Mandarin Palace

To get a good idea of Mandarin Palace we ordered our favorite dishes that we normally get at our favorite Chinese restaurant. My choice was the salt and pepper fish, and it didn't hold up in comparison. The fish was small and thin chunks with a heavy breading instead of regular servings of fresh tasting fish. The veggies were super thinly sliced and didn't add a whole lot of flavor. She ordered moo goo gai pan, and appreciated the thinner cuts of veggies on her dish. It wasn't as flavorful as what we get at our favorite place, though. The prices were okay, slightly higher than we usually pay but not outrageous. Servers were pleasant enough. Overall I'd rate it average. We'll stick to our favorite Chinese place.

The Mandarin Palace has been consistently good over a period of many years. On the standard menu there are few surprises, the usual Americanized Chinese food done well. I suspect that if you knew authentic Chinese food they would prepare it for you and it would be good. I wish that they would make authentic Chinese food available to Western customers.

This is the worst Chinese restaurant I have visited in CA. The food does not taste good because it is either very salty or very weird. The size is very small. The service is very bad. For example, I told the manager one dish was so spicy that I lost the sense of my taste because the chef dumped too much pepper oil. The manager replied: this is the way we cooked. Very bad Chinese Restaurant. I do not recommend it!!!

The night started out being almost forgotten about, until the ONE server they had got to us. The poor guy was running all over the place, by himself. There was no communication amongst the staff, it seemed. Normally I wouldn't mind waiting a while for food if it's good, but this just wasn't the case. We waited forever for our food, mine got there about 15 minutes before my husband's. It was okay, I had the Moo Shu Chicken. Husband had Sweet and Sour Pork, which was watery, the pork had the texture like it had been refried repeatedly, and the pork was not fresh. It was dry and rubbery. We also had chicken chow mein, some of the chicken was still pink and slimy, the flavoring was bizarre. I had gone back to use the restroom, and in the pathway leading there were bags of trash and cans, and an odor of garbage leading to the view of a disastrous and disgusting looking kitchen. I definitely would not recommend eating here, and we will not be dining here again, either.

Stopped in for lunch and ordered the Dan Dan Mian (spicy minced pork over noodles). I was impressed with the depth of flavor in the pork, including the subtle hints of garlic and ginger. The texture of the noodles was perfect and complimented the dish well. If you like spicy food I recommend trying this dish.

A decent place. Very fast at getting food. It's hard to know exactly what you'll get. Seems like every restaurant does the same name but different food. Overall this place was good to go and try, but I cannot see myself coming back by choice. It would have to be a friend or someone wanting to try it.