Mambo’s Cafe
1701 Victory Blvd
Glendale, CA 91201
818-545-8613
I first heard of Mambo’s Cafe on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and it has been on my bucketlist of places to try since 2010. Finally, I made it to Mambo's!
While their location is Glendale, it's not the part of Glendale most people know. It's on the order of Burbank and just south of the 5 freeway. It has to be a former gas station in a former life, but a nice restaurant now. A nice counter with about eight seats and a good sized dining room. They have live jazz every Tuesday.
Camarones Al Ajillo (with Vegetable Rice & Sm. Salad) Shrimp Grilled, topped with Special Garlic Sauce, $16.95.
While this was a very good dish- the vegetable rice had onions, corn, peas, and cooked in a broth that made it very flavorful, the seven medium sized shrimp were well cooked and the garlic sauce had a nice flavor, the portion size is terrible! I mean even when ordering shrimp fried rice you get about a dozen shrimp and most places it's around $10. Yes, I know I am comparing a Chinese dish with a Cuban dish. But, I could do the same with a Peruvian dish-shrimp with noodles.
Service is pretty good. While they came around often, were friendly, they never once asked how everything was!!
I wouldn't go back to Mambo's Cafe. While the food was good, the portion size and price do not make this a good value.
