Toasted Mango Cafe — Restaurant in Sarasota

We've come here in the past, and it's always been a good experience. But not this last time. It was crowded, but then restaurants in this area know full well when the season is, and should staff up accordingly... but not this place, apparently. We sat, and waited a LONG time till eventually having to ask a busboy to see if someone might take our order. A waitress eventually arrived, with a very hurried, and not at all friendly, "ok, what'll ya have?" attitude. We ordered quickly, no niceties or thank you's from her, just jotted it down and hurried off. OK, not a great experience so far. Waited another eternity for the food to come (the one positive was the guy that brought the food -- very pleasant, very nice)...and it was...OK at best. A BLT nowhere near as good as I could easily make at home (mostly L, very little B or T), and a steak sandwich that was small and mediocre at best. And we never, ever saw our waitress again, nor did anyone ever come by to see how things were, offer to refill our drinks, etc. Afterwards, I got up to pay (you pay at the front counter) -- stood there for quite a while, while our waitress and someone else carried on a heated - and loud - discussion about some "red-headed douchebag" person (a direct quote) they both apparently knew, completely ignoring the fact that a customer was standing there waiting to pay. Not a pleasant way to leave a restaurant... being ignored, while being subjected to 2 employees loudly dissing someone using bad language. I finally got the attention of someone, paid, and quickly left. This experience, from having to beg for a waitress to finally take our order, to her brusque, rushed attitude, to the extremely underwhelming food, to the unpleasant check-out experience, left me wondering why I would ever return here? You need to pay more attention, Toasted Mango managers -- the customer's experience needs to be good from start to finish (not just the food-bringer guy), and you...

Parking Alert in Sarasota - Heads Up!

So, I was all set for a fantastic breakfast at the Toasted Mango Cafe in Sarasota. Rolled up to the second parking spot facing the building. Parking like I would in any parking lot over the past five years with my trusty Lexus. But here's the kicker: as I pulled in, I heard this cringe-worthy scratching noise from the front of my car. Ouch! I quickly eased back a few inches to see what happened. Turns out, my bumper had an unexpected run-in with the concrete wheel stop. Not cool. And it's not just me - there were scratches on the left side of that concrete stop, suggesting I'm not the first victim. The cause of this was clear since there was a sneaky little dip in the asphalt on the left side of that parking spot causing the bumper clearance to lower when entering the spot. So, I went inside to find the manager. He dropped the bombshell: He told me I was supposed to stop my car before my bumper went over that wheel stopper. Every parking lot I look at has the bumper well over the concrete wheel stopper. He did take my name and number for the owner to reach out. Now, I'm kinda in the dark about who's on the hook for the car damage – me or the restaurant. (Anyone with feedback here please let me know) But here's some friendly advice: if you're rolling up to this joint with your regular car, steer clear of this parking spot to save your bumper. I'll keep you posted on what the owner says. And by the way, their food is still amazing – parking...

The food was good but the wait is very long. We went on a weekday morning and got a table before it got slammed. It is a good little diner, but they had only one person waiting on tables the first hour we were there. She was doing inside and outside. I'm talking probably 20 tables by herself. It took forever. They are understaffed and it looked like that was the norm. It was until around 10ish that someone else showed up to take orders. If you come here expect a wait and if you have a large family I wouldn't bother coming. They aren't built to handle big groups of people. We had 6 and there was only 1 table or 1 booth that could accommodate and both options were extremely tight and crowded. Everyone bumped into our chairs and our babies carseat in a chair and we weren't even in the way. People just chose to walk by the wall where we had our carseat because there was no way of walking in between tables. Even one of the girls bringing food out ran into our baby. She wasn't in the way. She was in a carseat that was sitting in a chair. No sorry or nothing.

I give this place 3 stars because of the cramped seating and the long wait to get drinks, order, and check out. Don't come here with a family because they aren't big enough. 4 is about it's max for a group. The food is good if you're...