Mango Thai Cuisine & Bar

Reviews 4

PA

Paul E. Wog

So, maybe it was just a bad night. Perhaps something happened before we walked in there that we werent aware of but, in terms of customer service, something was really off about this place. My wife and I were part of a group of nine people that had made a reservation there a couple weeks earlier. Dinner was for 5:30. We decided to get there early and have a drink in the bar, may try a happy hour appetizer before the rest of the group got there. Meet some people, get to know the staff. The first weird thing was, my wife wanted to try one of their happy hour cocktails. I dont remember the full name but the second part of the name was firecracker. The bartender, a young lady said it was a pretty spicy (hot) drink that had hot peppers in it. My wife said go ahead and make it without the peppers. The bartender said she didnt want to as the drink wouldnt be the same. My wife said no really, its okay, shell just have it without the peppers. The bartender refused. Odd right? I mean if a customer wants a change to a drink, you accommodate them, then say I told you so, if you have to. My wife was a little shocked that the bartender was being so unfriendly. I tried to lighten the moment by saying the firecracker would be a dud without the peppers. So we had some other drinks and shared an appetizer, it was decent. We were having a nice conversation with a lady in the bar. It was about twenty minutes before the rest of our group was to arrive. I asked if I could order some appetizers to have ready for the group. You know, get the happy hour price. It was still before 5:30, happy hour ran until 6:30. The bartender said that happy hour was only in the bar. So I said, no problem, well just all meet in the bar, have a drink, have some appetizers, then go sit down for dinner. The bartender said no. Our group was too big, there wasnt room. Okay, now it was getting weird. The place was dead. Five people, including us in the bar, five diners in the dining room. Still early. Place was virtually empty. There were two large empty tables in the bar plus around ten open stools. So Im thinking, huh? I motioned over at the empty tables and said politely it seemed like there was plenty of room. The bartender said, and I quote, "Happy hour is not for the whole world to enjoy." Wait. What? Our group was going to arrive momentarily. Happy hour ran for another hour and ten minutes. My wife and I looked at each other and shared a small laugh. The bartender tossed our bill on the bar in front of us and told us to get out. Now we were shocked. WTF? What was wrong with this lady? She reminded me of the soup Nazi on Seinfeld. We asked to see the manager. Of course, she was the manager. She lost out on a $400 bill and a hefty tip because of a $3 discount on maybe four appetizers that she didnt want to give us? How do you treat customers that way and stay in business. The food may be good there, I dont know, but the bartender is possibly ill in some way. Not sure how else to explain it. The most unfriendly bartender Ive seen in a long time.

LY

Lydia X. Z. Brown

More expensive than I wanted to be paying for dinner, but decent nonetheless. Good ambiance, decent-sized patronage (neither too crowded nor too empty feeling). I ordered the Tom Yum Goong soup. The server said that the listed prices are for large size soups meant to serve two, but for a small size, I could pay $6 instead of $13. I ordered the larger size, figuring (as it turns out, accurately), that the smaller one would be minuscule. It turned out to be a much smaller bowl than the bowls of soup I usually get when I go to a Vietnamese pho place, and definitely not something Id ever want to pay $13 for. The bowl of soup arrived very quickly after I ordered it, meaning it had been prepared already and not made fresh (but thats not out of the ordinary at most restaurants with soups). It was EXTREMELY HOT. When I say extremely hot, I mean the temperature of the soup was such that after thirty minutes (I checked the times of arrival and every taste test thereafter) AND me pouring in some icy cold water to the soup, it was still far too hot to actually eat without pain. It took over 45 minutes to cool to edible, and it was still definitely in the acceptably hot range, nowhere close to lukewarm. If you like your food ridiculously hot, then it would have been perfect; otherwise, it would have been yet more waiting time for the enjoyment of food. Plusses: The mushrooms in the soup, which were plentiful and bouncy/fluffy, tasted delicious. Also, there were several ACTUAL pieces of lemongrass in the soup, which means this place didnt skimp and just use lemongrass powder, which many Thai restaurants will do to the unknowing visitor. And then there were several shrimp in the soup, a pleasant surprise! ???: The waiter described the spiciness as "one star" (I think the waiter might have meant in peppers, when theres usually a scale of one to four of them), but it was served very spicy (notwithstanding the hot temperature). This could have been because Im actually Asian, but on the other hand, "one star" ??? I dont understand how anyone could reasonably describe the spice level as that low on what I was eating. (To put things in perspective, I regularly eat spicy cuisines and dishes, so Im not shy of spice.) Minuses: The water chestnuts were few and far in between and they tasted like soggy cardboard. Also, the shrimp from up there in the plusses? Still had the tails on them. In soup. How do you get the tails off shrimp in your soup?! Also, to reiterate, it has now been an hour and a half since I went to get this soup and *it is still warm*. Maybe this is a plus for you, but for this heat-sensitive food-lover, it made my eyes run for most of the meal in the restaurant and my nose run so much that I had to ask the waiter for more paper napkins. Ouch. Plus, the prices and sizes of items are definitely not giving you your moneys worth. The soup might have tasted good, but it was not worth that much money for that little of it.

J

J Kenney

We went during rush hour. The decor was nice, the pad Thai was ok and the staff was trying to be courteous, but you could tell that their staff was struggling to handle the traffic during peak hours. I could see them trading accommodation for efficiency- ie, leaving you with a pitcher of water rather than refilling it when empty. Because of this, they gave the impression that they were stressed out and just wanted to get your order through as fast as possible. Im pretty relaxed about that sort of thing, but I could see that other patrons were put off by that approach. The food was decent for the price, but I think I would have recieved a much warmer reception if I went at a less busy time.

CY

Cycely Pearl

This place is absolutely amazing!! I dont love going out to eat mostly because I feel like many restaurants arent truly clean. Aside from that, weve often gone out and been disappointed with the food in general. However, Mango Thai was above and beyond the standard "nice" restaurant. The staff were very attentive without hovering. The food service was quick, the presentation beautiful, the place was pretty much immaculate, and the food was delicious! In fact, we ended up calling the servers over after our meal to thank them and asked that they pass on the compliments to the chef. We will definitely return for a guaranteed great date night dinner!