Ottawa Foodies

My wife and I really liked this place when it opened. The food was authentic and adventurous (and tasty).

I went last week with a friend and was immediately concerned that the place only had a few diners at dinner time on a Friday night.

Warning sign number two was a new, glossy menu with many of the more adventurous dishes missing. It would seem that they are compromising on the vision of the restaurant and have now introduced a hybrid menu, folding in Mexican favourites, and other no-brainer popular menu items, going for the lower-common denominator.

Service was quite slow and they were not helpful with the amount of tapas dishes to order for our table - it turned out to be way too much food. This has to be a core competency of a server in a place that features tapas.

The icing on the cake was the fact that they had the A/C turned up so high, that not only was it downright chilly in the place, despite the open front of the restaurant, but, the ceiling A/C vents were dripping condensation water onto our table - ugh!

Normally I have a 2-strike approach to restaurants that I used to like (if I go twice and are disappointed both times, it's off my list), but in this case, the menu change and the drop in service quality and overall feel of the restaurant (and not to mention that the music was wayyy to loud for a half-full restaurant), has given me my two strikes all at once.

It's off my list.

OMG...this has to be the worst restaurant in Ottawa !!! We went for lunch on a saturday. The waiter brought water in dirty glasses. We asked for clean glasses and he came back 20 minutes later with new glasses that he said that he cleaned himself....they still had lipstick all over them. The food was garbage and at an outrageous price. The service was terrible. The "salad bar" with 6 items was also terrible. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY !! There are too many good restaurants to choose from.

I'm not so sure about the service being ironed out. Hubby and I stopped in there a few weeks ago for dinner. We were escorted to the bar to be seated until our table was ready.

The drinks were fab (we had martinis) but the bar staff were really amateurish in the fact that they were having a very loud personal conversation, most of which I didn't really care to listen to and I couldn't hear my partner talk over it. Ex number one.

So we waited around 25 minutes for a table. That was okay since we didn't have a reservation, we had expected that. When we finally got seated (in a corner...the worst table in the house) we waited another 25-30 minutes for a server to at least greet us and take another drink order or give us some water. I kept trying to get any waitperson's attention but they were making an obvious effort not to look at our table. So since we had already paid for our drinks, we walked out.

Too bad for Mambo because at the late hour of 10:00 we were starving and decided to spend our money at the Luxe Bistro. We dropped $180 there without batting an eye plus a 20% tip for the fabulous wait staff that really took care of us. Too bad for that waitperson at Mambo. Guess they thought those 12 teenagers that were sharing a pitcher were going to give a bigger tip!
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We will not be be going back to Mambo I'm afraid.

I too had heard mixed reviews, mostly about service being slow. I went with some friends last Saturday and had great service. It appears they have ironed out some of the kinks.

Food was quite good too - I will go back.

Nice decor, but the food was not overly impressive. It took over 2 hours to get the food (we only ordered tapas), but the waitress was extremely sweet and friendly and our tummies weren't in starvation mode, so it was okay.

When the food arrived, it was alright -- not impressive enough for me to go back though. My drink was very good, although very sweet (the virgin pina colada equivalent, forget what they call it).

I miss Meditheo but I guess there's always a reason why businesses change.

mar y terra

salmon luma

@ mambo in the byward market for dinner. been holding off visiting this place for a few months after reading some mixed reviews but it must be understood that new restaurants need time to iron out their kinks before settling into a groove that works and finally the opportunity presented itself on a very nice warm summer night. mambo replaced meditheo which was sorely missed as i really enjoyed their greek and mediterranean dishes on a couple of occasions with personalized table visits from the owner to socialize.

tonight mambo also advertised a summer solstice partay which was a bonus on top of dining in style. the decor was classy and tasteful in red/orange and earthtones on top of the former meditheo rock wall and interior furnishings. apps tonight were the don juan combo tapas platter -- mini-smorgasbord of beef empanadas, chorizo tostados, samba meatballs and croquetas de jamon y pollo with antipasta garnishes of spicy eggplant, shrooms and hot pepper. i think this combination worked and was well executed. perhaps a stronger or hotter sauce can be added for more zing to appeal to braver hearts. then came the salmon luna - a generous portion of salmon glazed with mango mustard and calamari rice. the mustard glaze on the salmon was interesting and more reminiscent of grey poupon dijon. it was an interesting combination that worked well and will inspire me to be brave into that direction for making future salmon dishes. i was in the zone for combination of seafood and beef and decided on the mar y terra which was a modest piece of beef terderloin topped with blue cheese, prawns with grilled peaches and grilled salmon with roasted eggplant, red peppers and garnished with fried 'tatoes. despite the salmon being a little on the dry side as we were among the last to order with the kitchen closing before the partay began, the myriad of flavors of this dish made every bite an adventure in diverse tastes. not only was the plating and food presentation was visually appealing, the dishware was stylish ranging from elogated shapes to those with feminine curves.

the service was great for us with reciprocal appreciation, eye contact, and flawless execution. they were very knowledgeable of the menu, ingredients and described the selections and offered suggestions that quickly helped narrowed down choices among a diverse menu selection. tea and coffee topped it up to kickstart soothing digestion.

as the partay started, it appeared that most of the crowd came for the freebies and live latin music quickly overwhelming the sparse diners. a most definite return for another warm summer night as this was a first visit wetting the palate with enough curiosity for wanting more selections.

I had the opportunity to go to Mambo on Saturday evening. It was a zoo in the Market, and everywhere (including Mambo) was packed. We started off with a bunch of cocktails which were really good! As my friend said, for fruity girly drinks, they weren't excessively sweet. Our favourites were the rummba, margarita cantinflas and la vita loca.

I ordered the patatas to start which were pan fried (I think) potatoes with a hot salsa for dipping. They were just the perfect texture, crispy on the outside and firm on the inside. I then had the pepita stew (veggie version which came with tofu) which unfortunately was a disappointment. I found it to be excessively vinegary. Everyone else, however, loved their food. BF had the beef tenderloin with mustard seed and garlic which was served with roasted veggies. While the other couple shared a bunch of tapas including chaorizo (a hard sausage), veg empinadas, catalan flatbread (they were warned by the server that it was quite salty because of the anchovies, but they found it to not be excessive) and lamb meatballs and a mambo salad.

The kitchen was incredibly slow (it took about 2.5 hours to finish our meal), but we weren't in a rush and the server was very apologetic. She was excellent about making sure the drinks kept coming and that there was bread on the table while we waited for our appetizers. She also took care to make sure that we got a table on the patio after dinner for more drinks with a larger group of friends.

The ambiance was fun. The red walls and funky hanging lights along with the DJ spinning latin music added to the experience.

Happy hour is between 3pm and 6pm, order any tapas for only CAD5 each. Worth the value and portion for two. Hubby and I ordered 7 different tapas and some drinks - the mojito is delish! Our choices of tapas were tasty. Our server wasn't too bad but I did noticed that the other servers are not very attentive to people walking in at the door (they were too busy talking at the bar!). In my opinion, food is good but the owner needs to find a new bunch of better servers.