After a few weeks of hard work, I earned a mental health day. I decided to fill it with a lazy morning of blogging and an afternoon of shopping. In between, I met Hans for lunch at his new favorite West side lunch spot: Wild Mango.
From their website: Wild Mango Restaurant and Bar, originally named Weia Teia, was founded by Jia Wei, head chef and owner of three restaurants, including Wild Mango, wanted to create a place with a sophisticated and vibrant atmosphere along with eccentricity for the people of Northeast Ohio to enjoy. Wild Mango is the offspring of the original Weia Teia in the small town of Oberlin, Ohio. With the same basis of fine dining and feel, both restaurants have a contemporary feel and look to the food as well as the interior design. Jia Wi’s philosophy is quality without compromise, creating fine produces treated with skill and innovation. The restaurant has been acclaimed a Silver Spoon Award winner from the Cleveland Magazine three years in a row.
Wild Mango is part of the Great Northern Mall complex in North Olmsted. It doesn’t have a direct entrance to the mall so you might forget that it’s there. I arrived before Hans around 12:15PM. I was immediately impressed by the sleek interior design and felt like I was transported to Tao in Las Vegas. The restaurant received big points for atmosphere and visual impact.
I was seated immediately and greeted by Chang our waiter. He was great throughout the entire meal, as he was very informed about the entire menu and was quick to fill the requests that we had that afternoon.
Since we both ordered entrees, we were entitled to a bowl of the Soup of the Day, which was a cream of chicken and corn soup. I tried taking several photos of this with my camera phone. Every picture looked overly lame – BAH. As I had ordered soup for my main, I started with just a few bites of this starter. It was lacking on the corn and chicken and was mostly creamy broth. Originally, I thought it could use a bit of pepper and initially stopped eating it to save room for my main. But strangely, I found myself coming back to it as its flavors began to grow on me. By the end of the bowl, I had found I really liked it and that it didn’t need that extra pepper. I was surprised to see how I grew to like the dish.
Hans ordered the Sesame Chicken with honey sesame glazed boneless chicken, steamed broccoli and short grain rice:
Please accept my apologies for the lame camera phone photo. Bad food blogger!
The man loves his Asian-style prepared chicken dishes. This was the second time he had ordered the dish at Wild Mango. The chicken was just as good as Hans had remembered it. His one point of criticism is that the broccoli was a bit too al dente, but still tasty. He ate it all and was ready to take on the rest of the work day.
When ordering, I asked Chang our waiter what the best options were for gluten-free dining. He immediately said the dish I had picked out: the Shrimp Curry Noodle Soup with grilled shrimp, oyster mushroom and rice noodles in a spicy coconut curry broth:
Again – photo taken with the camera phone. At least it’s better than the first one.
HOLY BOWL OF YUM. This was another moment of “OMG I’m going to eat this entire bowl of food.” And I did! The broth was spicy, the rice noodles were nicely cooked, the shrimp were grilled to perfection, the veggies were just past al dente and the temperature was perfectly HOT. I made a mess of myself eating the noodles, shrimp and veggies with my chopsticks. I was having a steamy, hot affair with this bowl of soup in front of my hubby. I savored every bite that I could fit in my belly.
LONG STORY SHORT: I had always heard great things about Wild Mango and now I know why. I had always been waiting to go there for a special occasion, but this experience proved even a quick lunch hour meeting can be filled with culinary treats. I can’t wait to return to Wild Mango for dinner and more lunch get together with loved ones. I encourage you to do the same!
That food looks fabulous!! You are going to be my new restaurant sensei
I’ve only been there once, but I absolutely LOVED it. We all did! Plus, the atmosphere is pretty cool, too.
I love Wild Mango, too. Great review!
By far…my favorite place in CLEVELAND!
When are you taking me there? Looks awesome!