Mandarin Kitchen

8766 Lyndale Ave S
Bloomington, MN 55420
952-884-5356
http://www.mandarin-kitchen.com/

Category: Chinese

Rating (Scale 1-10, with 10 being the highest):
Food: 6 (lunch), 8 (dim sum)
Service: 8 (lunch), 8 (dim sum)
Ambience: 4 (lunch), 7 (dim sim)

Recommendation: Average for lunch, but very good for dim sum! The extensive lunch menu offers over 250 dishes, but ones we tried didn’t leave a lasting impression. Fortunately our subsequent dim sum experience (see Jan 24 update below) was much better.

Mandarin Kitchen is located in a strip mall in Bloomington. When you enter you are greeted by the roasted duck and BBQ ribs that are hanging in the window waiting to be served. There is also a live lobster tank that had a big selection of lobster (including one that might be the biggest lobster we have ever seen). Although this place does not have any touches of Chinese décor, it is clean and offers comfortable chairs and tables (the plastic table cloth looks tacky though). Nick and his coworkers went here for lunch and the food was brought out quickly.

As part of the lunch special, you get a choice of one of three soups, two appetizers, 20+ entrees, and white or fried rice. The Hot and Sour Soup was very good and the Egg Rolls were well flavored, crisp, and not greasy. However, the Cream Cheese Wontons were served cold and limp and we didn’t care of them much. We tried the Sesame Chicken, Mandarin Beef, and Sesame Beef. Both the beef dishes were well flavored and the Mandarin Beef was nice and tender. The chicken was overcooked and tough. None of us could finish our meal because the portions were large (this restaurant has great value).

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Update (January 24, 2008) – We’ve heard a lot of debate about the dim sum at Jun Bo vs. Mandarin Kitchen and we decided that it was time to head on over to Mandarin and see what the fuss was all about. It was lunch time on Saturday and this place was packed – there wasn’t a parking spot available and finally after circling the block for 10 minutes we decided to park along the back entrance (we recommend you do the same in case you can’t find parking).

We’d gone with a large group of friends and let one of our friends from Southeast Asia do all the ordering. Before we knew it, our table was full of goodies galore. Some of what we had were staples – the “Ha Gau” (shrimp dumplings) and “Siu Mai” (pork dumplings) were great. We also really liked the Crab Claws and the Baked BBQ Pork Buns.

But we did venture out and try some of the more unusual menu items. There were three different preparations of Tripe (beef stomach) – we didn’t care for the stewed preparation but were impressed with the spicy preparation as well as a milder one with ginger and scallion. The Chicken Feet had great flavor, but require a lot of patience and skill to access every morsel of skin and tendon. Nick didn’t care much for the Congee (rice porridge), but that’s mostly because it evoked bad memories from his boarding school days! For dessert, we would highly recommend the Baked Coconut Bun – unfortunately the restaurant ran out of these and left us with unfulfilled cravings. They did have the Pineapple Bun, but it wasn’t as good. An unusual dessert item, made with tofu, was the “Dou Fou Fa” – it wasn’t very popular at the table mostly because the preparation wasn’t up to the mark (atleast that’s what our Asian friends told us). I’d love to describe it further, but I’ll wait for our foodie friend to trash it in his comment (he dined with us at Mandarin Kitchen and his cynical style is more suitable).

Our overall dim sum experience was wonderful. More than just the food, I think the bustling dining room filled with happy customers, and servers pushing dim sum carts through narrow spaces, made this a memorable experience. We’d recommend you go with a large group – not only will it allow you to sample more of the delicacies, but more importantly revel in the comfort of friends and family, an aspect of dining that is truly dim sum.

$$$. The dim sum meal cost around $18 per person.