Dining for $25 or less: Mango's Grill

By Karen Nitkin | Special to The Sun

May 1, 2008

From our first taste of sweet, soft mussels, garlicky and sprinkled with chopped tomato, onion and cilantro, we knew we were in good hands at Mango's Grill.

The small restaurant, with its overly bright plastic tablecloths and piles of what looks like folded laundry by the front door, doesn't give a great first impression. But it is a diamond in the rough.

Owners Ana Figueredo and Jorge Molina, who opened Mango's Grill four years ago, deliver a mouthwatering menu of Mexican and Salvadoran dishes. Of course, each meal begins with a basket of tortilla chips and a bowl of smoky house-made pico de gallo.

Then come appetizers like pupusas ($1.50 each), a Salvadoran version of a grilled cheese sandwich; ceviche ($10.99), raw fish marinated in lemon and lime juice and served with onion and cilantro; and tamales filled with either chicken or pork ($2.99).

The mussels ($9.99), so tender, tasty and grit-free, showcased the restaurant's agility with seafood, but we also loved the pupusas, which filled good corn tortillas with just the right amount of gooey cheese. These were served with a side of crunchy and tart cabbage salad.

Entrees include the usual fajitas ($13.99) and enchiladas ($7.99), as well as plenty of stuff you won't find at Taco Bell or Chipotle, like camarones brochette ($15.99), jumbo shrimp stuffed with cheese and jalapenos and wrapped in bacon, or salmon a la parilla ($12.50), which tops the grilled fish with a house-made mango sauce.

Plus, there are daily specials, like the filetito ($17.99), a simple marinated and broiled steak, served with sauteed squash and carrots, rice and beans, and fried plantains. The steak was cooked medium-rare, as requested, and the marinade rendered it both flavorful and tender. But compared to other offerings at Mango's Grill, this turned out to be kind of boring. The best things on the plate were the addictively sweet fried plantains and the fat hearty beans served with gently seasoned rice.

I don't know why I ordered a nothing-special steak when so many other options were more appealing.

I wish I'd been as smart of one of my friends, who chose the Mango's Grill Combo ($14.99), a fajita that included shrimp, chicken and steak, as well as the usual peppers and onions, plus fresh, chunky guacamole, pico de gallo and those good corn tortillas.

The steak had been sliced and grilled, with a slight charring on the outside, and the chicken was marinated and tasty. We especially liked the jumbo shrimp but found them difficult to eat, since they had been butterflied and grilled, but not peeled. Getting the shells off proved challenging.

My other dining companion selected a simple taco salad ($7.50). Normally, I would consider this a bad choice, since the standard version is little more than shredded iceberg and seasoned ground beef in a greasy shell. But Mango's Grill's was worlds better. The shell was crisp but not greasy at all, and it was filled with a mix of dark greens, that fresh guacamole, tomatoes and hearts of palm. The whole thing was topped with a good eight to 10 slices of marinated, grilled beef.

As much as we enjoyed our meal, we found the service spotty. We had planned to order dessert, but we were forgotten for such a long stretch of time that we decided we were no longer hungry for it. Too bad, because we saw some squares of tres leches ($4.29) arrive at a nearby table, and it looked delicious. Mango's also serves coconut flan ($3.79), ice cream and sopapillas ($4.99), fried dough topped with cinnamon and sugar and served with ice cream.

When we finally got our server's attention and asked for the bill, we waited so long for her to return with the check that I finally walked up to the counter and paid. One reason for the sudden lack of attention may be that the takeout side of the business was picking up.

For the most part, we found the restaurant to be a welcoming place, and the food to be a pleasant surprise.