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Business & Tech

Mandarin House Not Home to Good Chinese Food

There's nothing better than a good meal—well, too bad you won't find it here.

Name:  Mandarin House

Cuisines: Chinese

Payment: Cash, Visa, MasterCard

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Alcohol:  No

Price: $

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Address: 10167 Hastings Drive, Manassas Va 20110

Hours of Operation: Sunday-Thursday: 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m.

Salt Says:

To say the least, I was not impressed with the Mandarin House.

I ordered the Triple Delight which turned out to be pretty dismal. It came with fried rice and an egg roll, none of which were good. The “fried rice” was speckled with frozen vegetables, wasn't cooked all the way through and tasted more boiled than anything.The egg roll was crispy and golden brown on the outside, but inside was filled with soggy greasy cabbage.

The triple delight wasn't that great, either. The shrimp were (excuse the pun) tiny and tasted as if they came from the freezer. The beef and chicken were pretty good as were the vegetables in the dish. The sauce, however, was awful. Considering all the things in the dish, the sauce should have been pretty strong, but it tasted watered down and  is hardly worth mentioning.

The service was pretty good. The host who took my order was incredibly friendly. The restaurant was clean and the atmosphere friendly.

It took no time at all for my meal to come out. It literally took about five minutes, which made me skepical.  When I came to the restaurant, they were still serving a lunch buffet and judging by the quality of the meal and the quick turn-around time, I'm almost convinced it came from the buffet.

I don't see myself coming back to Mandarin House anytime soon. But I might give them another try (just out of curiosity) one day—a day in the very distant future when I've forgotten how bad my intial meal was. When I go back, I'll probably go after lunch service to see if it's better.

Pepper Says:

Now I don’t think I’ve had any Chinese since reviewing a few months back. And rather than being satisfied, Mandarin House turned me off to Chinese food indefinitely. The place was casual and the staff was civil, but I'm not sure the food could even be considered adequate.

Let’s start with the spring rolls, the wrap was OK, nice and crispy on the outside, but the inner layer was chewy. So as you bite in, the outside shatters and you have to pull off a chunk of the chewy inside. The filling was rather plain, pretty much all cabbage.

The hot and sour soup was actually pretty good, not a lot of tofu or bamboo, but the broth was good. I noticed a lot of places around here have the hot and sour tasting like someone dumped a bottle of black pepper in it.  I only asked for one order of hot and sour but they brought me two.  When I pointed out I only ordered one, she became rather irate, so I just paid for both.

Now for the main course:Hunan beef.  I've had been craving some for days and boy was I disappointed. The broccoli was way, way undercooked. The corn was overcooked and mushy and there were barely any bamboo shoots. The meat was horrible; it didn’t even taste like real beef. The sauce was OK, but it looked reheated and it was lumpy.

Needless to say, I doubt I will return to Mandarin House any time in the near future. If I did, it would only be for the hot and sour. Hunan beef is pretty hard to mess up, so I have little faith that I would enjoy any of the eatery's other dishes.

 

 

 

 

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