Located at: Galle Face Hotel, 3, 2 Galle Road, Colombo 03, Sri Lanka

Visited on: 08th October, 2022

It was a bit of a quiet evening at this Cuban-themed restaurant/bar and the weather was good. We started off by sipping on a few items from King of the Mambo’s exciting, extensive beverage menu. El Camajàn – vanilla, passionfruit, cranberry juice, apple juice, fresh mint and lemonade (LKR 850) and Maracuyá Abstenida – orange juice, lime, fresh mint, sugar syrup, passion fruit purée and lemonade (LKR 750) were both truly fruity to the word, creating a delightful tropical party on the palate. El Che Refrescao (LKR 1,400) was equally good and had been muddled together with vodka, pear purée, raspberry purée, fresh mint, lemon juice and sugar syrup. All three of the beverages that we tried were fantastic – light, refreshing and charming.

We ordered Mambo’s Seafood Skewers (LKR 2,800) to start with. This came in the form of three skewers, each with prawn, squid, fish and grilled capsicum. It was quite good – perfectly done with a tasty white sauce and some chopped herbs to top it off. Very nice.

For the main course, one of the dishes we tried was their Costillitas de Cochinito – BBQ pork ribs with grilled corn on the cob (LKR 2,700). The ribs were good – not exactly fall-off-the-bone, but soft enough, and the sauce was quite decent, too. The corn kernels, however, did not come of the cob easily, which meant that most of it, unfortunately, had to be left behind.

Their Pork Chops (LKR 3,000) had been well-seasoned and were quite tender and tasty. It came with a BBQ dip and grilled pineapple. There was also the option to add a side, for which we picked Garlic Toast (LKR 900). Although the garlic flavour wasn’t very strong, the bread was nicely done – crisp and lightly buttered.

The Pasta del Mar (LKR 2,900) comprised of linguine pasta with seafood that included prawns, squid, fish, mussels and crab. It also included a slice of crisp toast. The dish was pretty delicious and the pasta was light and tasted great with the tomato-based sauce that it had been tossed in. Quite enjoyable, almost like comfort food that had been turned up a notch.

For dessert, we tried two of the options they offered. The first was Merengue a la Rusa – seasonal fruit pavlova with nuts, berries and crema di Chantilly (LKR 900). This dessert was visually appealing – an eye-catching, colourful and contemporary take on the good old pav. Taste-wise, it was alright, and was topped with cut mango, pineapple, strawberry, grapes and a walnut. There was a bit of pickled fruit on the side, too.

The second dessert was what took the prize, though. Fundido Cabacho – dark chocolate lava cake with mango ice cream and a sprig of mint (LKR 1,200). It was truly satisfying, with lava oozing out of the moist chocolate cake and a touch of chopped nuts adding to the texture. The mango ice cream had a bit of diced mango in it, which was a nice touch, too. All tens here!

Yummy Rating: 4.0 / 5.0