Mamajuana Cafe Philly — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Made reservations in advance and specified that we would be present for someone’s birthday. Myself and a few other friends were really excited to try this place out for the last few months and really just looking forward to supporting our own community and cultures. It seemed promising because of some of the reviews. Turns out that the negative reviews that I overlooked were all very accurate because my experience was exactly the same. I got two phone calls throughout the day prior to the reservation time to confirm. I’m not quite sure where the miscommunication happened. If by the end of this review you still intend on visiting be mindful that if you aren’t doing valet parking, there is extremely limited parking on the street. You kinda have to circle around a few times to be able to find it. The one positive thing that I took notice of was that they were very patient and kind when half of our party was running late. Something I found extremely weird was that when we made reservations online the availability for tables were extremely limited and when we got to the restaurant, there was barely anyone there. The area we sat in had at least nine tables and only three of them were occupied the entirety of our visit; the rest were completely empty. The reason this was noted is because I had attempted to change my reservation from four people to five people and was given the assumption that there were no more available reservations for that night or time. There is a two hour table limit. We did early evening; 5 to 6 PM. The aesthetics of the restaurant were beautiful, but the atmosphere was confusing. As far as the wait staff, it would go from one extreme to the other. They were either hovering in the corner, staring us down, or they were nowhere to be found. I feel like the waitress could’ve had a little more knowledge with the menu. They did a really good job of making note of the dessert at the end and singing happy birthday while keeping the surprise factor. This was communicated prior to the birthday person arriving. For my ladies also take note that the bathroom has like no AC and it feels like a sauna when you walk in there. There was a couple sitting next to us and we noticed that their food took a really long time to come out and we were concerned if we were going to have the same experience. To our surprise, our food came out within minutes. Which threw us off because the food was cold. Nonetheless, we decided to move forward and on top of it being cold it was also not very well seasoned. It’s always an odd experience when you have to request salt for every single dish that was ordered. Specifically, the yuca fries. They were undercooked and very difficult to eat. The oxtails had very little flavor and it felt more like a bland pot roast. It was giving grease and beef broth. Also, take note that they don’t provide complimentary dessert/treat for birthday celebrations. Since I noted it on my reservation, they communicated when they confirmed on the phone that we would have to pay for the dessert. We decided to order the flan. I know firsthand exactly what it should taste like. The flan had no flavor to it and the texture/consistency of it was very odd. It wasn’t silky/smooth like a custard is expected to be. By the time dessert came around we were itching to just leave the restaurant. It was very disappointing because not only do we dine for good food; we dine for an experience. It’s probably worth mentioning that when you receive the bill the gratuity is already included. It was gracefully paid, but unfortunately, this isn’t a place that I would revisit nor would I recommend anyone else to...

Highway Robbery

Some feedback for the overhyped Latin American restaurant Mamajuana. Atmosphere and ambiance was 100% so I'll give it that. We had a party of 10 the bill came out to over $1000.00 dollars well $1,011.40 to be exact and I feel like for as much as the food is the the service should be top tier. I've worked in the food industry for years so I seen very poor serving etiquette tonight. The service didn't match the price of the food. Our waitress came around and took our orders for appetizers but whoever came out to server had no clue who's food was who's and no proper knowledge of placing. When serving food you serve from the left and serve drinks from the right. Reaching over customers with HOT plates and drinks was nerve wrecking. Also you say pardon my Reach as you clear your food instead of badgering in between group conversations. Very Rude server's lack training and need to be retrained. So now it comes down to ordering dinner I choose the OXTAIL FETTUCCINE the meal that everyone was hyping up. Now for someone who is of Caribbean decent i wanna say that this meal is OKAY. So the oxtail not bad but It definitely needed more sauce and it was cold . I felt like it was a choking hazard. VERY DRY.and it's fettuccine so there was no cheese. It was basically oxtail dumped on top of noodles with lack of sauce and it was missing my piece of bread. Also for my appetizer I got a ceaser salad that had more of the big chunks of the white part of the lettuce. Also pictured served with a garlic crostini but no crostini in my salad but everyone else had one in their salads when I said something 10 minutes later they brought out 5 pieces with butter and melted cheese for me. Not what originally supposed to come with the salad but it was accommodating. And also I asked for some extra oxtail gravy for the pasta so it would be less dry and also for the garlic bread that was supposed to come with my oxtail fettuccine and that took almost 20 minutes and still nothing. When I asked my waitress again for the 3rd time she came out with 4 pieces of cold dry bread with no butter or garlic and still no EXTRA SAUCE FOR THE OXTAIL FETTUCCINE VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!! At that point I wanted it taken of the bill which they did accommodate but I had high hopes for this place but it let me down. With the very poor service. Lastly people are very visual alot go on your online menus and social media platforms to see a Vision of what they want to order. My espresso pineapple drink definitely was good presentation not good came out in a mule cup wasn't what It looked like on the menu . No coffee beans on top no pineapple just a piece of brown pineapple skin in the ice that i told them to go very light on.

So my overall view is if your gonna come big on the prices they better match the description. Go big or go home i don't mind paying but service is key this business won't last long If the workers are incompetent.

$16.00 for a ceaser salad with no protein and BIG CHUNKS of the white part of the lettuce barely no lettuce

$32.00 for OXTAIL FETTUCCINE with cold oxtail and no bread and very dry lacking sauce

$18.00 for espresso pineapple drink iced down lack of alcohol not fancy looking like the menu shows Prices not matching the hype 😒.

Oh and the tres leches for the birthday hype dance and singing i think that we were charged either $12 or $14

Not gonna be in business long if you continue to take people's money and not better your service and food quality.

Valet parking $25

In the pictures I posted is what you see online vs what u actually...

I had such a surprisingly unpleasant experience at this restaurant today and am still upset at how I was treated!

When we arrived for brunch, the first thing we were told is our table was only reserved for 2 hours. Okay no problem! We didn’t anticipate staying that long for a party of 3.

When asking for drinks, I was told they didn’t have orange juice any longer. (Brunch on a Sunday???) The waitress offered no other juice solutions or substitutions. We took water as a group as she tried to upsell us alcohol.

I had to ask if there was any juice available at all or any appetizers on her next visit to the table. Was told yes to the juice and no to the appetizers. Another shocking moment for such a large restaurant offering brunch.

After putting our order in for our food, we didn’t receive it until an hour later for a small party of 3. I ordered a burger & fries, my friend got a tres golpes, and the other steak and egg. Nothing extravagant.

Once the food arrived I got to work on my fries right away because we were starving at this point and the fries were fresh.

Right after we got our food they asked us if they could push our table all the way down so they could fit in a larger party. At this point we were less than a foot away from either table on both sides. To the point where when people at the other tables stood up their behinds were right next to your face. Not a pleasant experience when eating.

After the table request interruption, I took about 3-4 “outside” bites of my burger. Important to note that I ordered my burger well done. I had waited to dig into the burger until I finished my fries. After these bites, I couldn’t stomach anymore without gagging. The inside of my burger was hot pink & borderline raw.

We asked the host gentleman to inform our waitress we needed her attention because she had not been by in a few minutes. He replied “she’s doing birthdays but will be over when she’s finished”

The restaurant decided to do about 6-7 birthday celebration dances in a row where our waitress was MIA for over 15 minutes. I guess management felt this was the customers fault.

When she finally came back over, we brought the issue of my undercooked burger to her attention and her immediate response was “Oh that’s the bacon.” When I opened it up and showed her, her response was “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” After asking for her attention over 15 minutes ago!!! Again, the fact that we had to wait was somehow our fault.

She took my concern back to her manager. She came back and said “I told my manager and he said because it’s been so long there’s nothing we can do. Why didn’t you tell me earlier??” Clearly what we have explained was not sufficient for them. She offered to have the burger remade (which would take another 20 minutes and we had already reached the 2 hour mark) I declined and she offered a complimentary dessert instead of removing the meal or offering a discount.

The dessert was a tiny portion but appreciated the gesture at the very least.

HORRIBLE service and management. Would seriously never recommend this place for a quality meal. The only positive they have is their decor.

Find another place for your stomach and...