Mambo Seafood

I bought a fish soup «caldo de pescado» twice, for pick-​up, and when I got home there was NO fish. $ 8 for some broth is way too much.

I was craving seafood so a friend suggested this place for me.
Went there on Sunday at 5:30 and it was packed. We waited for 15 minutes to be seated and then we also had to wait for like 30 minutes for the food.
We ordered two grilled Red snapper plates with fried rice and salad. We also had one grilled shrimp plate with fries and rice. Everything was delicious (i just wish if they used more spices on the gilled fish — maybe more cumin?).
I was satisfied with the food and the service. I would definitely recommend it to anyone!
As everyone mentioned the language barrier, it’s a great place to practice your Spanish since most of them speak it.

Best seafood in houston, I believe for the price. Want something under 10bucks, fresh and quick? Come here! Language barrier (spanish mostly) but every thing works out for the best. The patio is my go to. The dinning room is a bit tiny and squished. Only complaint is that I hate places that use packaged tarter sauce. Yuck!

My friends and I were looking for a new seafood restaurant to try. This place did not disappoint! The shrimp Mambo rice and stuffed crab are very tasty! Try the mango margarita. It’s delicious and only costs $ 4! Definitely coming back here again.

Nothing swanky but if you want tasty & inexpensive seafood it is a great place. The servers are knowledgable about their menu and attentive. I enjoyed the shrimp empanadas, very delicious snack or small meal.

The waitress did not understand us very well and was rude. The rice was scorched and did not taste well and as I’m eating my plate I see that the bottom of plate has black stuff all over it. At that point my appetite is gone, I brought i t to the attention of the manager and he took care of the bill but said he tasted the rice it wasn’t burnt… Scorched is scorched and I highly doubt he tasted the rice. I won’t be coming back to this location perhaps I’ll try another location some day.

I love seafood. I was excited about going to this place. I got the mangolava drink… Everything was going so well, until our server disappeared. That was it. Since it was Sunday evening, the place was packed, so I kinda understood the delay of the food coming to our table. But when we just sat there watching people getting their food before us when we say down before them, that started bothering me. We waited and then walked some more. I had to get up and ask what’s going. Finally another server came along and helped out. The food was good, although the sides weren’t exactly what we ordered. At that point we decided it wasn’t worth complaining, I didn’t want to wait any more. Like I said, we never saw our server again… Not sure what happened to her. I guess the world may never know!

Cheap inexpensive fried seafood that is better than your long john silvers, this is some real seafood market fried with batter that is not overly done that you can’t taste the seafood… lots of variety, loved the stuffed crabs and the fried shrimp, the beer that they had mixed with some spicy sauce was interesting but didn’t go well with me, saw everyone order one, I will just sick to my beer/​margaritas

The place is simple and packed, decorated with everything in Spanish. It feels like traveling to Mexico or a South American country (no passport needed!) — 99% of the people are Latinos, the music and TV are in Spanish and the food is the real thing, do not expect Tex-​mex! The food is very tasty, nice portions and great prices! Service is very fast, continuous and courteous. It can be intense for some people … Music, people walking, kids, soccer on TV, etc– you definitely come here for the great food, prices and service, not so much the place.
Did I mention food is really fresh? Do t forget to ask for no spice in food if you don’t like spices (chile)!!! AC is high, so take a shawl,

Not a lot of money goes a long way here. Don’t be put off by the small language barrier!
I was on a business trip a few months ago but forgot to review this place.
A coworker had recommended it to me so I made the drive from my hotel, and was greeted with a pretty large restaurant with quaint décor. I ordered a half order of fried calamari, a fried crab, the combination fried rice, and a michelada to top it off. The calamari was plentiful and the perfect texture, the crab was fried in the shell which means it was fresh and also tasted great.
The real surprise however was the fried rice. There was way too much for me to eat in one sitting so I asked for a to-​go box after brushing up on my almost non-​existent Spanish. It rivaled any family run Chinese food fried rice, and the whole meal was really inexpensive for the quality.
Definitely a place I’m returning to whenever I’m back in Houston.

First time here and so in LOVE! The place was packed when we came in, already a great sign. Even so we were seated right away, and everything came out fast. I ordered strawberry margarita with mixed grilled shrimp and fish, seasoned just fine and very tender. Stole a piece of bacon wrapped shrimp from my brother, it was delishhh! Their seafood ranchero was also flavorful, went perfectly with rice. Oh, did I say anything about octopus and shrimp ceviche, it was like love at first bite!
Overall it was a great experience. The service was good, the waitress was accommodating and nice!

Awesome mambo seafood& delicious and good service
I love the seafood
From mambo I like to come every 15 days i have more friends like the seafood
Thanks seafood and all the staff

Los camarones no los limpian. Sucedió 3 veces y se le dijo al Manager a lo que respondió que ellos manejaban así los camarones, sin limpiar. Hay que tener cuidado porque las personas se pueden intoxicar por eso.

Friday, right before 6 in April 2015, I circled around the restaurant and noticed car lights blinked, and managed to snag a parking spot literally a few steps away from entrance.
As we walked up to the restaurant, there was large tent which were full of people waiting patiently.
The moment we opened the doors and stepped inside restaurant, a cheerful host politely asked in Spanish how many? I raised up 2 fingers and another family walked right in asking where they could sit. She Told them patio. She then asked if patio was okay? We told her yes. Then I spotted someone cleaning up a booth and we were able to sit there.
Orders:
Mango drink and shrimp dish was really good.

Today was my first time trying this place and I was pretty excited. I placed an order for pick up but I wish I hadn’t. I feel like the food has so much potential but my food was so burnt! I ordered the #10. Bacon wrapped shrimp, when I got back to work to eat the bacon was 80% black all around. Once I peeled off all the yucky stuff it was good. But who wants to do all that work when they’re on a time schedule? I was pretty disappointed but I’d give them one more chance. They were pretty busy.

It honestly helps if you can speak a little Spanish before coming here. Regardless, they are incredibly accommodating. The place very casual and very packed.
We both ordered a mango Rita which is loaded with chile and mango yumminess. Absolutely incredible!
For a starter, we decided to share a half order of the calamari. It was only kind of warm, but crispy, however the flavor was rather bland.
For the meal, we ordered the mambo combo which comes with assorted fried fish goodies, rice, and salad. I feel that the oil used to fry the fish was old. The flavored of the various fish were lost, which was disappointing. The fried rice was interesting enough though, and the stuffed crab had nice flavor in the stuffing.
I’d come again for the margaritas.

We ordered 2 lbs of crawfish @ $ 7.99/lb and this is what we got… This is not 2 pounds, maybe the plate with crawfish and corn and potatoes put together is, but not 2 pounds of crawfish. They were delicious but I’m not sure if I want to pay $ 16 for an actual pound of crawfish

I’ve eaten at Mambo 3 times in the past week for lunch. The fried rice is the best you can find. It’s a much better alternative than fries like most restaurants offer. The service is quick as I need to be in and out fast. I got the #1 combo today and never fails to impress me. If you want good food, service, and atmosphere, come to Mambo Seafood!

I always come back for the fried rice and it’s always consistently on point.
The service was friendly and the food came out fast.
This place doesn’t joke around. Straight forward good food and good service.
Try the mango lava!

Never really thought about eating here before yesterday, and now I am glad that I did. So a little bit of history… I have been searching for bacon wrapped shrimp FOREVER since moving to Houston — I used to get 5 jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon from one of my fave spots in NY for about $ 10 so imagine my horror when most Houston locations quoted at least $ 25 for this delicacy… no bueno. So I checked out the menu and was surprised and instantly ecstatic to see 6 bacon wrapped shrimp for $ 14.00 (yeah still more expensive than NY but less expensive than most Houston places) so with that in mind, I just had to go there.
Now, it was amusing when we got there to be told to seat ourselves by one of the servers who promptly returned to her conversation, we shrugged that off and found a seat. We sat ourselves and was happy with the waitstaff, who were VERY attentive before we placed our order but was not as attentive after. Our table seemed to have 2 waitresses which was different and made it more so obvious when we couldn’t get any help after our food arrived.
We ordered the bacon wrapped shrimp (excellent — the shrimp was stuffed with cheese and had a slice of pepper inside) and a side of mambo shrimp rice (also excellent) and salad, stuffed crab, fried fish and fried shrimp. They gave us fries instead of the salad, and when we wanted to correct this error, couldn’t get any of the waitresses’ attention, thankfully the manager was walking around checking on the tables and he happily brought out the side of salad.
The only concern that I had was the fact that communicating with my waitress was a bit difficult because of the language barrier. I asked for sugar on my margarita glass and she repeated salt to me a few times before conceding with sugar. Also we were in the mood for oysters and inquired the cost and was told in a very unsure manner that a dozen oysters was $ 14.00 and half a dozen was $ 80 (???), so I responded «$ 8?» and she said «$ 80» — so we decided not to get the oysters. The crackers are like crack, I couldn’t stop eating them and the strawberry margarita was like a slushie which I appreciated.
All in all, not a bad restaurant, can possibly focus a bit more on the customer service aspect of things but even then was not bad enough to dissuade me from returning. Will definitely add this to my seafood restaurant listing for future use.

I have been on a tear with this place lately. It’s a Mexican fish market that happens to also do a killer fried rice. Why I can’t explain other than I’m now hooked.
The menu has gumbo and ceviche and a bunch of fried options. I usually end up getting the fried shrimp and stuffed crab with a side of the shrimp rice. You’ll also find fresh fish in the case that will be cut and prepared to order; the menu board explains all the options.
I’ve gotten so hooked on the rice that I ordered just that one time and ended up with enough fried rice to eat for 3 days. This is not necessarily a bad thing; they will cheerfully give you a to go container.
Service is friendly. Most servers are bilingual, so if you don’t speak Spanish you can get by.