Mambo Italian Street Food — Restaurant in Vinings

VERY DISAPPOINTING. We were a party of three dining on a pleasant late March Monday evening. Our bill totaled $105.00. The establishment was nearly empty, with two other occupied tables. I assume our waiter(s) were not the bartender or the chef, but I could be wrong. Two servers were taking our orders, confusing things during the entire meal service.

First, this restaurant DOES NOT OFFER complimentary bread like many other Italian restaurants. Yes, you will have to order bread with your meals. Second, I do not recommend ordering tap water, as everyone at our table noticed the sour taste. We ordered soft drinks, but unfortunately, the ice was made with the same bad-tasting water.

I had eaten earlier, so I ordered the minestrone and grilled vegetables. The soup was tasteless and bland and needed a lot of salt. My order of grilled vegetables came out sautéed, NOT GRILLED, and my plate had water from the thawing of the frozen vegetables. I did not finish either dish.

One of my friends ordered the meat lasagna, and I asked him for a spoon-sized taste so that I could consider ordering the dish the next time I dined at this establishment. The outer edge was warm, but my friend said it was even colder in the middle. Again, it was a thawed-out, underheated dish. He did not finish his meal and said we should have gone to our usual Italian restaurant, Mezza Luna Pasta & Seafood, Maggiano's Little Italy at Cumberland Mall, or Provinos.

My other friend ordered mussels for an appetizer and Veal Francaise for his main dish. I could only eat one of the mussels, and am a big seafood fan. They were tiny and had a powerful fishy smell, but they had a soft, tender chewiness. He finished the meal but was disappointed and said he would not return. He also ordered a margarita. I understand this restaurant may not have the frozen version of the drink, but the waiter never offered it. Sadly, it was served without even salting the rim. Really? My friend ordered it with top-shelf Reposado. His margarita was served in a tiny glass overfilled with ice, and it was an inferior preparation and a horrible value.

We were handed a paper receipt and a pen at the end of our meal. We were sitting outside on a metal mesh patio table. How are we to sign this receipt? Are you telling me this restaurant does not have a guest check bill card holder for the waiters? We were shaking our heads and laughing. If it were windy, this receipt would fly across Powers Ferry. At this point, we were saying, "Let’s get the hell out of here. Never again."

Now for the positives. The outdoor patio uses part of the shopping center’s parking lot. The night was enjoyable, and we enjoyed sitting outside even though I had to place a few napkins under one of the table legs. The other positive was the cheesy bread. It was perfect, and I recommend it if you must dine here. Remember, no complimentary bread is served, and I assume this was to increase food sales.

Lastly, I value or compare a privately owned eatery with a national chain. If a privately owned restaurant can’t beat a national chain with service, food taste, and quality, why would I spend more money to receive less value for my dollar? I inquired but was told the owner was not present this evening. At the very least, do you think my incorrectly served sautéed vegetables would have been taken off the bill? I pointed out the issue to the waiter, who acknowledged the error. There are way too many Italian Restaurants within 5 miles of this location for me to risk giving this place another...

This is our third time coming to Mambo. In the past, we would have given this place maybe 3 stars, but this definitely took the cake as far as knocking it down to 1 and the fact that we will never go again. Lets break it down into 3 categories: service, atmosphere, food.

Service: Every time we have gone, service has never been straight up bad, but just extremely awkward. When we arrived at the restaurant, clearly waiting for someone to greet us and sit us to our table, we were greeted about 3min after standing in doorway and they asked "oh, are you guys wanting to eat here?" What I wish happened was that I answered no, and left, but then I wouldn't have been able to leave this review. So after being seated, the server, who was nice enough, did his normal routine; took our order, made sure we were comfortable, apologized for delays in the kitchen. He was the clean spot in the stained, dirty tablecloth if you will. Our calamari app didn't show up until well after we had received our main courses, but it was dropped off by what I can only assume is some guy off the street they offered $10 to come in and help run food. He dropped the calamari, didn't say anything and left. Our poor server came back in a huff saying "I was looking all over for it in the back, I'm glad it at least got to you."

Atmosphere: The inside of the building seems confused with an awkward bar seating and some tables placed in dark corners with nothing around them at all. There is outdoor/patio seating which is honestly quite nice. What really makes the atmosphere of this place poor is the "live music" they have every night. I'm personally not a huge fan of live music in restaurants in general, however this guy clearly could only have this job because he is some how related to the owner. Playing pre-recorded 80s and 90s tunes on his keyboard while half singing makes the awkward service turn sour real fast. While we didn't experience it personally, but did see it, please be aware that the guy playing music also had a creepy-ish vibe to him and seemed to hit on women while walking around different tables.

Food: If the attached photo doesn't scare you off already, let me paint you a verbal picture. I ordered the most basic Italian restaurant food you could think of: Spaghetti and Meatballs. I knew I was in trouble the moment they set my plate down. What I received was what looked like a plate of just sauce. I moved the sauce and found that there was in fact some noodles underneath. However, they were still swimming in undrained pasta water. Eating it was exactly like it sounds: wet, overcooked, soft noodles with what I can only assume was watered-down store bought sauce. The meatballs on top tasted on par with a certain Chef Boyardee. My wife ordered a shrimp, pancetta pasta with a tomato mascarpone sauce. The noodles were a bit better in hers, but the sauce was very grainy due to the mascarpone not mixing well. The shrimp was over-cooked and rubbery and the pancetta was the only thing providing some sort of seasoning in the dish. The calamari we received came very hot and surprisingly edible by itself. It unfortunately came with the same sauce that was on my spaghetti, but the calamari itself was decent.

Congratulations if you made it this far into the review. I hope it provided some sort of joy and saves you from the same...

My hubs & I went to Mambo after the JadaKiss Concert. It was 10:30pm, and when we entered, I specifically said to the guy, "Are you still serving food he answered yes. We were seated, and the lady server came and advised that we had about 15 minutes. We already knew we wanted the meatless Calzone. When I placed the order, I specifically said to her that we wanted the cheese and mushrooms. She nodded and pointed to something on the menu, and I said yes . Knowing I just said to her CHEEESE & MUSHROOMS, IE ...we are pescatarian....on about 10 minutes later she brought the Calzone out. I cut it open obviously on the end and proceeded to eat it, and when I cut it again, I saw the pork.. I gestured the waitress back over and asked if there was meat even though I already knew it was, and the waitress confirmed it, too. So I told the waitress it was the wrong Calzone, and we ordered mushroom and cheese. She said she would see if we could reorder... I immediately stopped her and said, "Never mind, it was already late, and not to worry about it. My hubs and I proceeded to leave. The next thing this heavier build lady who claims she is the manager came out and took pictures of our license plate, we asked what she was doing, and she stated we left without paying. We said we took one bite and realized it was wrong and decided not to hold them any longer since we came in at 10:30. She still insisted we were wrong. I was so appalled and insulted, as if we were wrongfully taking something. I said, "Lady does it. It looks like we need to take one bite of something and then want to leave... make it make sense... Being though, it's never that serious, so I told them to ring me up for the right one... It's seems to me there was a simple miscommunication... The waitress did not speak the best English and nodded mostly when interacting. The so-called manager was very rude, and in addition to her, another smaller build lady came out and took another picture . When I went back in, I advised pictures that needed to be deleted, the heavier lady said she would, but the smaller build did not acknowledge what I said. Ultimately, I believe they were bothered that we came in at 10:30 and then did not eat / purchase what they brought out. We feel attacked, I truly believe if we were a different color/ race, the outcome would have been different . We were really taken back and insulted like we were thieves. I advised that if you want to be treated as a value customer, this IS NOT THE PLACE . AND to top it off, we used to live right across the street and would walk over to have dinner......