnaise-based creamy sauce, but I would've preferred something resembling ketchup. This sauce ended up oozing out of the burger every time I bit into it. I asked for a small cup of the jerk sauce and added to the burger.

My dining companion ordered a jerk salmon and alfredo pasta dish ($26). Diner #2 said that both the salmon and the pasta were delicious, BUT, didn't blend well together. She ate half of each and I suggested that she take the leftovers home and incorporate both into separate meals.

For dessert we ordered bread pudding. Ice cream was optional ($6 + $2 for ice cream). We declined the ice cream but they ended up serving it with ice cream, by mistake. It turned out to be a good mistake because the bread pudding and ice cream made for a wonderful combination. It wasn't the best bread pudding that I've ever had, but the consistency made up for any...

Yesterday, I wanted to get brunch in the neighborhood. When I showed up at Blessings up the block, the wait was over a half hour for a table, so we decided to walk down the street to check out MangoSeed, which we had heard good things about. This wound up being a phenomenal decision, because this place is OFF THE CHAIN.

First of all, there was a DJ playing dancehall music right when we walked in. Great atmosphere. They have a bottomless option for $15, which is great, and you can also get a large carafe of a mimosa of your choice (they have lots of tropical flavors) for $22. The mango mimosas were everything I'd hoped for and more, and my party of four got two drinks each out of the $22 carafe. That's $2.75 per drink. Come on.

As for the food- I can not praise it highly enough. I got jerk chicken and waffles, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. I'm not exaggerating. My girlfriend says if I bring it up one more time she's going to hurt me. One of our party got some kind of fish and coconut grits. I have had grits once before, in Georgia, at a place known for their grits, and I found them to be pretty good. MangoSeed's grits were beyond good. They were what I'd imagine every piece of corn meal aspires to be when it grows up. My sister got the Everything Toast, which is really more of a sandwich, and it had something called "salmon pastrami" on it. I don't know what on earth it was or how it got that way, but it was a transcendent piece of culinary genius. It was like lox bacon. I wanted to marry it.

In closing, this was the best brunch I have ever had- and I've lived in Brooklyn my whole life, and have seen my fair share of brunches. I will be returning here often and enthusiastically, and cannot...