Mandarin Lotus

This place is amazing. They use a lot of spices in their food and it is delicious. I don’t understand the negative reviews, but Kim and Dan are by far the most positive people I’ve ever met and their food is beyond delicious. I usually go for lunch and the Garlic Beef (medium spicy) is wonderful and full of flavor. I love this place and if you are looking for some great Chinese food definitely give it a shot.

We just ordered and my husband picked it up. The menu online was really inspired and sounded fun. The food was… ok. The honey chicken and the sesame chicken tasted exactly the same. We ordered the BBQ ribs and while they were good… there were 4 pieces in the order. The egg flower soup was flavorless except for too much pepper. Not great.

First off the 2 $$ signs are off. It is definitely overpriced.
We ordered take out, they said it would be right there. It took them 40 minutes to deliver it 2 miles. When it arrived, EVERTHING was cold. The five wontons were stale, had no filling and on our bill we were charged $ 9.00. WOW
the soup had a slight film on the top. Nothing tasted like it had just been cooked. I feel we got was left from before. NOT one good item for 5 different dishes. NEVER RECOMMEND
OR GO BACK.

I love this place!!!
My wife and I eat here all the time we being friends from out of town,
They genuinely care about each guest and are always happy to make a special dish just for you.
I love the pork chop Dan does it’s an amazingly tender and juicy price of meat.
This place is a must try and must return each dish is just as good as the rest.
Back here again it’s Soo good

We are never disappointed at this place. It’s not your ordinary Chinese food. The flavors and combinations are phenomenal.
Great for vegetarians with a huge mock menu and the rest of the menu — the usual chicken, beef, shrimp etc is enlarged with venison and other fine meats.
More expensive than ordinary Chinese restaurants but this isn’t ordinary food.

The husband and wife team were very kind. Service was okay considering it was just 2 people manning the joint. I cannot speak of the meat dishes because we are vegetarian, but we were left less than happy after eating here. The mock meats were terrible. They were so thin and oily that it took away from the entire dish. My husband and I kept saying the flavors weren’t terrible but these fake meats (mock chicken and mock pork) are unlike anything we have ever had (in the worst way). We also ordered the hot and sour soup. It was certainly hot, but we tasted no sour at all. Did they forget the vinegar? It was unappetizing and solely spicy and salty. To top it off, I felt the prices were incredibly high for what the items were. $ 12 hot and sour soup for 2? Never again.

This place has the most delicious Chinese and it is prepared in a healthy fashion. They also have vegan and other options for those with special diets.
Fresh ingredients, friendly and accommodating owners and an A rated kitchen.
I highly recommend you try it.

Proceed with caution. You will spend all of your money here if you aren’t careful!
I’ve used Unilocal for years. I can’t even count the # of times that I’ve said I’m going to write a review, but I’ve never felt more compelled to actually follow up with that intention than after last night’s experience at ManLo.
Yes, I said ManLo. That’s what our entire group of friends who are in love with this gem nicknamed it so that we don’t have to pronounce the full name every time we want to discuss how phenomenal it is. If the fact that we have a nickname for this place doesn’t give you enough of a hint as to how truly unique it is, then I doubt the rest of my review will.
Before I even touch on the delicious palette bursting dishes and over 300+ menu items (150+ vegetarian options!), this review would not be complete without first and foremost highlighting the humans who make my favorite restaurant tick: Kim and Dan.
Ugh, Kim and Dan. Such genuine people with an infectious love for life.
Chef Dan is a traveled flavor technician with an uncanny knack for recreating combinations from all over the world and fusing them with Chinese cuisine.
Kim is like the Mom you always had. She’s a master of tea and just «gets it» when it comes to front of house. She remembers every single person’s name in our group of 12+ people who are regulars. And she always goes above and beyond to make you feel like you’re at home.
Kim + Dan understand why you’re going out to their restaurant and never cease to amaze with their gratitude and generosity. I honestly could write an essay about them so given the fact that I’m already on par to write the longest Unilocal review ever, I’m going to move onto the food.
I have no clue where to start.
You will find all of the classic dishes done to a quality that you probably have never tasted. Everything from Mongolian Beef to Orange Chicken to the BEST Hot & Sour soup. We order the Hot & Sour every single time. Even when it’s hot out. It’s that good. To be frank, though, if you’re coming here to eat the standard Chinese dishes, you’re doing it all wrong.
Where this place shines is in the sheer variety of completely novel dishes that you’re sure to never experience anywhere else. When I say that Dan is well-​traveled I mean it. I find it mind-​blowing and we often wonder out loud about how Dan can possibly have so many spices and ingredients stored in his kitchen to recreate the flavors he’s picked up from all over the world.
The best way I can describe it is that eating here is like putting a blindfold on and spinning a globe and stopping it with your finger at any random location then being fed a superbly crafted dish influenced by that region. Funny enough, I’ve actually done the blind pointing method when selecting a Lunch Special dish since every option is delicious to me. I’ve never been disappointed. Yes, it’s like dat!
Don’t believe me? Scope the menu for yourself. Which, by the way, is completely redone and was a shock to our party’s collective system last night. We were finally at the point where we dissected the previous menu enough to have it narrowed down to 15 or so dishes that we knew we would all love. With the introduction of a new menu, it was nearly impossible to decide on 3 dishes. We had to group different dishes by the type of flavor it carries e.g. sweeter or spicier in order to make the choosing process doable.
I’m talking Argentinian Sauce (Dan’s take on Chimichurri) that pairs with all types of meat. This is a staple at every meal of ours. It’s just that good.
I’m talking Korean Black Bean Purée that is just out of this world.
I’m talking Asian Scampi w/​Garlic Chow Fun that never fails to induce multiple mouthgasms.
I’m talking MIdori Kiwi Chicken that’s so much danker than any orange chicken I’ve ever had — and I love me some orange chicken.
I’m talking a Panang Almond Butter dish that is an amalgamation of the best flavors from Thai.
I can’t even attempt to list all of the wonderful creations that the menu has in store for you, but I hope I’ve given you an idea as to how diverse the offerings are.
All in all, I’m proud to say that Mandarin Lotus is legitimately my favorite restaurant on the planet.
I hope that you (whoever you are) are lucky enough to walk into this unassuming strip-​mall joint sometime soon.
Pro Tip: Ask Kim to surprise you with her own tea combination.
If you go, mention that I sent you. You’ll be treated well — I promise.

The food was really tasty, the portions smaller than what you normally get, it was enough for us — we ordered soup and three entrées for a family of 2 adults and 2 kids. We also ordered green tea without seeing it on the menu. We were a little surprised by the price of the tea. Overall I found it to be a bit overpriced for a strip mall restaurant but enjoyed the food.

Small and friendly Chinese restaurant in a strip mall. Owners are beyond nice.
Selections are unique and done very well. Presentation of the dishes are not your basic family owned restaurant dishes.
Loved the soft, beef noodles, strawberry chicken and the Kelsey Grammer Chicken.

Tonight is the first and last time I will ever be eating this overpriced awful food. A few things:
1. I called in a delivery order, and was told that delivery is free, but $ 10 was added to my bill as a tip for the driver. Wait. what? I asked the person on the phone don’t I decide on the amount of tip I want to give? According to them I don’t. And I REFUSE to pay $ 10 to a driver that is traveling less than 1 mile to my home.
2. I ordered chicken with snow peas WITH OUT sauce. I reiterated that multiple times. Guess what. my chicken was SWIMMING in oily sauce. It was literally inedible.
3. How do 3 entrees and soup add up to almost $ 70? Ill tell you how… my oily disgusting inedible chicken was almost $ 20!!! Who charges that much for a normal entrée???
I will NEVER be eating here again. I called back to tell the restaurant about my chicken issue, and I was told «oh I have your phone number, next time I’ll make it better for you.» No you won’t. This was one and done.

This is the most delicious Chinese restaurant! The menu for vegetarians and vegans is amazing! There are so many choices and everything is so flavorful! The people that run this place are amazingly kind and their understanding of vegan, vegetarian and gluten free needs is so impressive. We will be visiting this place way more then we should! Love the fact we finally have an amazing place to eat not far from Moorpark! By the way of your a meat eater or sea food eater they have a ton of choices as well!!!

If you like Chinese healthy! This is your spot.
I love their vegetable fried rice and the OMG chicken!
We come here a lot.
Kim & Dan are great!
Also great tea collection

Came here for supper with a work colleague and we were more than pleased with our food and the service! They were joyful and attentive and the menu was so expansive we had more than enough to choose from for our vegetarian meal.
If you want meat, they’ve got a huge selection on the other side of the menu! I would be very surprised if there wasn’t something for everyone.
I really enjoyed the pure, clean flavors present in both of our dishes and I will definitely be back again and again.

The service was bad. We were willing to overlook that until the food was served. It didn’t get any better.
Our server, the owner (Kim) was rude and abrupt.
On a scale of 1 – 10, the food was about a 4, at best.
We will not be coming bad. Sad because of some of the other reviews, we were expecting so much more.
Even the fortune cookies tasted stale.

Wonderful food that Fodies and Vegans will love. Kim and Dan personally took care of us.
We had 5 plates and tea;
We had Crispy tofu, spinach buns, new schezuan tofu, salad, and mole tofu
I’m going for the second time in the week.
That’s how wonderful their food is and was light and not heavy, delicately taste and delicious

I seriously don’t understand how this place has such a high Unilocal rating. The owners will completely rip you off if you eat here.
I came here as part of a group of 6 on Saturday night. I had been here a couple of times before and knew that the owner (Kim) has a tendency to really push the expensive dishes, but the food was pretty good (they call it Asian Fusion cuisine) so I decided to give it another shot and brought some friends here.
We ordered tea for the table and about one dish per person. The salt and pepper fish and the blackberry walnut shrimp were both good. The Kelsey Grammar Orange Chicken was just fried strips (not a lot of chicken) and the Mongolian Beef tasted weird (I think it was their «fusion» cooking — traditionally cooked Mongolian Beef would have been better). Overall, the food was ok.
The real surprise was not their «Asian Fusion» cooking but the bill! Oh yes, when we ordered tea they had not asked us what we wanted, but instead brought out two pots (one was ginseng oolong and the other tasted like it had anise seed in it, truth be told they were both pretty gross). Then they charged us $ 8.95 per pot. YES, $ 8.95 PER POT OF TEA. When we complained they brought out the «tea menu» showing the price, but they had never given us this menu when we sat down at the table or shown it to us when we ordered our tea. Prices for tea were not on their regular menu. IN SHORT, WE WERE CHARGED A TOTAL OF $ 18 FOR TEA WE HADN’T EVEN CHOSEN OURSELVES. Because to allow us to choose our own tea from the tea menu would have revealed the price! Clever, huh?
They also added a nice 18% gratuity for themselves. I don’t mind when restaurants do this for servers, but when the server is the owner and the owner has just charged your table $ 18 FOR TWO POTS OF TEA. .. well, you get the picture.
Oh, and Kim walked around the entire time with a white plastic glove on so that was a bit disconcerting from both a health and cleanliness perspective.
I suppose if you don’t mind wasting money and you don’t know what actual Chinese food tastes like then this place would be ok. Otherwise I would stay away. You’ve been warned!

Absolutely incredible Chinese fusion !!!
A must try and it will become your new addiction !!

Keep in mind when you eat here for the first time that this is Asian fusion food. It is a spin on what you may get at other Chinese restaurants. It’s rather small inside and not very busy the times I have been here. I like the décor and the wall of famous visitors. The owner is this peppy and energetic lady who is very friendly.
I have eaten here twice and I like the food and the exotic flavors. I have had three dishes total and all three seem to be similar in some way. They used the same veggies in all the dishes. The portion size is small compared to other Chinese restaurants. Especially the family style items. I also think they are a bit overpriced on the family style options. Also they give you a small pre measured serving of rice rather than a pot of rice. Good if you are watching your carbs!
If you like tofu I recommend the basil tofu dish. This reminds me of a Thai dish. The tofu was good and crispy.
The menu is extensive and there are a lot of vegetarian choices. If you order hot or cold tea be prepared to pay $ 4 for it. They use premium teas and alkaline water so they charge more.

Just stopped at a new Chinese place after an afternoon workout. Very nice family owned Chinese restaurant in Agoura right off Kanan road just South of the 101. I met the owner Dan and his wife Kim. They are good people and it is reflected in the excellent service and quality food. They actually have an alkaline water machine on site to purify and serve pH balanced water. Dan indicated he uses this water in his tea and soups as well as to provide the healthiest possible choice. They use fresh ingredients and do not use MSG in the preparation of their food.
I tried their steamed dumplings and hot and sour soup; both excellent. The location does a lot of take out orders so there is a bit of a counter feel to the place, but you can also dine in as well. Prices are a little on the high side for Chinese food but they serve large orders suitable for family style. Dan and Kim also cater as well. They have been in business for 25 years and their professionalism and customer service is reflective of a successful business. I have made some new friends and now will be a regular. Can’t believe I never tried this place before.
Keep in mind they are open on the weekends only after 4:30 PM due to the International House of Pancakes and sharing the same parking lot.