Herald rating: * * *
Address:204 Jervois Rd, Herne Bay
Phone:(09) 376 20019
Open: Tuesday to Saturday from 4pm
Ambience: Swarthy and handsome.
Vegetarians: One burrito, a few tapas.
Watch out for: The price-less main courses.
Bottom line: Latin accents.
Do not believe what you read in the papers. Mango Tango does not profess to serve Latin American cuisine, which is just as well since the term is unknown in Latin America and as useful as "Asian cuisine". They call it "exotic cuisine with Latino influences".
The restaurant was formerly Villa d'Vine, a Jervois Rd institution that did a good job of more-or-less French and Italian food with very French and Italian wines. Now owner Tony Matches has refurbished the place so it looks like a very nice bordello, or perhaps a dance club which, I suspect, is what it is long after the Professor and I are in bed.
The Professor being otherwise occupied, I was accompanied by my son, whose Latin American experience is more recent than my mid-70s peregrinations - and even more abstemious: he used to dream of having a shoestring to travel on and his diet was mostly rice and fried beef pancreas, which was a bit rough considering he was a vegetarian.
About half the menu here is tapas-style, including nicely plain Spanish standards (gildas, which are toothpick-skewered morsels of anchovy, olive and chilli; albondigas, the classic meatballs in tomato sauce; and the famous patatas bravas) and others which have southern-hemisphere inflections (the pao de queijo, or cheese bread, which is Brazilian street food; deliciously crispy empanadas, small pastries filled with creamy smoked fish).
The main dishes, by contrast, seemed mostly attempts to palm off mid-range standards as 'Latino' by the addition of accoutrements or garnishes: mango salsa with the grilled fish; Spanish rice with beef braised "Argentinean style", whatever that is.
My favourite was grilled aged rump done "Cuban style", which is a hoot since all the Cubans who have had aged rump in the last generation could fit in a phone box, and the only addition was chimichurri sauce, a paprika and garlic concoction that comes from much further south. At least one dish, a wild hare risotto, survives from Villa d'Vine's menu.
The main courses have no prices: you decide what yours is worth. Matches says this "point of difference" has proved most successful, but I thought it slightly offensive, since my eating enjoyment was curdled by a mild anxiety that I would soon be required to pick a number. When I did, I paid a few dollars over the odds, as I am sure others do for fear of being thought cheapskate.
There's nothing wrong with the food here - indeed, it's a nice place to enjoy a glass of wine and a nibble. But the pay-what-you-want trick would alone be enough to dissuade me from returning. That is less than the place deserves.
