Mango Rita’s Rhythm House — Restaurant in San Carlos Park

Surprise 75th Birthday Party for Twins Our family wanted to honor the two beautiful matriarchs of our families who turned 75 years young with a surprise birthday party. After reviewing several locations, for their décor, service, food, and entertainment, we decided on the Rhythm House in Fort Myers. The manager, Dennis, was approached and a date and time for 75 people was set. His only request was that we notify him in advance, of the menu selections of each of the party, to make sure everyone was served a meal they would enjoy. Each guest was offered a choice of eight meal entries, from Rib-eye steak, freshly caught grouper, chicken marcella to different kinds of pasta and three selections of different salads, house salad, caesar salad, and raspberry walnut salad, and a choice of whatever beverage they wanted. As planned, the guests arrived early, were seated and shouted a loud "SURPRIZE" to each of the twins on their arrival. Our efforts to keep it secret were rewarded when both were left speechless, standing in the middle of their friends and family. You could actually see the shock of disbelief and bewilderment gradually melt away and replaced with joy and happiness. Everyone was happy and relaxed, except for their husbands. During the dinner, we approached every guest twice, to see if they were enjoying the meals. We received many compliments from the guests saying how good the food was, such as very good, excellent, top of the line but, I was not sure if my guests were just being courteous and not sincere. As a former manager I looked for other signs to measure the meal, which was that all the plates came from the kitchen were full and when they were returned, they were completely empty. Throughout the evening the Rhythm House lived up to its name, providing great music from the fifties and sixties by Joe Marino and the Kings Men. The dance floor was large and easily handled the twenty to thirty dancing couples. The rhythm and singing filled us with nostalgic feelings, recapturing our youth. All my guests at one point or another got up and danced. I would be remiss if I did not mention an "incident" that interrupted the dancing. A man, not from our party, was using a walker to get across the dance floor. Each of the dancing couples in his path politely stepping aside to allow him to pass. Then it happened, no one could foresee it. He stopped in the middle of the floor, was quickly joined by his wife and started to dance. The roar and applause of the crowd were overwhelming, everyone just standing there clapping, while he and his wife danced. The Rhythm House is not the fanciest place in town. The service is good, the food is good, the entertainment is excellent, and altogether the evening was outstanding. If you want to slip away with your wife, or with some friends for an enjoyable evening, I strongly recommend the Rhythm House. If you have a large party, talk to Dennis in advance so he can set aside a specific area for your party and possibly line up music you would enjoy. Roy...

Super sad to write this review because we have always loved Mango Ritas but yesterday’s experience was a deal breaker. Stopped for late lunch/early dinner (around 3 pm) and the place was almost empty with only two other tables occupied and three servers working (one who had a larger party in the back). We were seated quickly, given menus and told our server would be right with us. It took a bit longer that normal for our server to come take a drink order but we chalked it up to a talkative party of two (who were only drinking) that our server was taking care of. We ordered 2 Shock Tops, and at that time she didn’t even offer water but we figured she likely would when she returned. When she finally did return with our drinks, she set the 2 (unopened) cans of Shock Top on the table - no cup, no coaster, no napkins, and just kept on rolling back to the other table (her party of two drinkers). At that point we had been ready to order, but there wasn’t even an opportunity to do so and she kept moving. She finally returned and by that time we decided to skip an appetizer and just order food. Food came out pretty quickly and was as ordered (great job kitchen). Never once did our server come back to check on us during our meal (my drink was empty)…instead she chose to stand and discuss her whole ‘how I ended up here in FMB’ story with the table of two. There were some other (very unprofessional) things that went on with that other table, but that isn’t really pertinent to this review of the horrible service we received. Our plates and drinks sat empty for quite some time before she finally came and picked them up and brought the check…not so much as a can I get you something else from her. After paying (we did not complain pre-check since we had already decided we would never be back and didn’t want any type of discount but our normal military one). As we got up to leave, we stopped one of the other servers to share how horrible our service was and to see who we might be able to speak with and she said our server WAS the MANAGER, so she would be the usual one. I then stopped our server/the manager to let her know how piss poor her service was and to let her know how inappropriate her behavior with the other table appeared and she simply got defensive instead of owning her lack service. We have eaten there probably 10 times in the last year, and yesterday’s experience so so bad, it undid all the positives we have had there and we definitely...

I went to the Saving Abel show this last weekend and I had a wonderful time.

There was a little bit of an issue for me on my seat location, where the sound was reverberating so much that it was drowning out the vocals. I think this would be medicated by adding some sort of sound absorption on the walls when you’re in the audience on the left side of the stage. It was really disappointing not to be able to hear the words. I let one of the sound people know and it wasn’t remedied. They just said that it was a bad spot. But soundproofing and sound absorption is cheap and easy thing to do which I think would really elevate the experience, especially for specific locations with walls that allow the sound of bounce too much.

I wasn’t the only one complaining at my table so I know it wasn’t just me.

All that being said, we had a wonderful server her name was D and she was very bright and friendly. She came around as often as we needed her. It wasn’t a long time in between services, even though it was a packed space.

Where are the chicken strips, the pierogies ,and a bacon cheeseburger, I was a little bit too toasty to be able to properly taste anything. So I’m not really basing my review on the food.

We came really early. The doors opened at six and I think the show was at 8:30 or something and that was too early to come. The food arrives fast and the service is quick so next time I won’t be arriving so early.

I ordered espresso martinis all night and they were delicious. Too delicious. Definitely spent too much money on drinks.

All in all, I had a great time I was so excited to see a live band in a small venue. I’m from the Portland Oregon area where when I was younger music and concerts are a really big thing and big band played in small venue a lot. So while I think that mango, Rita’s can do some sound absorption on some of the walls. I definitely will be back. I’m looking forward to...