Mambo Seafood — Restaurant in Pasadena

I don't understand all the rave reviews on here? It was mine and my niece's first visit at Mambo's today. We were seated in the backside of the restaurant. We weren't asked if the table was ok. We moved ourselves. We explained to our delightful server that it was our first visit and we would need a little time to decide on the menu options. Was very disappointed that a seafood restaurant served oysters on the half shell, but didn't serve fried oysters. (The main reason for choosing a seafood restaurant today.) I suppose my niece and I took too long to decide because no one was coming to our table to check on us anymore. I went to the very front and spoke with the hostess because there was no other employee in sight. After informing the hostess, I turned around to find a male employee staring at me with ojos diablo. I returned to my table and the server arrived shortly after. My niece and I finally placed our order after questioning everything on the menu. The fried shrimp and mystery fish were pressed down so flat there was nothing to sink your teeth into. (???) The cucumber drink was fair, a little too much on the sweet side for my taste. The salmon bites were very dry and had very little salmon content. The tortillas on the shrimp tacos were not even cooked. As my niece and I were eating we both realized at the same time that all the Caucasian patrons were being seated in only one area of the restaurant which just happened to be the area we were seated in. We joked about it and said, "We're obviously sitting in the White Section"!! Hahahahaha ... Will we be returning to this restaurant? Would you?...

We came here for our moms birthday, never having tried this place before. The girl that came and greeted us took about 15 minutes to get our waters and sodas back out. We ordered drinks and appetizers when she first greeted us, and never got them. A manager came to take our order eventually, and I told her we never got our drinks or appetizer. At this point she said that we had cancelled our drinks, which we didn’t. She brought our drinks and twenty minutes later we still hadn’t gotten the appetizer, and the server said she had never put it in because the manager put the food in and we didn’t tell the manager. Once our food had come and we were about halfway done eating, she came back and asked what appetizer we wanted again, so we said we didn’t want it anymore because it was supposed to be an appetizer. The meals came out incorrect, semi-cold, and just “okay.” and after all of this, they still put gratuity on our check. I do wish we could’ve had a better birthday experience for our mom and we...

Wow, where do I begin. We went here for lunch today. The place was not even that busy, so you would imagine we would get our food quick. Well, it was the total opposite. It took a while to get our food and i mean a while. No explanation of the lateness. I ordered a plate that had octopus with fried rice. The octopus was extremely extra tough. I know the texture for octopus is rubbery, but this was way too much . It could not be eaten. The fried rice was also too mushy and gummy to eat. My coworker ordered fried shrimp, which was overcooked. Other coworkers order some crawfish, which was very mushy as well. The food took forever to get, and just to get refills on drinks was an issue. This place used to be a Willie G. And the service and food was decent. That is the reason why we came here. Now, it has turned into a very poorly managed Mambo. If you work in the oil and gas industry in our area and want a nice decent lunch, don't bother coming to this location. That is not what you will...