10/10/09

best chimichurri sauce & flat bread

by sophiamiller

we were served by a charming server name Isabella . her suggestions were great. i tried the bife buanos aires with rice,plantains and chimichurri sauce. it was verry satisfying and delicious. my friend tried the thin crust shrimp and calamari tequila pizza and loved it. i tried a piece and the pizza was done to perfection. our server suggested we try the caipirinha wich is a brazilian cocktail made with cachaca . the coctail was verry refreshing and complimented our food perfectly.

good food ,friendly staff , nice music.we will definitely go back to malagueta restaurant.

• Pros: good service

09/21/09

TERRIBLE SERVICE AND FOOD

by dunny88

I agree with the person about the staff being pushy and trying to up-sell you on everything. No surprise in that you had an idiot waiter charging you a cake cutting fee. He is probably related to the owner.

We ordered a pizza that came out with none of the ingredients it had on the menu. More so, it was like eating raw dough it was so under cooked. We tried explaining this to the waiter but he just argued that is how the pizza was supposed to be. I actually thought i would help the owner realize the importance of customer service and feedback so I called the next day ,and of course, no one ever called back. The only thing this place has going for it is that it is a nice atmosphere which the service, or lack of it, destroys.

• Pros: Nice Ambiance with hopefully new owners
• Cons: Everyone that works there

06/06/09

Delicious

by lulujogirl

Good food!!!! Yummy steak and great cocktails. Customer service is nice and I love the chimchurri sauce and skirt steak. U will not be disappointed.

02/13/08

Bold Brazilian Fare

by jwhung

Great place all in all. Our server was friendly and fun. He made great recommendations of various dishes and new what he was talking about. The sangria there was really tasty! Not too sweet and not to tart. It would have been nice to have some fruit in there and maybe less ice, but it was still one of the better sangria I've ever had. Another drink that my friend ordered was the Brazilan Hottie. Malibue rum pineapple juice and other things...also very tasty and freshing with the mint leaves. I highly recommend the avocado & palmito samosa...yummy...and I say this when I typically don't like avocados at all! The Bife Buenos Aires which is a skirt steak, was really good, perfectly done and tender, especially with the spicy chimichurri sauce! I had to order more sauce cause it was so good. My hubby had the southern style steak and it was done to his liking. Although i didn't try it, my friends' dishes of Carne na brasa and moqueca looked and smelled delicious and flavourful. Lastly, the tiramsu was chocolately and moist. perfect way to end the meal. The decor is nice and the place itself made me feel comfortable, warm and welcomed. I would definitely go back!

• Pros: Chimichurri sauce, the service, the ambience, the steaks, the sangria...pretty much everything
• Cons: can't think of any

02/02/08

Nice find!

by thenewbombs

We were walking by and decided to give this restaurant a try. The ambience is great - lively and fun. The service was very attentive and helpful. The food is really good - both the Brazilian and Mediterranean options were great. The wine and beer selections were thorough. Overall, a nice experience.

• Pros: Good food and good service

07/26/07

Best food in all of Pasadena

by linetazarian

Okay so Im not going to lie I never noticed this place until one day I randomly walked in. I usually go to Cheesecake Factory and try to avoid trying new restaurants. But this place is FANTASTIC!!!! The service is great, the ambience is great and they have outside seating!!!! Most importantly I never ever go to Cheescake Factory anymore because Malagueta has the best food ever....It is brazilian with a medditereanean flare. Everything is so tasty. Try the beef buenos aires with plantains and the gaucho steak sandwich you wont regret it , even the cheese pizza is delicious. I cant say enough good things about the food its the best and it doesnt hurt that the bartender is HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!

Editorial Review

by Contributor

Old Town Pasadena restaurant mixes Brazilian and Mediterranean fair with grilled meat and fish entrees, sandwiches and salads.

04/04/07

DEFINETELY NO!

by ssmith288

We went to celebrate my friend's bday. Service was very pushy, trying to make us order more and more. Food wasn't bad nor good. Nothing out of the ordinary. Had a very bad experience when we asked the server to bring out the cake that we brought. Asked server for the plastic knife that came with it but he said that he didn't see anything, so we asked him for a knife and he said that he has big knives and that he can't bring it out to us, so we asked him for a steak knife but he didn't want to give us one and insisted so much that he could cut the cake for us, and that he has a lot of experience cutting cake! hmmmm..... First we thought, such a great service until we got the bill and notice a $7 extra for cutting the cake! No wonder he insisted so much and was so eager to take the cake to cut it.

We don't mind paying the extra fee, but we do mind and don't appreciate how they did it. They should have just told us that there will be a fee especially when we insisted that we wanted to cut the cake ourselves. I guess that explains why the plastic knife was missing from the cake. So shady!

By the way, the restaurant is no longer called Chiara, now it's called Maraqueta and it's kinda a mix of Brazilian, Mexican, Cuban and something else combined.

It's definetely a NO! There are a lot of other good restaurants in Old Town.

10/06/04

Definitely recommend

by jrt12

Great little place in Old Town Pasadena that I've been to a handful of times. Interesting food, different than normal fare, definitely worth trying. Good service, good location with alot to do nearby (shopping, movies, clubs/bars). If youre looking for something different, the next time youre in Old Pasadena, check it out.

• Pros: interesting food, good location

09/28/04

Pretty Good!

by intlfoods

It's got alot of flavor and taste to it! The portions are kinda small, but overall food was good! The only negative thing about it was....the tables are too close to each other, making you feel like, that your date was someone else' date.....or vice versa.

• Pros: food, service