Restaurant of the Month: M

Since we missed January, Kelly and I doubled up this month and tried two new restaurants. Last weekend we had dinner at Mango. Mango specializes in Peruvian cuisine which neither of us had tried before. We went to the original location in Shrewsberry which is actually closing at the end of the month. Despite being in a strip mall, the restaurant was cute and cozy - even a little romantic for my date with Kelly ;) We started our meal with a glass of wine and the complimentary fried plantains and a delicious green spicy sauce. Now, I hate bananas with a passion so I was a little hesitant to try these crispy little chips, but I am happy to say that they did not taste anything like bananas and were quite addicting! Kelly and I polished off two dishes of them before our meal!

Mango offers small plates for sharing as well as entrees. We decided to go the small plate route so we could try a variety of dishes. We chose: Empanada (baked pastries with beef, raisins, spanish olives & sweet peppers), Pascualina (spinach, onion, mushroom, egg & a blend of cheeses baked in a pie crust), Anticucho de Pollo (chicken skewers), and sauteed shrimp.

The empanada was different than those I've had at spanish style tapas restaurants. The pastry was crispy and golden on the outside and the filling was a nice blend of savory and sweet. The Pascualina was similar to Greek spanakopita and very good. The chicken and shrimp were both cooked just right and the sauce that came with the chicken, a itrus-aji amarillo sauce, was different than anything I have ever tasted.


For dessert we had Pionono, sponge cake rolled in rich dulce de leche. It was a little heavier than an angel food cake with caramel sauce drizzled over top. Delicious!

I thoroughly enjoyed my first taste of Peruvian cuisine and look forward to going to the downtown location to try other things on the menu and get more of those tasty plantain chips!