Mango Mike’s

I love the convenience of going here because its close to my house and I enjoy their beach theme– its like an escape from the real world with the tropical theme. I usually just go to bar and have only eaten here a few times.
This time I went for drinks but my friend wanted to eat something before heading to the gym. She’s very health conscious and for that reason she ordered a chicken sandwich. When she ordered through the bartender he was very unhappy that she asked if there was a way to have a small salad on the side instead of fries and coleslaw (fried food & mayo). The bartender looked at us with disgust and said «no you can only have coleslaw and french fries»
I thought it was horrible service for the fact that we wasn’t willing to work with her at all so she got her chicken sandwich with no sides. When my girlfriend had finished eating a different FRIENDLIER bartender came over, took her plate and asked if we wanted anything else to drink. My only real question was I wonder if this bartender took her order if he was willing to work with us a little more.

Last night was my first time at Mango Mike’s and I was not impressed. Warning: the corn pudding is definitely not corn pudding its actually cornbread. However the fried tilapia was delish. The mixed drinks are ok. Wait staff – decent

We passed this place while driving around, waiting for Port City to open.
Now, we figured we’d be in for some cheesiness just from looking at the exterior. Little did we know…
They really went overboard w/​the whole Caribbean theme, it was a bit painful. And in disrepair, I might add.
Since we knew we had somewhere else we were waiting to go we decided to have just one drink. My husband choose to try the Mango Mikes brew (a Lagaunitas product), and I opted for their signature marg. Man I wish Id gotten a beer. Their frozen marg is… pretty when you get it. They definitely dress it up. As for the actual drink? Probably one of the worst margs Ive ever had and Im including the likes of places like Dicks and Fat Tuesdays as well as any experimental margs we may have made back in my college days. It was very very tart, had barely any booze, and was completely melted w/​in 15 minutes.
The bartender we had couldve cared less if we were there or not. Watching and hearing how this staff (5 or 6 of them had converged behind one part of the bar at one point) conversed w/​each other about the place and customers seated out of ear shot was like watching the hidden camera portions of a show like Mystery Diners. They clearly didnt care to be there. Funny, I dont ever care to step foot in this place again either.
Oh, and all 3 of the womens stalls hadnt been flushed and couldnt be. Just… ew.

I raved about this place for years. My friend and I used to hang out on the patio and order appetizers and drinks.
I took my boyfriend here for dinner tonight, of course he had high expectations since I told him how awesome this restaurant/​bar was for years.
We sat outside and ordered the piña colada, the rum shooter, and the parrot drink. All were good and the weather was nice.
It was at least 10 – 15 minutes until our waitress took our order and then the waiting began. Time after time we watched meals be delivered to the wrong table, we actually never saw a single plate delivered to the right table right away. Other customers were constantly trying to get our waitress’ attention for refills, condiments, and checks.
The food was pretty blah, lacking flavor. We had our clear, dirty plates sitting in front of us for at least 15 minutes until our waitress stopped by.
Since I was still hungry, I asked to see the dessert menu, just getting the menu was a 10 minute wait and then it was another 10 minutes until a tiny piece of chocolate cake was delivered to our table… of course it actually was delivered to the table next to us first.
Our dinner for two took over 2 hours! Awful service, I don’t know if I’m willing to go back.
It looks like other reviewers feel the same way… this place used to be a lot better.

This restaurant was pretty nice, the drinks were great, the food was good, and the service was awesome.

I like Mango Mike’s. I really do. I think this is a fun knock off of Bahama Breeze without the massive wait and it has a patio! It has been a while that I’ve been wanting to try it out. I just happened to be down on Duke Road and took the opportunity to stop in.
This is what I know — they’ve got super cheap appetizers and drinks. I got my frozen mangorita for $ 4.95. I opted for it since it was on the lower price end of things. I typically don’t like frozen margaritas since I am a traditional girl, but here was the one exception to the rule.
For my dinner I got a cup of clam chowder and Caesar salad. I wasn’t just dying of hunger either. Plus the mangorita kind of was heavy on my stomach. I am not sure how that was possible, and for what it is worth, the alcohol content isn’t strong at all. I didn’t feel a thing.
They had a guy outside on the patio strumming on his guitar and singing which he had pretty good talent. I opted to sit at the bar inside since I didn’t want to be in the crowd outside and service was scarce going out there for what I saw.
The evening was busy for dinner time. It was not overwhelming luckily. The bartender told me the place gets super packed later in the evening since they do salsa dancing here. Who would have thought! I will need to return just to see what that’s about.

This was my first time and I was pleased. I had the nachos for my appetizer and it was good. I added chicken for $ 2.00 more. For my entrée, I ordered Blackened Tilapia and it was seasoned well. I am not a fish person but I liked it. It came with Jerk Ginger Honey sauce and that was great, there was no need to dip my fish in but it was a great addition. My husband had the fried oysters, he ate every bite. For his entrée he had the Seafood Platter and he seemed pleased. He didn’t say but he was eating it as he was. :)
I would go again but next time leave out the nachos so I can enjoy my entrée.
Oh, I forgot my frozen drink (I forget the name) was good too. It was a Mangorita I think.

Good grub, good drinks. Fun place on the weekends.

The faux Caribbean atmosphere is tired and threadbare. Sucks the party right out of you to walk in. The food is equally as tired. The blandest sea scallops I’ve ever had. The entire meal was just «meh.» But the hush puppies were VERY good, and those were free. The drinks are watered down and the desserts very sad. The key lime pie had some weird cinnamon sauce added to it. WHY RUIN GOOD KEY LIME PIE WITH AN UNNECESSARY «SAUCE»?!
Party elsewhere. With all the great restaurants in this foodie town, why go somewhere that hasn’t made an effort since 1985?

Hands down the worst food in Alexandria. The drinks were tasty but weak as hell. Everything was salty and sloppy and just plain gross. I hear the happy hour is good and maybe that’s true but don’t ever, ever eat here.

Came here with a group of ladies to have lunch. Walked in and immediately thought this place needed a visit from Robert Irvine because this restaurant needs a makeover… IMMEDIATELY. Walls painted bright pink and teal, huge fish tanks, tvs from the 1990s, lais, coconut drinks… CHEESY. I was a little apprehensive because when I think cheesy, I think food poisoning but, the food was actually good here.
We started off with the calamari appetizer to share and complimentary hush puppies. I have to admit, this was some of the best calamari I had in a long while. Huge chunks of squid lightly breaded and fried. YUM. The hush puppies were okay… a bit too greasy and sweet for me but, the ladies seemed to enjoy them. We also ordered some cocktails and my margarita was pretty good… not too sweet, not too tart and just enough alcohol.
The menu was pretty limited because they used the same menu for lunch & dinner… so you can imagine the portions were pretty big. My friend and I split the Crab Cake dinner and thank goodness we did that because the crab cakes were pretty big. All crab meat, no filler. YUM. I was impressed. For my side dish, I ordered corn pudding… take it from me… dont ever order it. Hardly any flavor and it looked pretty sad. Just dont… please.
The wait staff was ho-hum…seemed like they weren’t excited to be working at Mango Mikes but, they were very friendly.
Would I come here again? Probably not.

We’ve visited this restaurant twice.
First visit, we ordered 2 chicken sandwiches and a couple of beverages. The sandwiches, served with grilled pineapple and a ginger glaze, were delicious. We swore we’d come back for them, and did.
We tried a few more times to catch them during lunch hours, but they seem to be closed during those hours, most days.
We went back again this evening, craving those chicken sandwiches. My fiancé’s sandwich arrived undercooked, still oozing pink juices. When she pointed this out to our server, the server asked «oh, you like it well done?»…
YES. ALL chicken is supposed to be served fully cooked. We’re not discussing beef. Welcome to working in a restaurant!
They brought out a new sandwich which was cooked properly, but this time the bun was completely soaked through. On both sandwiches, the ‘grilled’ pineapple had clearly been pre-​grilled earlier in the day and had that extra ‘sheen’ to it’s texture that occurs when it sits out for too long. Also, some of the pineapple’s pointy skin managed to make it past the slicing process and into our sandwiches.
As an appetizer, we ordered coconut shrimp, which upon arrival tasted as though it was cooked in oil that was burned and/​or several days old.
We probably won’t be back.

Came on a Sunday for their all you can eat sunday brunch.
1) the bartender was creepy and misquoted me on the price of the brunch.
2) the hostess definitely had that vibe that she wanted to be any where than there
3) the food was TERRIBLE. I only went for one round. I don’t know how you can mess up eggs, bacon, and sausage, but there was just a strange aftertaste with every single item I ate.
4) you come out smelling like the food. despite sitting as far away from the stations as one can, I felt an oily sheen on my face when I left and while I was there.
despite the interesting décor (completely decked to present a beach bar vibe), I would not return on the bad eggs alone.

At half the price, this place might rate 2 stars. But I was shocked when I got the bill for $ 65 for 2 (with one glass of wine). The food is just barely passable. Frankly, it tastes like its all served out of 55 gallon drums. Its all industrialized, mass produced versions of what’s listed on the menu. It reminds of bad chinese delivery in that way.
And to boot, the décor in this place is dated and cheesy.
Maybe at one time this place was a fun place to go but it just seems tired to me.
The one good thing I can say is the service was great. Our waitress was working he butt off tending to her tables. Good job there.

We met a friend here for dinner and were very underwhelmed. The atmosphere is island kitch but could work had the service and food been better. Though the place was not packed, the waitress kept asking us if we were ready to order which was very annoying. She did not follow cues that we were old friends catching up and were in no rush to order the minute we sat down, as no one had picked up the menus.
I had the seafood creole which was good but, but they use frozen fish rather than fresh. My friend had the salmon, and later reported a mild stomach issue. Hubby’s steak was good, but the vanilla mashed potatoes had a sickeningly sweet flavor and a bad aftertaste. Really weird.
If you’re coming here to drink, BEWARE. I ordered Grey Goose with seltzer, and the bartender did NOT use Grey Goose, but a cheaper brand, and charged us for GG. The drink was REALLY WEAK too. I was surprised that the drinks were so watered down, considering they hype up the drinks here. Would not return.

Mango Mike’s has lively Caribbean-​themed décor, including murals on the high walls and bright colors all around. The rice is perfectly cooked (which for some reason — probably my own continued failure in this area — has started to stand out to me recently). And the atmosphere is entertaining when there are crowds.
Otherwise, the story’s not as good. I don’t find the food very flavorful at all. The mixed drinks — of which they have several, which are Caribbean-​themed and delivered in take-​home souvenir glasses — are very watered down. And when there aren’t many people, the large restaurant just seems empty, quiet, and spiritless. Most of that is not really much of a change from the past. However, the saving grace of Mango Mike’s has always been the outstanding hush puppies served before the meal — these alone would have rated them an additional star from me; unfortunately, now even those have lost their luster. It seems like the restaurant’s using a different, very uninteresting recipe for them, which is very sad. (I haven’t been in a couple years, so I don’t know when this might have occurred.) Without the quality hush puppies, there’s no reason for me to return.

1 star for service: There was a group of 22 of us that came in for dinner at 8pm. The service was terrible. We had to go up to the bar to get our own menu, she never brought me drinks, she didn’t bring my food, she didn’t bring me a plate or silverware, she never asked if I wanted refills. It was appalling. She would only ever go to one end of the table which was 5 seats away from my seat. She was very unfriendly and was telling us how unprepared she was for a party of that size and that there wasn’t anyone to help her. Keep in mind that we had reservations two days in advance. Moving on to the bar tenders. They were much better at making drinks than the waitress was at serving tables but still, not very nice or inviting attitudes. It pained me to leave 15% tip.
1 star for food: I ordered the seafood nachos which were completely disgusting. I shared them with another person and we maybe only ate about 10 chips total. The cheese was greasy and bland, the crab meat tasted like it was just dumped on top straight out of a can, it was cold, it was soggy, and it smelled bad. I had to ask what was drizzled on top and was told it was sour cream. It was runny and drizzled on top like it came straight out an icing piping bag. There were some other members of the party that ordered regular nachos but were delivered the seafood nachos. There were not given what they ordered or offered a discount. I noticed that many people left with half their food on their plate.
1 one star for atmosphere: We picked this place intentionally so that we could stay and dance or just relax and have a nice time but everyone was so terribly irritated by the time we FINALLY got out food that we got out as soon as we could. Also, during dinner, there was absolutely no music playing, even by the time we were done at about 9:30 (it took an hour for our food).
If I were Mango Mike I would seriously evaluate my staff and menu. With a large group like we had, we would have easily spent $ 500 more if we felt like staying and drinking the night away like we originally planned.
I was there one other time ¹²⁄₂₀₀₈ and it was a good time dancing. I will never go back and I’m pretty sure there 21 others in the group feel the same since they couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Out of the group, only 4 of us decided to stay (myself included) after dinner.
There is only one positive note, they make tasty, strong, and pretty drinks.

Aspiring for a fun caribbean atmosphere, it mostly hits the mark as an upscale jerk-​flavored Applebee’s.
Parking is fairly awful and typically, you’ll wind up in back behind the smokers in a dark, fairly rough lot. Bring a light — you may be eaten by a grue.
Greeters are always personable and there’s rarely a wait, but once you’re seated, well — the wait begins. The servers aren’t the issue: it’s the kitchen. There are no gluten free options, and as my side effects today attest, there’s wheat in just about everything.
Once we placed our entrée orders, we waited about 30 minutes for the food to arrive. It was not exciting and the vegetable was … zucchini. If you’re in the food or entertainment business, you know the only reason zucchini appears is because it’s the cheapest possible vegetable to serve. Mike’s is not a cheap restaurant at an average of $ 25-​$ 35 per person. That’s fairly insulting and there’s no excuse for this.
The special of the day of was Mahi Mahi which of course they were already out of by 8 pm. Really. The piece of tuna was remarkably small and overpriced at $ 22 for what should have been market priced at $ 12.
The french fries, which I really should not have ordered were frozen. I can say this as I had a celiac reaction last night, which occurs whenever I ate wheat. The only thing I ate that could have had wheat was the french fries, and that occurs whenever frozen french fries are used instead of fresh.
At more than $ 65 for dinner for two, I expect a heck of a lot better than this.

Wednesday nights, Raw Bar HH $ 4.95 for a plate of fresh oysters.
Nevertheless to say, I’ve haven’t been there any other day of the week except Wednesdays 4−7pm.
Oh, and their frozen mango margaritas? $ 3 of awesomeness.
Summed up:
Go there Wednesdays and drink mango margaritas, get some oysters and HH sliders for under $ 15, you can’t beat that.

Oh God, how do people enjoy eating here? Fine, lively atmosphere, friendly staff but man is their food crap. Or maybe it’s just my luck when I come here? All my friends that ordered the calamari sent it back but ended up finding something better on the menu. Their gumbo is «eh» and their mango salad is poopsicyle sticks. I also don’t remember tasting even a slight hint of alcohol in my mango orange crush. Actually, you couldn’t taste the mango in it either… just steer clear of anything with mango at this place, what a let down.
I’ve been here a grand total of three times now and before my most recent visit could only think, «Oh no! Why did this place have to be Plan B for the group? Why???»
I think if they fixed their food… a lot… they would have a good thing going on. I love the Caribbean theme, the fish, the birthday hat, funky cocktail glasses, and little toys (military themed rubber duckies, ca’mon now — pretty sweet!)