The Twisted Mango

We went probably the first or second week they opened. So yes, It has taken me a while to review but none the less, it was a memorable impression to say the least. We had a party of about 8, and although the food was good and their were no complaints there, our waiter was training someone and it took over 20 minutes for one of our friends to get his drink, even though he ordered the same drink as me. He went to the bar twice to check on it. Once it came out it was a completely different color than mine and tasted different. We both had ordered the jalapeño margarita. Mine, literally tasted only like pineapple juice, which was not listed on it’s list of ingredients. Neither resembled a margarita and the only thing that made them «jalapeño» was the one floating slice in each of our glasses. We spoke to the waiter and told him the issue for which he told us «We have different bartenders back there, everyone makes them differently» Didn’t offer new ones and a lack luster excuse. Neither were taken off bills even though we didn’t drink them, until we realized he was doing nothing about it. My husband and his friend ordered a tequila shot as well (when in Rome) and both knowing a little about alcohol said they tasted watered down. They told the waiter who said he had poured them himself (what about all of those bartenders?) and he knows they weren’t. They said ok, but it just didn’t taste right. The waiter brought the bottle to our table, with two shot glasses, and poured them hot into glasses, as he spilled some on my husbands phone. Slammed the bottle down and said «See, straight from the bottle». We were aggravated to say the least and the girl he was training apologized profusely. I had high hopes for this place, but unfortunately the bad taste in our mouth from the bad service and $ 70 non-​refunded bill even after we asked to speak to someone, (who never came) hasn’t made us want to revisit. Now, we just hate that the food was decent.

The food was horrible! I ordered a burger and fries. The burger was dry & cold. They ran out of fries and still charged me full price for my meal. The queso dip was entirely too thick and cold. The waiter was not that friendly. I NEVER received a bill for my food. I paid using a groupon. When the manager took my groupon he told me the my meal was covered. I’m walking downtown Raleigh back to my car only to be chased down by the waiter saying that I owed $ 14 more on my tab. I never received a bill!!! I waited for mins for my bill and manager said that I was good. This place is overpriced and I will never got back. I DON NOT RECOMMEND THIS restaurant!

Laser Lighting, flashing disco balls, rap and techno music blaring. God never again. Most in party were OK with food. I actually liked this cool Curried Pork dish, but the over loud music and flashing lights (come seizure) were enough of a distraction from the food to ruin the meal. Lose the lights and sound show and you may have a cool TexMex place. Oh and fill up some ample helpings of salsa with the chips to keep the table satisfied until entrees arrive.

We came here on a Friday night with a Groupon. Try to get in on a Sunday afternoon considering the website, the Groupon, and the restaurant door said they were open that day; however they are closed on Sundays. I was skeptical since the reviews are just average in the place didn’t have a lot of customers. I thought I would go with what they are known for so ordered the twisted fattie. You can choose several options to fill the fattie. I stuffed it with fresh avocado, beans, rice, cilantro. It came with salsa and chips. There was very little salsa and it was sweet. The fattie was ok, would have liked it warmer. The blinking lights in the restaurant were distracting as I was trying to talk to someone. There is outdoor seating.

Hummm… what to say. went here for the hopscotch festival. Sitting as great. That was the only plus. Every beer I asked for they were out. I asked to taste one that I have never heard and they wouldn’t let me. The menu had had A LOT of spelling mistakes.

If Unilocal had Review subjects the subject line of my review of Twisted Mango would have been Meh.
On the whole I don’t know I would recommend The Twisted Mango. The food was mediocre at best. The atmosphere is okay not great but not too bad. I will say the service was good. My server did a good job of keeping up with our needs.
Atmosphere 3 — The décor is relatively innocuous. They had the big TV on the football game and had some sort of Spanish language music playing in the back ground at a level it didn’t interfere with my conversation.
Service 3 — My server was pleasant and professional if not particularly warm or friendly. More importantly I didn’t have to search for her when I needed something.

Cost/​Value 2 — The prices were high for what I got. Two sandwiches and an order of «conch» fritters was over $ 30.
Food 2 — The food quality was in a word subpar. My meal started with complementary chips and salsa and they were worth every penny. The chips were somewhat stale, not bad stale just kind of stale. The salsa was surprisingly bland, It lacked flavor not heat. Given it appeared to be a tomato based salsa I would have expected it to at least have some acidity to it. I did not detect any conch in the «conch» fritters, they weren’t. As hush puppies they weren’t bad but if you didn’t tell me they were conch fritters I would have never known. I ordered a hamburger with yucca fries. The hamburger like the salsa did not have a great deal of flavor. Again not bad just eh. The yucca fries were just not prepared very well. Some, not all, of the fries were under done which made them stale and kind of hard. My overall impression of the food was meh, not bad but just not very good.
Twisted Mango might be a good place for old people who do not want their food to be too rich or flavorful to eat.

I was dreading dining here. My husband wanted to try it, so we purchased a Groupon when it first opened. Then the terrible reviews started pouring in, and I considered just eating the cost of the deal. When our other dinner plans fell through, we decided to give it a try, and I have to say it exceeded my expectations, which were incredibly low.
We sat at the bar and had totally good service. Luckily, we did not experience any of the service issues mentioned in the reviews I had read. Our food arrived promptly and was prepared to order. We ordered the skirt steak, the tacos and the wings. Food was edible, but just that. It was fine. Sides were very bland and not worth the calories.
Décor was tacky and not well done.
If Caribbean fare is what you crave, I would put Bahama Breeze above this place. Overall, I would not go again on my own and would try to dissuade a fellow diner from choosing it. My guess is that it won’t be around long in such a prime location.

We were a little worried going in based on all the negative reviews. However, our experience was just perfect.
The wait staff was pleasant and efficient. I had the red snapper, which was really good. My wife had the jerk chicken and was very happy with it. We ordered the snapper tacos for our five year old and he just loved them; Almost ate two tacos! The beans were a little bland but the rice served as a side with all the meals was good.
We did go a little early (around 6 PM on a Saturday night).

I was excited for The Twisted Mango to open, it’s location is ideal and I remember walking past it several times and being drawn in by the colors; plus, who doesn’t like Caribbean food?! When I saw a Livingsocial deal pop up I snagged it and was finally able to use it this past week. We went in to do their special tequila tasting advertised on facebook and posters up around the establishment, and I quote: «Don’t forget about our free Cazadores tequila tasting tomorrow at 7pm. We’ll be handing out free promo stuff also. Come get Twisted with us.» There was no tequila tasting to be had, our server told us that the GM who set up the event hadn’t shown up all week and that the staff had done the tasting themselves earlier that evening, that’s why they were all «smiling» [that is a direct quote]. Oh goodness, the list goes on and on, it was truly the most unprofessional experience I have ever had. Food going out to incorrect tables and then being redelivered to confrontational conversations about requesting change when paying with cash. Plus just slow service, our poor waitress even told us she had a table dine and dash on the patio, hate to say it, but they probably got tired of waiting [I am NOT condoning that behavior!]. Regardless, I felt like the employees had no respect for the establishment or the impression they were giving to customers.
And the food left nothing to be desired, the cuban sandwich was re-​designed, but in a bad way, with a pickle sauce on the side for the dry pork, and served with a side of «crinkle fries» [possibly from the freezer?]. Mango salsa was a sweet and onion flavor lacking heat and the only good impression I had was from the margarita which was served with top shelf tequila because they were out of the first two drinks requested [along with a long list of ingredients]. I hope you have a little glimpse of how disappointing this experience was, if the place wasn’t clean and tidy, I would’ve had to put them at a one star, but at least they’ve got that going for them.

There isn’t much to say about this place. The food was just that — food. I love Caribbean food, but the food at this place is not even remotely like any of the food I had in over twenty years visiting various islands. I ordered the jerk chicken and felt magically transported … absolutely nowhere. I agree there are many different ways to do it, but I felt as though I ate something remarkably akin to a Kroger purchase.
With all that being said, the waiter was nice. Clueless, but nice. When I asked for a piece of bread or something for my kid to munch on, I was told it was unavailable. After suggesting a tortilla (on which they serve tacos) and a hamburger bun (on which they serve sandwiches), I was told nothing was available. He then went to the kitchen and came back with a hamburger bun. Go figure. He was nice, though.
Save your money.

This review is more like 1.5 stars… but it’s just a big no. Just no. And this review is based on 3 experiences, so I’m not just on my soapbox right now :)
When I go out to eat, I’m searching for good food, good service, and good drinks. Hopefully the location has all three, but alas, Twisted Mango lacks in all three of those must-​haves to be a good restaurant. Located in a great spot on Fayetteville St in downtown Raleigh, Twisted Mango has one of the best locations near City Plaza, yet somehow they’ve missed the mark.
I should first mention that we had a pretty good Twisted Mango food at the Unilocaler party– Passport to City Market event… this was right before they officially opened, and the pork tenderloin & chicken curry were both pretty tasty. Because of this, we came to Twisted Mango in May during Out! Raleigh pride fest. We sat outside & received horrible service, but we attributed it to the busy festival. The chips & salsa were store bought, and the calamari was just funky but had an interesting honey jalapeño sauce. The wings were undercooked (I know my wings, these were some of the worst ever), and the chicken curry was NOTHING like what we tasted at the Unilocaler party! What a shame.
Last night, we went to Twisted Mango again to give it another shot. Sara ordered a $ 8 lemon mojito that tasted like soapy lemon-​water with a garnish of mint (not muddled). We ordered the chimichurri skirt steak cooked rare, and the only good thing about this was that they cooked it right. The steak had more fat than edible meat (weird for a skirt steak!), you’d think the prep cook would have cut that off– and the black beans were undercooked and the corn was just bland. I ordered a side salad, which was just okay for a side salad, but nothing amazing. It was a safe bet, and I ate half of it because the citrus vinaigrette was decent. The server was a bit of a space cadet, and when he asked how the food was, I said «meh it was alright» and he just chuckled & walked off. Luckily I purchased a $ 20 for $ 10 deal on dealsaver, so it wasn’t a complete waste of money and time.
All in all, I had high hopes for this place because I loooove Caribbean food (the flavorful & spicy kind, not Twisted Mango’s bland food). If the drinks would have been okay, perhaps we’d be back– but we can’t even say that much. I think the location is doomed because the tenant before Twisted Mango was sub-​par too (Volta). Sayonara, Twisted Mango… I don’t think you’ll be here for long.

We ducked in here for a quick lunch on July 4^th and it was such a pleasant surprise! I’ve noticed the restaurant before but nothing in the exterior stood out to me so I didn’t really pay attention to it. However, in the middle of a heavy downpour, this looked like the perfect location to settle for a great lunch.
We quicky noticed that it was understaffed: we waited a few minutes to be seated and we waited again for awhile before our waitress could get to us and introduce herself. She told us only 2 waitresses had showed up for the holiday shift to cover the entire restaurant. Other than the delay at the beginning, the rest of our experience with staff was prompt and efficient. It looked like managers and all the other staff were pitching in to maintain the customer experience.
I ordered the grilled chicken tacos (I asked for no pico de gallo) which came with lettuce, red onion and citrus mayo. I asked for double Caribbean rice instead of black beans as the side. When the food arrived, I was disappointed at first because the tortillas looked small on the plate, but I definitely underestimated their size. I was quite full by the time I finished all the Caribbean rice and both tacos. The tacos were absolutely delicious! They definitely didn’t skimp on any of the ingredients – especially the chicken. The chicken was cooked well and was still super juicy and delicious in the tacos. The rice was lightly seasoned and had some onion pieces sprinkled in but was the perfect side for the tacos. They accidentally gave me black beans, but quickly gave me an extra order of the rice to fix their mistake.
Overall, a very positive experience here. I would definitely take advantage of their free chips and dip deal on the Stealz App!

I recently visited this establishment on Friday 06÷26÷15. We started with an undercooked appetizer of chicken wings. The waitress was no where to be found, so I had to bother a busy waiter. When the wings finally came back out, we were half way through our meal. The jerk chicken was bland, the manager said I ‘ll give you more rub to put on if you want. SMH I ordered the quesidilla and wedge salad, thinking I can’t go wrong with this HAHA The core was never removed from the wedge. The salad dressing was AWESOME!
The worst part was the manager’s attitude, well this is Caribbean style food and didn’t even want to comp the wings.
I will never eat here again.

Enjoyed the tacos! The outdoor seating is nice and prime for Fayetteville Street happenings.
Had a misunderstanding with a coupon deal I wanted to use and the manager was kind enough to use it after I explained. Good service.

I wanted to do something fun and different for my husband’s birthday – I should have kept looking! I gave them one star only because they got the bill right!
We ordered the wings for an appetizer – they were undercooked and void of any interesting spice and flavor. Ordered the beef tacos and grouper. The fish was ok, but the beef was OLD! They explained that they only served the freshest cuts of meat and fish – really!!! 1990 called and asked for their cow back! Sent it back and asked for jerk chicken – got shrimp tacos – who does that!!!
Looking for authentic island food? GO TO JAMAICA! No problem with the bill, hence the one star!

Most accommodating! I was in a hurry at lunch and had done special requests on my order. They were fast and order was wonderful! Mango salad with shrimp.
Good was fresh and shrimp were hot off the grill on top fresh greens.

I really wanted to like this place, and I couldn’t muster more than two stars here. We ordered some specialty drinks that took quite a while to come and we noticed our server wasn’t making any attempt to sell us anything. I ordered the shrimp quesadilla and my husband tried the jerk chicken. We also ordered chips & queso. The chips tasted really stale but the queso itself was good.
Our food came and instead of shrimp quesadilla, I got a chicken quesadilla. The jerk chicken didn’t have any real «jerk» flavor but it was ok. When I told the server about my quesadilla he took my plate and said that they would fix it. When he returned with the correct one he said he thought it was his fault and then realized it was the food expediters fault. I really didn’t care who’s fault it was, thought it was strange he absolved himself of fault though.
He never offered to get us more drinks and kept leaving so quickly it was difficult to get anything out of him. Thankfully we had some water to hold over. The worst part was when the check came & our check didn’t match the menu prices! We were charged $ 7 more than what the menu had said our meals cost. We told our server and he said he’d take care of it. So, it was reduced out and he said there was a glitch in the computer.
People sitting next to us were on their second visit and said first time was just as bad. They got wrong drink delivered twice! Manager blamed «new waitress» for bad drinks. Seems odd everyone was blaming others for mistakes.

I dined here with a group Friday evening and the restaurant is brightly colored with a tropical flavor. We ordered the empanadas as an appetizer and they came out pretty quickly but it was sitting in a small pool of grease. I notified the waitress right away and they brought out fresh ones.
I ordered the jerk chicken and it was delicious. You have to dine here after 5pm to even order that but it was worth the 25mn wait. The portions were were huge so I carried the rest home with me.
What kept this from five stars is the service. The waitress was great when there wasnt that many people in the restaurant but as soon as it became busy she was no where to be found. In fact she had brought out the wrong dish and it took 10mn to get her attention. Eventually another waiter assisted us.
The place has potential but I think they need to work out the kinks.

Worst food I have ever tried! I ordered the skirt steak with chimichurri, which came with rice, corn, and black beans. None, and I mean absolutely none of the above items had any flavor in them! The worst part is that not even the chimichurri had any flavor. What’s the point of chimichurri without that bold flavor to go with steak and other things?!
The steak, aside from flavorless, was also very badly cooked and it was mostly fat! I am Latin American, most of the cuts of steak we eat for carne asada (grilled meat) is skirt steak. I can tell you for sure that their cuts are the worst cuts and quality of meat you can find in a restaurant.
Do not go there. You don’t want to pay the price of those dishes for the bad quality of food.
P. S. I was in party of 14, most of them had complaints about their food. If I could give no stars, I would.

Lots of potential here! Great that downtown Raleigh has something new and different. This is in what used to be La Volta. Plenty of outdoor seating for those that enjoy that… many were doing so on this First Friday evening. It was very windy though. We chose inside.
TIP: Look for free chips and salsa deals. We found one on a brochure right inside the restaurant itself. Also found on Stealz.
We were led to a table, but with plenty of booths open, requested one and were granted such. Comfy. Chips and Salsa came quickly, right after ice water.
Husband was happy with a Scotch Ale draft, while I decided to try a Jamie’s Pretty Pink Snapper Martini that involved vodka, pomegranate juice, peach and I forgot what else. It came with a slice of blood orange (my favorite part). Very sweet! A bit too sweet for this gal. I’m more of a wino, but never saw any wines on the menu, so I don’t know if they even have any.
Menu has a nice variety of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, burgers, «fatties» (which we overheard from a Server at the table behind us are like giant burritos), and entrees.
I opted for a small order of 6 grilled wings with Island Barbacoa sauce for just $ 5. Plus a side salad with Citrus Vinaigrette topped with Pico de Gallo for $ 4. Husband loves Cuban sandwiches and decided to try the «Twisted» one here with Crinkle Fries for $ 10.
Half of my wings were awesome! Hot and full of wonderful grilled flavor. The other half was slightly less cooked. Although not underdone, just not as grilled-​great. Side salad was fresh and tasty. Husband thought his sandwich was good, although would have been better with mustard. The pickle «sauce» that came with it was good enough that I requested some to go with my wings. He was totally disappointed in the fries, however. They were underdone, and he barely touched them.
Our Server did a good job, but was overwhelmed (his words) with all the outdoor tables he was dealing with. When we were ready to pay using our Dealsaver, we were told that the manager was not there and no one else knew how to deal with it. Uh… wtf?
Thankfully, Manager miraculously appeared and my blood pressure went quickly back down. Problem solved, but seriously, they need to train others, because surely this Manager can’t possibly live there.
This place is still new, so hopefully they will work through the inconsistencies because there is indeed a lot of potential here!