Stopped by today. First time here. And then you is amazing. Lots of vegetarian options. Had to have the traditional Cuban sandwich, and it was great. Staff extremely friendly and service was good. Will be back with my vegetarian wife soon. read more

I'm Bummed. I used to love this place. I guess I knew about it before it became a tv personality. The "maduros" or plantains are so mushy, tender, and sweet that the thought of them put me on autopilot and made me drive my ass to Glendale during the weekend. I'm not sure what happened but last weekend after I'd raved about it to my friends, I ended up convincing them to go there. First of all, they didn't bring us any bread, salsa, as usual, and still didn't do it after I asked for it. (the food was taking a long time coming). Secondly, they served a table of strippers much sooner than us, and while I understand the reasoning (you wouldn't want mad strippers in your joint), it still was annoying. I always have the pulled pork plate, which is pretty good, comes with a side of delicious white rice (no, not the Asian flavorless kind) and a bowl of black beans plus a few pieces of plantain. The pork was a bit dry and with an overwhelming amount of garlic... so dry you need a lot of Iron Beer to swallow. But not so bad. Yet. The worst came when my friend ordered the Rib-eye stake. Medium. When that thing came out, it looked like a brick and tasted like one too. No, scratch that. A brick would've been better. The meat was more than well done, and the quality of the steak itself was waaaay below average. I know better than to complain or send stuff back, (I don't have a craving for spit) but I wouldn't have been able to anyways, because the server was so fricken slow in bringing our order, that by the time we were desperately trying to catch his avoiding eye when we were requesting the check, I was more like a beat down shadow of the person who had walked in 1.5 hours before that I just said, everything was fine. And left him an 8% tip. Which was definitely too much for the HORRIBLE service. So while some of the dishes are good and worthwhile, I'll think twice next time before I ever crave plantain, pork or yuca. And if you are gonna go there anyways, avoid the ribeye. MAMBOS CAFE: FIX YOUR SERVICE. THIS IS GLENDALE, NOT CUBA. WE ARE ALL HAVE PLACES TO GO AND ARE NOT ROAMING AROUND AN ISLAND WAITING FOR THE GOVT. TO SEND OUT OUR PAYCHECKS. read more

i did not have a good experience here. My boyfriend and i were really excited to come here, as we have watched it on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. From the welcome to our walk out, it was nothing special at all. Our welcome was a smug hello followed by slow service with arrogant attitudes. The food was not bad, just not worth all the hype. The worst was when i asked for some sour cream. My response from the (woman) owner was "We dont do that here" along with a disgusted look on her face. what exactly dont they do? i simply asked for sour cream. needless to say, on the spot i asked for the check. Not the best place to try and just enjoy the atmosphere. read more

This is not Cuban. And I just completely lost all credibility I ever thought Guy Fieri had. I've eaten here prior to it being on DDD, but once I saw the episode, I figured I got the chef on a bad night. So going back... Tried the Cuban sandwich, roasted pork, ropa vieja, and the mambo combo appetizers... Everything sucked. the roast pork, black beans, ropa vieja all had NO flavor... The Cuban sandwich had maybe one piece of pickle and hardly any mustard and the pork was dry! Everything else just didn't taste good. What's the point of this place if Portos is down the street and they make amazing food. Hey Mambos owner, go to another Cuban place, pick ANY cuban place, and try to make some improvements to your food because it lacked in flavor, tenderness, authenticity etc etc etc. Will not be going back. Ever. And Guy Fieri you're a great actor. read more

I was dooped by DDD's foodnet work's Guy Fieri. Came here on 11/17/2010 with the notion in my mind that Mambos Cafe was going to be delishhhhhhhh. Wrong!!!!!!! I must have ordered the wrong meal. I ordered the famous Pulled Pork Sandwich - NO LIKE (VERY VERY BLAND) no taste whats so ever. I think they forgot the special sauce. The Tostones were very good. I should have gone with my gut filling and ordered the Ceviche in the platano cups on DDD's show. O' well next time. As for the place it was very clean and has plenty of art work displayed all over the restaurant of famous musicians from Cuba and Puerto Rico. Till next time, i will make sure to write new review when i go back and get the Ceviche. read more

i'm giving them 2 for now since they ran out of everything that i wanted to order. no roasted pork so i asked for the camarones al ajillo and they ran out of that one, too. :( the picadillo that i ordered was ordinary. it was good, but nothing special. the fried plantains w ceviche was also not what i expected on a ceviche. when i saw this place on diners, driveins, and dives, that plantain appetizer looked like it had real shrimp and fish but the one that was served to me had those tiny frozen shrimp thingies. definitely not impressive. i've had better cevicehe from a mariscos truck!! the only thing good on my plate was the plantains that came w the meal, and the beans. :( so disappointing. my friends ordered the mambo chicken (tasted like regular roasted chicken, it made me miss versailles chicken even more), ribeye steak (meh), breaded chicken (tasted like a german schnitzel), skirt steak (ok.. but lacked in flavor). i'm willing to give this place another try because of all the good reviews here. but for now, they're only getting 2 from me. read more

I've seen this place dozens of times, then I saw Guy Ferri's visit on his show and made mental note of visiting. First time I visited, i thought i had the wrong place cause what Guy Ferri had eaten was no where on the menu. So I thought it was a fluke, and went back again a month later. ....nah it was no fluke. I think Guy got a members only menu or something. The Cuban Authenticity just isn't there with the food. Cuban bread should fall apart (that's classic Cuban bread) Cuban sandwich totally missed the mark, the threaded pork was not "Lechon" it was just plain threaded pork, no garlic fragrance, obviously no citrus marinades etc. and I got 1 pickle on my sandwich. Other dished just the same, didn't quite make Par to be titled Cuban Food. read more

Truly a shame this place has the potential to have many more stars however well eating my very dry very bland Cuban sandwich I was forced to stare at accumulation of old cobwebs in the windows that were full of dead dry bugs. Not only was my sandwich dry and flavorless so are the two appetizers and my wifes meal (which was also only Luke warm at best) for some reason it seems they are just very lacking of any type of seasoning. Its very disappointing because Mambos cafe has the potential to have very good food it seems like it's almost there but its just lacking. Then to top it off as we're walking out the door 2 of the waitresses are in the front of the restaurant completely arguing with each other in Spanish very unprofessional. It must be poor management, Get it together Mambo read more

I saw this place on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dive's and decided why not. If Guy likes this place I would too. After 2 visits I can honestly say, why Guy why???!!! I seriously don't get it. The decor was cool. An old gas station transformed into a Cuban diner. But the food was just so so. Not bad, but definitely not good. Next time I am heading over to Portos. read more

Super fan atmosphere & delicious food. The wait staff were so nice & we had a great time!

Came here for a work lunch after my co-workers saw it on Food Network. We work in the restaurant industry, so eating here for lunch was considered research. This is only the second place I've tried that has been featured on DDD (the first being The Oinkster in Eagle Rock, but I went there before I ever saw Guy Fieri visit). The general consensus among the group is that Guy was acting when he praised the place. Most things we tried were okay, but nothing really hit it out of the park. The bread with salsa as an appetizer is a little weird, but the salsa had a nice kick to it. I ordered a root beer float, but it was weird to see it with whipped cream on top. It was kind of thick and I needed some water to wash it down, but didn't get a chance to ask for one. The waiters/waitresses basically dropped off our food and left since they were so busy. The pork didn't have much taste. The garlic sauce just tasted of raw garlic and little else. It very much needed some salt. Tostones with shrimp ceviche was also bland. I didn't like the ham croquettes either. They had a really mushy texture. The Cuban sandwich, however, was good, as were the plantains. The side of black beans was also one of the better parts of the meal. Don't think I'd go back. read more

LOVE this place! It's so cute, and the servers are always so nice. Their Breaded Chicken and Media Noche are to die for, AMAZING. The Media Noche was perfectly proportioned, with every ingredient blending into the next. The rice, beans, and fried plantains always have the perfect flavor. I don't know how their passion fruit iced tea is so good, and they have so many milk shake options! And don't even get me started on the bread and salsa they give you - it's like crack. The only things I haven't liked here was the sausage sandwich and ropa vieja (but I usually don't like those dishes anywhere). Looking forward to trying everything on the menu. read more

It was my first time here and was excited to hear that Diner's Drive-ins and Dive's was here before. Good thing that they weren't there today. The restaurant was busy and I took a prospective client here. Literally took over 50 minutes to get our food after standing around for 20 minutes for a table. That is not good. Considering two of the three of us ordered salad, I have no idea what the wait was for. Not a good sign when people sit down 20 minutes after you, get food before you. Portion of the food was extremely small. The taste was just ok. I don't know what the hype is about, this place is mediocre at best. Service was poor, kitchen backed up. Won't be coming back....ever. read more

Very disappointed. .. I decided to be adventurous and ordered the chicken and rice platter mostly to try the beans, rice and maduros....I was with 3 other people. Their food came out and was served and the waiter liked at me and said, 'sorry. . We don't have the chicken. . What else would you like?' I ordered a salad. I waited for eat while everyone was finishing their meal. The salad was mediocre. The waiter never offered anything while I waited for my food. Maybe I'll give them another try because my bro raves about this place... Not so sure... :-( read more

The adage that "an empty resturant is empty restaurant is empty for a reason" holds true. The restaurant was dark and there was no else there. The food was good and came out quickly, but everything was obviously not made to order. The service was terrible. There's nothing worse than an indifferent server. No offers for refills, no bussing the tables, and she didn't ask if we needed anything when the food came out. To add insult to injury, she didn't tell me that there was an charge for a substitution. She just charged me for a additional side. Wouldn't come back. read more

Not quite sure what restaurant everyone else was eating at but everything I had was fair to poor. Cuban food can be hit or miss considering the majority of it is deep fried and not that complex. We had the mashed potato fried balls stuffed with ground meat, deep fried ceviche balls and roasted pork. None were great, the pork plain sucked. Dry, flavorless and lacking any condiment for dipping. Everyone who works here rocks, great vibe and I have to throw out a 2 star SO I gave it 3 hoping that the next time I try it, and I will try it again, whatever I get will be excellent. Strike one MAM BOS, you've been warned. read more

The food here was horrible...nothing i couldn't have done myself. Very unimpressed. I've seen this place for years and always Wondered what it was like. I heard nothing but good things, well unfortunately i found out for myself that these people who raved about this place obviously don't know how to cook a meal or have no tastes buds. Either way, it was horrible. My soda was the highlight of my lunch here. read more

It is one of my favorite places I discovered in Glendale. The owner's attention to detail can be tasted in every meal. My favorite is the breaded skirt steak which comes with plantains, black beans and rice. Mambo's is unassuming from the outside but the vibe is great inside and the food delicious. Reminds me of my mom's cooking. read more

Always a favorite of our family. Excellent tasting food a d good service. The slow cooked pork is out of this world. Thank you.

Servers have no personality. Crosiets were hard pieces of shrimps on top of hard banana boats, whatever. Food was ok at best. Would not go back. read more

What can I say I love Cuban food, again the Cafe con Leche! Y platanos arroz con pollo!

Great food, got the Mambo chicken, it was excellent. Nice place, friendly staff and fast service.

I should start this by confessing that I am not a real fan of Cuban food. Don't know why... I don't hate it...but it is not something I typically seek out. That said, I thought Mambo's Cafe was pretty good! I have been to a few other Cuban diners in the past... this was the best I have tried. The food choices seem like traditional Cuban to me... I sampled the ground beef and chicken... and also had a Empanada like meat pie... very tasty. I understand they have live music some nights... which sounds like fun... and the service was really great! read more

I love this place. I use to eat here at least weekly when I was a correspondent for Extra sicne it is across the street from the offices. YOU can always count on it for spot on amazing food. I always got the same thing grilled chiken but today I tried the Mambo's one and it is amazing. I love everything on the menu that i have tried. Love that you can eat outside. Love the drinks and desserts and the service. The owner is so cool and nice and the music at night is off the chain. A true gem! read more

Good food. Good vibes. Good service and constantly check on your table while waiting other tables.

not worth the schlep! If this is your local joint, different story...i was looking for something a little moee authentic and creative than Versailles in LA...i tried the tostones which seemed extremely unique...nothing special at all...an over oniont pico de gallo with some flavorless plantains fashioned into tiny bowls with chopped up shrimp...not that good....i will add that I didn't try any of the more typical cuban fare....but I'm not driving an hour and a half for breaded chicken rice and beans....what really gave this place the low grade is when I ordered a cuban cofffee and received a shot of straight espresso with no sugar...laughable and insulting to the cuban art of making espresso! This place also closes @ 9pm...what a joke! read more

The venue was conducive for the live show event i stopped by for. The food was wack too. And the manager was super rude. Not impressed and would never go back anyways because the owner banned my friend and I because he was angry we didn't tip for crappy service. Tipping is optional! I won't recommend this place to any one read more

Love their food... this place is like a hidden treasure. Definitely try the salmon... and their beans... yummmm

cuban food, located relatively close by? of course i had to try it. the decor is "very LA". black and red 50's diner kinda feel. but obscenely quite inside when its not dinner rush. i mean, it was e m p t y. so our waitress was prompt, although not enthusiastic. (which i dont really care for just as long as my food reaches my face, quickly.) i ordered the lechon asada, which is blandly labeled as shredded pork. it arrived quickly along with a side of yucca, which turned out to be gianormous. everything was so good! the portions seemed small compared to another fave cuban restaurant of mine... but i didnt even finish the entire meal, i really tried. i'd stop by again if i get a craving for those black beans and rice. definitely not around lunch or dinner time. or on a weekend. read more

decided to come here with the boy spontaneously on a week night. it was one of our weeknight dates. i have to say that I have had family living around this area for over 10 years now and every time I've seen this place I've always thought it was just some lunch stop for truckers and mechanics. mostly because the mechanic shop next door to it uses its parking lot probably, so with that in mind, I've never been really interested in trying this place. BUT when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to find a nice looking restaurant with a bit of a retro design. even more surprised to find that it was actually busy. maybe it was cause of the band playing there. most of the customers seemed like they were regulars and i got a sense of it being a 'mom and pop' kinda joint, thus upping its likability factor already. so anyways, let's get to the food... we were served BREAD after sitting down. we were both really hungry so we ate it even though we didn't really like too much. we thought it was too dry and crumbly but I guess that's what Cuban bread is supposed to be. i actually don't really remember what M ordered but I know I ordered the fried food special. it was basically a plate of FRIED POTATO BALLS, HAM CROQUETTE, FRIED BANANAS and a couple other things I don't remember (sorry it's been awhile) and really enjoyed it. it came with a very garlicky butter sauce to dip into but I didn't really need that. so overall verdict was very good. it's a date night version of Porto's. if you want to enjoy Cuban food in a much slower pace and romantic atmosphere than what you find at Porto's then you will get that here. drinks, fried food and good music is always a good way to end your day. read more

Guy Fieri, you disappoint me. The service here was terrible!! My bf and I went here because it is very close to my bf's place. After watching Guy's show, we were totally excited to try this cuban restaurant. The waitresses were not that friendly, they seemed annoyed to serve us. It took them 10 minutes to finally come over to take our order and took them another 45 minutes to get our food to the table!! The place wasn't even busy! The service was so slow that I could see other people were frustrated. At one point, literally, only one table had their food, and everyone else was still waiting for theirs. My bf and i kept comparing the service and the food to the other cuban restaurant we go to. The food was blah. Portion is pretty small for the price. This was a HUGE disappointment. Never coming here again. Go to Versailles Cuban food restaurant instead. read more

I am saddened to say how disappointed I was with the food here, being Cuban I have very high expectations of what Cuban food should taste like and this was not it. The ropa vieja had little to no flavor, and the beans were watered down, I can honestly say I've had canned beans that taste better. Dont even get me started on the tostones, brown and soggy. The waitress was unfriendly and very rude the service could have been much better. I am very unimpressed with not only the food but with the experience. Even if I wasn't Cuban, I don't think I would have liked the food. read more

THEY DONT HONOR RESERVATIONS. We scheduled a reservation for 16 people 3 days in advance for my moms birthday. The restaurant called 1 hour before the reservation canceling on us telling us that we couldn't come. We will not try to come back. Horrible management. read more

We ordered a cuban, empanada, papa rellena, croqueta and a small salad to go and it took at least 30 mins for some reason. The empanada hardly had meat in it and the papa rellena was pretty dry. Cuban wasn't pressed had no mustard and hardly any mayo. Not impressed. Food felt like it was sitting for awhile. Waitress couldn't bother to check in on us but the security guy was giving great service and apologizing for the wait and making sure we were comfortable. I wouldn't recommend going on a tuesday night. Maybe the service is better for lunch. read more

Love this place. Can be very loud. We went on a day that they had live music so it was pretty busy and loud. A little small for the amount of people that were in the restaurant so maneuvering around the tables can be a bit tricky. Great food. read more

This is a nice, small Cuban place which was cool. The parking lot is small so it can be pack during peak hours. The food came out pretty quick and the service was good. The chicken is excellent and with the mixture of black beans, plantains, and rice makes it an excellent dish at a very affordable price. I've also had the steak but it was a little bland. I'll stick with the chicken. The next trip... I'll try the roasted pork. Nice and clean too... This is a great alternative to Versailles if that's all you're used to. Especially if you're tired driving out to Venice or Encino. read more

My wife and I are Cuban food fans and we've been eating here for a couple of years now. There isn't an over abundance of Cuban restaurants in the valley and Mambos is about only about 4 miles from our house. For the most part, we've always been pretty happy with our meals. Service has never really been an issue for us. The staff has always been friendly and helpful. My parents are Cuban and I know Cuban food pretty well. The menu is not 100% authentic but I've always been okay with this. Last night my wife and I ate at Mambos and we left pretty disappointed. First of all, after we placed our order, the waiter returned to our table and notified us that the restaurant was out of white rice. This is pretty unacceptable to me. White rice is a staple in the Cuban food chain. It's like a Chinese restaurant running out of egg rolls or a Japanese restaurant running out of teriyaki sauce. The waiter offered a rice/bean mixture (sometimes called Congris and other times called Moros) which I assume was pre-made. I ordered roast park and my wife ordered breaded steak. We both resorted to getting the pre-made rice/beans. The rice/bean mixture was very dry. My roast park was pretty dry as well and lacked flavor. I tried my wifes steak and it was okay. Our real issue was with the plantains. They were totally overcooked. The style of plaintain that they serve is Platano Frito aka fried plaintains. They are supposed to be sweet and juicy. What we got looked like a Platano Frito but had the taste and texture of Tostones which is a differnt version of the fried plantain which is much more dry. My reason for the 3 star rating is beacuse we've had good meals in the past. Hopefully, last nights experience isn't a sign of what the future at Mambos will be like from now on. read more

We'd been looking for an excuse to check out Mambos since we moved to Glendale and after seeing it featured on Triple D, we decided to stop stalling. Why didn't we try it sooner?!? Let me get the bad out of the way... the service was not great - if you've read any of my other reviews, you'll know i place a lot of importance on that. However it wasn't horrible and not a deal breaker. That being said all the food was delicious. We had the tostones rellenos which were unique and really good and we split the Mambo Combo platter which gives a few items of the appetizers. SO GOOD! All of the entrees that we ordered came with white rice and black beans and they passed fine. I had the sirloin, the wife went with the roasted port, my pops had the grilled chicken and moms had the stew. All were very flavorful and i dont think there was much left on our plates when we were done. The entrees were an affordable $10 each and the portions were generous. We will definitely be back. read more

After hearing from everyone and the Food Network about how wonderful the food is, I decided to try Mambos for lunch. Wow, was I disappointed! We tried the "signature" roast pork plate and sandwich. The pork was bland, dry and in inspired. They even forgot to put the black beans on the plate. The only items we tried that had any flavor were the sauce to dip the complementary bread in and the pork tamale. Unfortunately, the tamale had little to no pork in it. Truly a disappointing experience that I won't be repeating. I gave 2 stars because the service was good. read more

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It's ok... I was VERY excited to try out this Cuban restaurant and couldn't wait to have a traditional Cuban pork sandwich. I ordered it and was a little sad that it was super dry, it almost resembled jerky, or that dry bone you give your dog. It was almost sad and pretty inedible. I would also not recommend the flan, the caramel was burnt and bitter making the entire dish gross. On the bright side the customer service is great and I love the Cuban accents! Overall, I cant say Ill be back again. read more