Mambo Cafe

Mambo Cafe
3020-4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

I have mentioned one too many times, I have no love for Richmond (*). Sure, there are some good eats but, darn, those crazy drivers… To add to that list, I must also say those crazy architects. Yes, I must be nuts because I drove to Aberdeen Centre rather than taking the Canada Line. But, in my defence, I also went picture taking that day. Why the architects? Because of the darn parkade! It is among the most poorly laid out parkades I have ever seen (and I have seen one too many). I will spare you with the details other than to say there was such a back-up, to the point it was even getting to the street and, as a result, took me several lights just to enter the parkade plus almost a dozen minutes to find a spot. Of course, those crazy Richmond drivers do not help…

Anyway, because it took me longer than expected to find a parking spot (OK, not really, it just took me time to go to the higher levels because most people did not want to go past the second parking level or far from the mall entrance) and it was noon (originally I wanted to go somewhere else for lunch), I thought I might have lunch there as well. Most people must admit, despite it is a food court, they have hell of good options. Wo Fung Dessert, anybody? Of course, that is just one example and the other stands are not necessarily the best but, c’mon, it beats some fast food chains… (On that note, it is “funny” there is a Triple O’s there…). While I could have gone to those places I knew of, there were two problems: It meant I won’t be writing about it and the most problematic issue… There were really long lines! So, I after a quickly browsing the stands, I settled for Mambo Cafe.

(*) – I guess I should start visiting other places as well. Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam/Pitt Meadows? White Rock? Abbotsford??? (Yes, all the way to Abbotsford for pizza!).

Looking back, I wasn’t sure if Mambo Cafe was the best option that day. Aside from the queues in the other lines, it was the fact the other stands next to it seems to produce good eats as well. But, again, when hungry, your mind is clouded. And to make things even worst? I did not order a dish that would come out “fast”… But, talking about dishes, here is a quick look at their menu. Some of them look “plain” (for example, sandwiches using white bread on the top left); others look, well, falls in the category of “WTF?!”. Specifically, check the one in the middle: Spam and eggs on Macaroni? Yes, I am aware places like Hawaii, Spam is popular and it is used to make other dishes. Just that I wasn’t expecting to see it here… Anyway, after a long, long wait, my number got called. So, what did I order that took so long to come out?

This is a baked Portuguese chicken with a side of rice. Why is a dish with an European country name doing in a Chinese mall food court? Macau, I guess (after all, they were occupied by the Portuguese). How authentic this is? Let’s just say this is a case of “I don’t know; I am not sure if I care!” But, back to the dish: aside from chicken, there was also the option for fish but, let’s face it, how “fresh” can the fish be? So, rather than trying to find that out, I went for the chicken option. The best way to describe the end result would be on the lines of a baked curry casserole. That is…

Pieces of chicken, some bell peppers, potatoes and a wedge or two of tomatoes. The sauce was quite thick, almost a custard consistency. I can’t help to think they might be using cream rather than milk to prepare it! Unlike an Indian curry where the flavours might be on the savoury/intense side, this one was more on the sweet side. And, like most Chinese/Japanese people, when you have curry, rice is the default carb to go along. How about scooping some of it on top?

I will have to admit that I was surprised by the amount of food I got for $7. More surprisingly was the meat/other fillers ratio, there was a lot of chicken pieces! But, the dish was far from perfect – it was a bit uni-dimensional. In a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being sugar overload and 1 being salt overload, this one felt on a 6.5. That is, it was sweet scoops after sweet scoop. I think some savoury components that could “break” that monotony would have been great. Or even some coconut flavour (yeah, that was missing as well)! Overall, it was OK. As mentioned above, there were more interesting options – the stand to their right were making dumplings and the stand to their left had Chinese BBQ. And, then, there is Wo Fung Dessert…

Tagged under: Chicken • Food Court • Richmond