Mango—St. Louis’ only Peruvian Restaurant—is Sweeter Than Ever
The 12-year-old restaurant makes a smart move into a new downtown space.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
The impressive thing about the new Mango is not so much that it’s a Peruvian restaurant in St. Louis but instead that it’s a 12-year-old Peruvian restaurant in St. Louis.
Jorge and Nori Calvo owned four restaurants in their native Peru before moving here in the 1980s. They ran a catering company out of their home, then opened Mango in 2004 in a Shrewsbury strip mall. In 2009, they found an atmosphere to better match their food, adding a second restaurant in a sleek downtown spot vacated by Mosaic, which moved down the block. The Shrewsbury location closed in 2011.
Oddly enough, the new location of Mango is also a former Mosaic space, an even bigger dining room with 15-foot plate-glass windows and capacity to house some 100 diners.
The Washington Avenue streetscape is an excellent stage for the food, which is vibrantly presented. Behold the tower of colors and textures that is the causa de salmón: a molded round of mildly chili-spiced potato cake, topped with a creamy pink salmon salad, another potato round, and a casual arrangement of avocado slices. The diverse flavors and textures play together nicely.
Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
Perhaps you prefer your appetizers pretty in pink. Palta rellena gets most of its color from diced beets in mayonnaise, with diced carrots, peas, and beans chipping in for both fresh vegetable flavor and added geometry. This is the rellena part of it—stuffing; palta is how Spanish-speaking South Americans refer to avocados, which form the dish’s foundation. Lettuce and sliced tomatoes line the plate for a colorful garnish.
As might be expected because of Peru’s geography, fish is a key ingredient in its cuisine, and four of Mango’s 10 on-menu entrées are seafood. Pescado a lo macho is like a composed bouillabaisse, with mussels, squid, scallops, shrimp, and mahi mahi fillets arranged in a shallow pool of chili-spiked stock.
Beef fans can enjoy something of a Peruvian variation on steak frites with lomo saltado, thick-cut fries crisscrossing chunks of beef tenderloin flavored with onions, tomato, and garlic.
Even the simple complimentary fried plantains come with a bottomless bowl of cilantro salsa, which makes its presence obvious by way of both a brilliant green color and its addictive flavor.
Service at Mango deftly straddles the line between patronizing and informative; servers gauge their diners’ knowledge with a few well-planned inquiries and provide as much or as little guidance as is required.
St. Louis may not be near a coast or have more than a handful of Peruvian immigrants, but it certainly has a terrific Peruvian restaurant.
The Bottom Line: The next time you want a taste of Peru, explore the food and atmosphere of Mango.
