House of Mango is a neighborhood refresqueria in Houston’s Spring Branch neighborhood. We sample a mangonada raspa and elotes with butter and mayonnaise.

1506 Gessner Dr., Houston, TX 77080
(346) 980-8631
Website

11am–9pm, Sun–Thu; 11am–10pm Fri–Sat; 11am–9pm (everyday in summer)
Cash only

Visited on August 5, 2018

If it’s a steamy day and you’re out driving around western Houston, you might succumb to a siren song of frozen, fruit-flavored treats. Recently, this call beckoned us and we followed it to a tiny refresquería in the Spring Branch area.

Built into a modest mid-century home on Gessner Drive, House of Mango deserves a more romantic street name, like the one in the 1984 novel by Sandra Cisneros. At what could be the House of Mango on Mango Street, the process is simple: you study the large menus with high-saturation colors posted out front, select from a variety of snacks and raspas (shave ice), place your order at the window, and pay with cash. A little bell rings when your treats are ready to be retrieved, and you carry them to a nearby picnic table. Choosing from the Raspas Natural section, we decided on a large mangonada ($8), and to balance the sweet with some savory, a large cup of elotes ($5).

Mangonada: The large mangonada seems expensive, but large means large here. And House of Mango does not skimp on ingredients, which include (according to their website) “natural mango juice, mango pulp, lucas powder, tamarindo stick, chamoy, and tamarindo candies.” This towering frozen treat takes your garden-variety shave ice right back to dessert school. Not to mention, it was damn good on a hot summer day: cold, sweet, tangy, a little spicy, a little salty, and loaded up with mango pulp and chewy candies. As we dug down into the cup, we discovered additional layers of mango and tamarindo, confirming this refresquería distributes the good stuff and doesn’t hide a bunch of virginal snow under a dolled-up surface layer. They’re in it for repeat business. Next time we would order a medium to share or a small each.

Elotes: As expected, this was a big ol’ cup of corn kernels topped with mayonnaise, parmesan cheese, chile sauce, and some kind of buttery spread product. We stirred everything up in the cup and enjoyed the creamy and slightly spicy flavors. We might just stick with the raspas or try a different snack next time (such as Takis Locos, with “takis, yellow corn, nacho cheese, Mexican cream, salsa or jalapeños”).