Los Manguitos

Everything they sell is just delicious! I love their fresa’s con crema «they are tooooo die for»

Redwood City’s best kept PALETA secret. This place is amazing, and although it is winter… I will be coming back… with a cooler no doubt.

Love their Jugo Verde, delicious and healthy! It contains: spinach, caucus, parsley, celery, oranges, aloe, and pineapple. I’ve also tried their Mixto juice, which is also great.

What can I say. Everything is so fab. It’s my first paleteria ever, but the variety of desserts (popsicles, ice cream, mango+tamarind with hot sauce and pulp-​ice, fruit sliced up with spices, strawberries and cream and SO MUCH more), plus all the ice-​cream flavors, plus the consistency and texture of the ice cream, oh my GOODNESS. It’s a little piece of paradise. I don’t speak Spanish and a lot of the stuff is new to me; the staff is always friendly and patient.

I’ve been on a bit of a mangoneada run and this is my third such stop in the past month and could very well be my favorite.
Located in Redwood City, Los Manguitos also has locales in the East Bay and San Jose. I found this location open early (8 am) and dropped by with a cooler in hand to pick up some great desserts to beat the now real summer heat.
Service was friendly and I decided to order a bunch of paletas, essentially known as Mexican ice-​pops made from fresh fruit. Nothing was labeled, but the friendly store lady was glad to tell me what each one was as best she could. There were a few that used Mexican fruit that we’re unfamiliar with here, but for that one she even let me sample the ice cream version so I could get a sense of the flavor. Paletas are $ 2 and are all fresh made and I love the big pieces of fruit that are visible in each one like the strawberry or guava.
I filled my cooler and left happy with the knowledge that I would be sharing some dessert goodness with others. The lady even threw in a freebie because I ordered so many.
I also ordered my favorite mangoneada and the combination of fruit slush and mango pieces topped with tamarind and chili powder is again a winner in this heat. As I waited for my order, I perused the pictures on the wall and caught sight of Pina Loca, a huge pineapple filled with fruit slices and slush and another version of the mangoneada that looked spicier. It’s an easy place to order so many thing because everything looks and tastes great, but it’s mainly for take out with only a single table that I remember.
Overall, this was a great stop. Great hours, great selection, and great service. They even offered ice to keep my cooler filled with paletas chilled and when I find my favorites, I’m sure I will be back. Best part? They accept credit cards, including American Express. Now that’s something.

I was wanting a treat but not sure what so I decided to try something new and drove down Middlefield, with some guidance of Unilocal,and stopped here. Wasn’t sure what to order, so I just went with the «fresas con crema» which is «strawberries with cream». Pretty glad I went with it. A yummy snack of fresh strawberries and a sort of sweet sour cream with shredded coconut and granola, $ 5 dollars out the door. I’ll have to come back and try the mango cups next time!

Love there fresas cn crema fresh strawberry and love the granola they put on top the only thing is a small place and sometimes there is a huge line but to be honest it worth it

This place is solid no doubt. I watched the ladies working look and select the fruits to use, and put back the fruits that weren’t yet ripe.
I had the fresas con crema, but the crema was a little to sweet for my taste. It is definitely a good value for $ 5. You could easily split between two people (though I finished my by myself).
The paletas were also a-​mah-​zing, but I feel like they’re a little pricey for $ 2. Is that cheap? Just kind of hard to justify when the other desserts are so huge and so cheap in my opinion.
There’s always a bit of a wait since the menu items are made to order. Made to order meaning they even wait to cut and prepare the fruit. I personally love that, because you can be totally sure that it’s fresh. No nasty maraschino cherries in gross sugar water here.

Love this place, specially during summer. BUT their new raspados are NOT WORTH $ 5!!! Just two big chunks of ice with very little flavor and lots of chamoy! Very disappointed! If you really want a delicious raspados try «La Nochistlense» down the street, small cart with delicious raspados and fruit prepared while you watch!

Location: Middlefield Rd. Close to the intersection of Middlefield and 5^th Ave. If you’re heading north on Middlefield, it’ll be on your right side.
Parking: like the rest of this street, parking is hard to come by. Street parking is free but spots are often already taken. It’s not uncommon to circle and circle around the blocks looking for a spot.
Service and ambiance: small-​ish hole in the wall that’s not very wide, but has a bit of depth to it (narrow store). The business isn’t fancy, and had pictures of menu items opposite the offering counter, and another board over the ordering counter with some options. Very minimal seating, maybe 4 or so 2-​person tables. It’s more of an order and takeout place. Staff were friendly. One think I didn’t like was, although they had a good number of some interesting looking ice cream flavors as well as ice cream bars… There were no labels! I’d love to try more and be adventurous, but I don’t want to ask what every single flavor is either. And unlike another review they said cash only, they most definitely take debit/​credit (at least they did on our visit in December of 2014).
Food items: waffle itself was good. I have a sweet tooth, but the ice cream with bananas and strawberry sliced plus caramel sauce was too sweet for me. But I’m positive you can order it however you’d like, with less toppings if that’s your preference. I’d say the waffle plate was good, not great. Probably wouldn’t get again. But if I did, I’d only order the waffle with fruit and no ice cream or sauce. Same overly sweet deal with the bionicos. Liked the chopped fruit, didn’t like the drenching with sweetened condensed milk and also wasn’t a fan of their granola. There was as much sweetened condensed milk as if it were a bowl of cereal with milk, except it wasn’t just milk. Wouldn’t order this plate again. The stand out for me was their made from scratch ice cream bars. Some common sounding flavors like strawberries and cream, and quite a few more unique combos– and they are definitely yum.
Return factor: yes, but only for the ice cream bars.

I’m gonna make this quick. The waffles are freshly made from their homemade batter. They are carefully pressed into the waffle maker and gently taken out. The result is a puffed up and cakey waffle that is about an inch thick but has a soft pillow texture. No crunch to it. I had Oreo ice cream on top with bananas and strawberries and caramel drizzle on top. They also poured condensed milk on top which gave more of a silky texture but sweet taste. This dessert is worth it. It’ll get you full and pack your buds with sweetness for weeks.
Try their other selections of ice creams and Mexican style Popsicles!

They have about 10 different flavors when it comes to Popsicles. Most of them are fruity flavors with real fruit bits in them. So you feel like you are eatting frozen smoothie. Which is pretty cool.
The day we went, we were the only non-​mexican in the shop. But again, it is located in the mexican population dense area of the redwood city.
I will go back again for sure. It’s $ 2 for a Popsicle.

Waffles with cake ice cream, condensed milk, fresh slices of strawberry and banance for just $ 6 was AMAZING.
For the portion, they could have charged $ 10 easily.
Ingredients were fresh, waffle was nice and cake like, still lightly crispy on the outside and freshly made to order, ingredients also fresh.
Delicioso!

I have been coming here for a while now, and each time i come this place continues to surprise me with different options and flavors!
The environment is very welcoming, the bright colors on the wall, the friendly smiles on the employees, and the appetizing food all around makes this place feel like a home away from home.
From coming to this place the first time it was pretty clear that Los Manguitos was a local go-​to place, the line was out the door! But the food here is well worth the wait
There are various options, but their most popular item is «The Mangoneada» and i have to say that it is A MUST!
But if you are in the mood for something else they have ice cream with tropical and fruity flavors. Their «paletas» or otherwise known as popsicles are always excellent (I always see people ordering them in packets of 6 – 10) the «Paletas» are homemade and they have many options to choose from
They have many more options to choose from that i haven’t put here but believe me when i say come on down to Los Manguitos you will not regret it!

For ice cream:
4.5÷5: The chongos ice cream is excellent:
$ 2/​scoop. It’s a cinnamon/​caramel flavored ice cream with chunks of milk curds. Great flavor, nice texture, not too sweet. It was a tad bit melty. It doesn’t rise to the level of Bi-​Rite, but it’s still good enough to be addictive.
4.5÷5: The strawberry cheesecake ice cream is also very good:
It has bits of frozen cheese inside, for a great texture, and the strawberry ribbon has great flavor.
The strawberry sorbet is also good.
I tried a bunch of ice cream flavors that I don’t recommend: either too sweet, or not the greatest flavor: pine nut, nanche fruit (watch out for the seeds), mamey fruit, rompope (egg nog), tequila.
4.5÷5: I grabbed a fresas con crema: strawberries with sweetened yogurt, topped with coconut and granola:
$ 5. I was surprised at how perfectly ripe the strawberries were. If it had an extra layer of coconut and granola in the middle, it would be perfect.
Also a very good sign: the bananas they used for shakes were also very ripe (no hint of green): they obviously let the bananas fully ripen before using them.
On-​street parking is limited: best to stop by mid-​afternoon on a weekday.
They are very helpful for English speaking customers. They give large size samples; be sure to tip on your way out.

Great selection of tropical and Mexican artisanal flavors in this unassuming spot. We tried vanilla guava, beer and cinnamon, and a caramel type popsicle. We were tempted by the pico de gaillo and the pistachio! Can’t wait to go back. I can’t believe this little place has flown under the radar for this long. If it were in SF it would be swamped by hipsters.

Our first time here and glad we tried them out. We tried lots of Popsicles (paletas) the waffles & ice cream, Fresca Con Crema, Mangonada.
Best pick for us all was Fresca Con Crema! It’s fresh strawberries with granola, coconut shavings, & this out of this world cream! We all agreed this was the winner.
Mangonada is fresh mangos, with mango ice cream, chile sauce, and a tamarind straw. It was ok but not a dessert. Salty, very sweet, spicey, savory.
Waffles were just good but not the best only bc I know how good waffles should taste. It was good-​ok but wouldn’t order this again.
Popsicles are indeed fresh. I need to try more flavors bc there’s so many. Pretty good tho!

Life is like a whole freezer case of unlabeled paletas at Los Manguitos. So many choices! All so very tempting! You can ask a million questions such as:
«What flavor is this? What about that one? And that one?»
«If you can only have one, which one would you recommend?»
But in the end, you may just have to randomly pick one. I did that. Fortunately unlike life, you will likely be happy with any paleta you pick (okay, maybe not the bubble gum one).
OR, you can just get one of each and take them home. I kind of did that, too. (I got 10 paletas home. Drive fast!)
Okay, now let me get to the point.
Los Manguitos is a small hole in the wall in a not so good part of Redwood City, hidden among other Hispanic/​ethnic eateries and shops. I came here on a Saturday early evening and the place was packed with young adults and families with kids. A lot of customers got these bowls of colorful cut fruits mixed with what seemed to be lime juice and spices. Interesting but I really didn’t care for the cut fruits. I came here for their ice cream and paletas (Mexican popsicles).
They have more than a dozen ice cream flavors and even more varieties of paletas. Sadly they didn’t label any of the ice cram and paletas. Seeing that the place was busy and I was the only non-​Hispanic looking customer in there, initially I was hesitated in asking too many questions. But the girls who worked behind the counter were really nice and they tried their best describing each flavor.
I ended up getting the pine nut ice cream and one of the strawberry based paletas. The ice cream was nice and creamy! The paleta tasted a mixture of sweet, salty, sour and spicy. It’s so good! I had paletas once or twice before and they were usually commercially packaged. The ones at Los Manguitos, which I believe were house made, have a more vibrant flavor. I liked it enough that I picked up 10 more paletas and took them home. Some of the paletas started to melt a little by the time I got home so maybe next time I will bring a cooler.
Just know that Los Manguitos is not really a sit down and eat kind of place. There are a few small tables I think (sorry my eyes were mostly glued to the paletas). Most people just stand and eat.
Also, the floor is not the cleanest. So if you are one of those people who won’t let your kids do anything out of fear of germs, then please do yourself and everyone a favor, stay away. Don’t come here and then write a shitty review because you don’t like the floor.
I can’t wait to come back here especially during the hot summer days!

We love’m! Freshly made frozen fruit bars, juiced drinks, smoothies, and some wild and healthy fruit salads. They do have icecreams too.
Much better than buyin from the armada fleets of the ever present paleteros at the parks and schools.

THIS PLACE IS THE EPITOME OF HOLE IN THE WALL DELICIOUSNESS. Unilocal NEEDS TO DISCOVER THIS AWESOME PLACE!!!
Hopefully the above caps has drawn your attention and will bring this place to the public eye. I wouldnt be as enthusiastic about a place if it wasnt true :) I live in the San Jose area and I always like finding legit Mexican places, whether it is food or desserts. In this case, it is desserts. There are similar places to this in San Jose but they definitely do not live up to Los Manguitos standards. I was heading back from Tahoe and was purposely rushing back so I could try it before it closed at 9:30pm. I made it and it pretty much made my day :)
WHAT I GOT
1) From the photos, the fresca con crema looked so bomb. It looked like yogurt with granola so I was a fan before I even tried it. The lady said that it wasnt what I was expecting but I was willing to give it a try since it was only $ 5-​$ 6. She was right. It was definitely not what I expected. The crème is not thick and more watery than I expected. You have to mix it with the granola and the strawberries so that you are just slurping the dessert. It is very very sweet and I probably wont get it again. It is pretty good but since I dont like milk to begin with, it was a little bit too milky for my taste.
2) GET THE PALETAS or popsicles. YOU MUST GET IT. They are fresh and homemade and just plain delicious. If you are to get anything from Los Manguitos, it is their popsicles. They have so many flavors and I just couldnt choose. They have strawberries con crema popsicle, cookies and cream (Im going to try this one next time), and so many other flavors. The one I got is probably the best one you can ever get. It is kiwi, strawberry, mango paleta and it is soo fresh with actual pieces of fruit inside. There is actually a huge piece of kiwi in there! Every bite is soo good and I cant get enough of it. I was so willing to buy more and stock up but she said that they would melt in the next half hour :(
**TIPS**
1) Cash only!
2) PALETAS! TRY THEIR PALETAS. That is all.
3) ENJOY!!!