Anyone been to Mambo Grill?

I happened to be browsing through Open Table yesterday while I was making reservations for another restaurant, and it looks kind of interesting and colorful. Just wondering if it's worth a visit.

Hi,

Happy Taster Gal seemed happy with her choice.

Regards,

For reference,

Mambo Grill
412 N. Clark St
between Hubbard and Kinzie
Tel: (312) 467-9797
http://mambogrill.com/

Best,
Michael

I've been to the Mambo Grill several times -- it's a favorite of a pal of mine and I can't say that I've ever really liked it. Atmosphere is fine; drinks are pretty tasty but the food I've had (and this could possibly just be choosing wrong) has just not been to my liking. And since I do whatever I can to discourage my pal from going there -- I don't have a very recent example to cite -- so my apologies for not being very specific here.

And lest you think I am anti-Latin -- I am definitely not. I may not have the taqueria knowledge that's exhibited by many of the veteran LTH'ers but I'm open to learning!

Mambo Grill is just not my bag. Maybe it will be yours.

shannon

I went to Mambo Grill once about a year ago. I didn't have high expectations, but I ended up really enjoying it. I had the ribs. It was not BBQ, but grilled ribs with some sort of guava sauce. The description sounded a little too Chilis, but I was in the mood for ribs, so I went for it. I thought they were really good--probably about as good as such a dish could be. The sauce was sweet, but not too sweet, the ribs were a little charred and chewy, in good way. My wife, who is Dominican, had the only Dominican dish on the menu (I can't remember what it was). She didn't find it authentic, but she quite enjoyed it. The place was really crowded and loud, but in a festive way. They had pretty good Sangria, which nearly every table seemed to be having. I wouldn't go there for a quiet romantic dinner. It's been on my list of places to try again, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

I work not too far from there and while I haven't been there recently, it seemed that we were always there a few years back for business lunches. It is okay and unmemorable. There is nothing that particularly stands out about the food or the atmosphere, for that matter. If you're looking for this type of nuevo latin cuisine, I think you'd do much better at Mas on Division Street. If you're looking to dine in this particular area, you will find, in my opinion, much better restaurants within a four block radius, such as Brasserie Jo, Frontera Grill/Topolobampo, Ballo, Keefer's, Bin 36, Gene and Georgetti's and heck, even Harry Caray's.

Mas
1670 W. Division Street
Chicago
(773) 276-8700

I've been to Mambo Grill several times over the past year due to my office being near their location. My friends and I enjoy their mojito pitchers.

The last time I was there, I was with a party of 7. We made reservations beforehand to ensure that we'd get a table, MG is busy during happy hours timeframe. We were there an hour and a half and were asked by a member of the staff to "close our bill" due to the backup of reservations behind us. We had spent a great deal of money and were still ordering food/drink. Our server was gracious and slightly apprehensive about the other staff member kicking us out... we appreciated his apologies and still tipped him properly. But nonetheless I will never return.

I encourage you to go there in a small group and eat quickly.

Nice place to go for lunch, if you are looking for sandwiches, but at dinner time, the menu is a bit pricey and restaurant is very cramped.

I've had to go to Mambo several times over the past decade or so, and have had a couple of reasonably ok meals there over the years, but nothing so stellar that I've ever suggested going there to anyone else, no matter what the event might be (I get occasional emails from them, as they appear in some manner to be connected with the Kinzie St Chophouse, whose mailing list I'm on, for some reason).

Apropos of at least one of the foregoing posts, I've always found the service to be amateurish, whether it be the disappearing waiter, dishes given to the wrong people, dishes/drinks not being delivered, being rushed, being ignored - it just has never seemed to fire on all cylinders, ever, at any time. Seems that I've always left mildy irritated, and wished I'd gone to any of the 1,345 other restos in the immediate River North neighborhood.

sundevilpeg wrote:Apropos of at least one of the foregoing posts, I've always found the service to be amateurish, whether it be the disappearing waiter, dishes given to the wrong people, dishes/drinks not being delivered, being rushed, being ignored - it just has never seemed to fire on all cylinders, ever, at any time. Seems that I've always left mildy irritated, and wished I'd gone to any of the 1,345 other restos in the immediate River North neighborhood.

My one visit was marred by my receiving a dish of completely inappropriately undercooked flesh (whatever meat it was I had ordered now escapes me but it wasn't steak tartare -- maybe chicken or pork). Anyway, I asked them to cook it more. The plate didn't return to me until a very long time later, well after Amata had completely finished her meal. The food itself was good but not particularly memorable, certainly not enough so to offset the botching of the initial cooking and service. In retrospect, they seemed too busy to be worried terribly about me/us.

That's a while ago but it sounds like service is still an issue.

Antonius