First let me say that I agreed with the other reviewers up until my last dinner there. To start, we had salads which ranged from just ok to pretty good. I too had the linguine and clam sauce when I was there shortly after they opened and it was fantastic. I ordered it again and it was terrible! Overly salted and it has a ton of pancetta (bacon) in it. It didn't have bacon the first time that I had it. If this was intended to elevate the dish, it achieved the exact opposite. Last time I checked bacon does not belong in linguine and clam sauce. Plus, it was gummy. I love that they are using homemade pasta, it just needs to be executed properly. My daughter had spaghetti and meatballs. I CAN'T adequately describe how bad it was. It tasted like water. ZERO flavor. It didn't even have the taste of tomato and had no seasoning/salt whatsoever. It was odd tasting. We had a bit of the sauce on the side and sent it around the table for a taste test. We all agreed and all of us were perplexed. How can you mess up basic tomato sauce??
The meatball lacked flavor as well. The pizzas are under done. Plus, they also don't serve bread which I think is odd for an Italian restaurant. With that said, my daughter's bolognese was good the first time. I'm confused. DId they change chefs in the last two weeks?
I will say that they did an excellent job with the decor. It's rustic chic. There are garage doors that open-perfect for a warm evening. I like that they are BYOB.
Now, I'm not excited to write negative reviews. I just want them to succeed and serve good Italian food. Selfishly, I was excited to have another restaurant in the area.
Please be consistent!! Taste your food and don't put out anything substandard or people won't come back. Hopefully, you are still working out the kinks. However, please don't change what's working! I'm going to give Mambo another chance but I'm now skeptical.