Mandarin Palace

2 ½ Stars
This is the shadiest chinese restaurant you will ever find. Walk in and you’re immediately greeted by a giant algae-​fied fish tank, followed by a pair of grumpy individuals. Sure, they’re selection of dishes is sufficient. And the prices are fair, but I always feel more comfortable having the food delivered and avoiding the «Palace».
Once you get past the obvious architectural fallacies of Mandarin Palace II, you can finally begin to accept the average quality of the food. The spring rolls are decent – initial bite is always crispy. The chicken chow fun is also good, if you’re looking for a decent amount of food for around $ 7.
Order from eat24 and you can usually save $ 1-​$ 5.

Sometimes you just really need some crappy Chinese takeout. There would be times where I would crave their lemon pepper chicken wings. But now, NEVER AGAIN.
On Thursday night, I ordered lemon pepper chicken wings and moo shu pork for dinner. I order from here, even though it’s not real Chinese food, because they deliver and those chicken wings are damn good. First, the delivery man demanded a larger tip. No big deal, I was willing to throw him an extra $ 2. But then, I GOT FOOD POISONING. That’s pretty much the last straw with any restaurant — Give me food poisoning and I’ll never come back.
Sorry, MP2. I’ll miss those lemon pepper chicken wings.

This place is horrible. They could not find my phone number so they simply did not deliver my food. despite having my address. I called to ask why they did not come knock on the door but they said if they don’t have a number they won’t deliver because it is a «waste of money». It seems like their whole business is a waste of money if you ask me. NEVER GO HERE!

It took them 2 hours to deliver an order that was placed after any possible lunch rush. When I called multiple times to find out where our food was and what was taking so long they said next time we ordered we could get a free egg roll for our troubles. Needless to say there won’t be a next time.

Worst delivery food I have ever had, and I’ve had more than my share.
Ordered from Grub Hub, and to be fair, the delivery was timely enough. Certainly no more than 30 minutes.
The «Food»:
Steamed Dumplings: horrific. no doubt frozen, but way too thick and kinda just chewy.
Wonton Soup: nothing to write home about. Same terrible dumplings in it.
Mongolian Beef: Red Onion. Completely grainy «beef.» Sauce wasn’t quite right.
Kung Pao Chicken: Almost entirely vegetable (bamboo, onion, green beans?!). And the sauce was watery/​vinegary and lacking in pretty much any flavor.
Free, yes FREE (with $ 20 dollar order, perhaps this was the first sign) Sweet and Sour Chicken — typical fried «chickeny» stuff with terrifying red «sauce» on the side.
Bottom Line: If you enjoy Asian food, this place will make you sad. If you don’t, this place will probably make you sad.

Love me some chinese delivery… and Mandarin Palace II is no different. In fact, they’re at the top of their league for americanized chinese takeout. The portions are huge, and the special deals from GrubHub (shout to Kathleen M.) are amazing as well. Prices are reasonable and food is really good. I particularly love the pork dumplings!

Growing up in central California, I’ve become accustomed to having great Asian cuisine. When I made the move out to Georgia, I began my search for a west coast alternative. After trying several different places, I was ready to give on Chinese food on the east coast all together. Luckily, I stumbled upon Mandarin Palace… and I’m glad I did.
I tried their shrimp egg foo young and honey bbq chicken. Both entrees were filling and quite delicious! They delivered my food on time too, which is always a plus when ordering out.
I would recommend them again and again. Yum!

Since moving to Inman Park, I still rely on Mandarin Palace for my Americanized Chinese delivery needs. You can order through GrubHub, which makes things even easier. Plus, they’ve got a special where you get a free order of sweet and sour chicken if you order over $ 15 worth of food. Yum.
The portions are gigantic: so much food can be had, and it’s all MSG laden and incredibly filling. None of it is authentic or over the top, but it certainly fills the craving when I’ve got a hankering.
My last order was about 20 minutes late but since I ordered through GrubHub they gave me $ 10 toward a future order. I’d highly recommend ordering through GH rather than their site: the prices are the same and you’re likely to get a lot better service.

Normally has really good food and… ok service. However, the other day i went there on my lunch break and they forgot my sweet and sour sauce. I suppose its partially my fault for not un-​stapling the bag to check its contents, but my frustration came from there response to me when trying to get my order corrected. I understand that mistakes happen, and maybe this is me being «old-​fashion», but what ever happened to the customers being right? When i called back, the lady who picked up the phone asked me multiple times if i had the sauce because the cook said she included it.
Why would i be calling back if i had everything i needed? …just to chat?
Not like i was attempting to scam her for sauce. Just wanted a complete meal.
Overall, what initially was a simple mistake became a huge inconvenience.
Ended up wasting gas to do multiple trips, and of course, still ended up being late gettn back to work.

Screw this place.
Stopped in for a late lunch a few days ago and stood at the door completely ignored by both the woman at the register and another woman peeling snow peas at a table.
The buffet looked shut down but I walked over to it just to see… after all, I was clearly on my own here. At this point the woman peeling snow peas stood up and practically yelled at me that the buffet was closed. I was a little confused since this was my first time there and I thought they had a buffet going all the time. No big deal though. I started to ask her if they had a regular menu I could order from but she cut me off and yelled that the buffet was closed, not the restaurant. Um. Okay.
Now, I’m sure that this place is regularly teeming with a dodgy clientele but you don’t have to take that out on me.
Getting really sick of her attitude I raised my voice and gave her a round assurance that, yes, I understood what my options were.
You’re not off to a good start when you and a customer are yelling at one another before they even take a seat. I think she realized what a turd she had been and as I sat down she halfheartedly tried to be nice but I just glared at her upset that I really didn’t have the time to go somewhere else.
When I got my food I determined that it sucked about as a badly as the rest of the experience. I am forced to give this dump 1 star because 0 stars is not yet an option…

The health inspection is now 100 — A, but the food gets a D. It’s been over a year or so since I’ve been to MP. At lunch today, I remembered why I have not been back. It’s a very limited selection of poorly prepared food. I liked the $ 9 price. But sometimes you have to remember, you get what you pay for! I may be getting older, but I hope my bowel movements are on their on for a few more years and not due to me eating here today!

Yikes! I just saw the health scores in the paper and Mandarin Palace seems to have a few issues. Recent scores include a 60 (U) on Dec. 5, a 43 (U) back on April 21 and a 30 (U) in August 2010. At least they’re trending in the right direction. At this rate they’ll have a passing score in another year or so!

What do you expect out of a Chinese restaurant housed in a former IHOP?
With that said, I have to say that Mandarin Palace is pretty great if you’re looking for standard Americanized Chinese food. Nothing will knock your socks off, but the things I order from there have been consistently tasty.
They prepare the food lightning-​quick– I’ve never had to wait over 5 minutes. The food is always blazing hot, so you’ll have no trouble with it getting cold by the time you get home. This does have a downside in that if you do not open the container for, say, 30 minutes, the food can become overcooked by that time. While I’m eating my soup, I’ll usually leave the top off the container to keep it from overheating.

Let me start off by saying that I live in close proximity to this restaurant and was always somewhat skeptical about what went on inside. The parking lot is always empty, yet the place still remains open. Having long ago convinced myself that it was some type of illicit trade front, I finally decided to give it a try. I have watched more than my fair share of Lifetime Originals and didn’t want the delivery order to unassumingly turn into a «me love you long time» scenario at my doorstep; accordingly, I opted for take-​out. After completing the relatively easy online ordering process, I received a confirmation e-​mail that the food would be ready in 10 minutes — talk about fast food, my friends. I immediately headed over to the restaurant, and to my surprise, the order was ready, accurate, and hot upon arrival.
Food: The menu at Mandarin Palace is typical Americanized Chinese, so don’t expect anything too culinarily exhilarating. I opted for the steamed pork dumplings for an appetizer, which were sizable and hot, but somewhat soggy and bland. For an entrée, I had the Sesame Chicken and my partner had the General Tso’s Chicken. I generally order the Sesame Chicken as a standard that can be compared to other Chinese restaurants. That being said, their Sesame Chicken really isn’t all that great; the meat was tough, the broccoli was wilted, and the sauce was less than stimulating. All – in-​all, the food was OK for a Chinese delivery place, but it doesn’t even touch the quality of the many options on Buford Highway. Also, the portions were large and could easily be separated into two or three meals.
Service: As I alluded to before, service was extremely quick and the online ordering process was simple to navigate.
Atmosphere: Dark, quiet, and scary. Pick-​up your food and remember where the door is.
Cost: Inexpensive and commensurate with most Chinese takeout locations. The cost of appetizers are $ 5 and entrees are around $ 9.50. All entrees come with complimentary rice, fortune cookies, and duck sauce. They also give you plastic forks, which was a surprising deviation from the traditional chopsticks. I subsequently convinced myself that I must have been a victim of Chinese food profiling; any individual who orders the sesame chicken with a last name like mine clearly would not be able to operate chopsticks.
Other: Upon picking up my order, I finally realized why the parking lot of this place is always empty. It turns out they are only open for dine-​in during lunch (11AM — 3PM) and offer delivery and takeout the remainder of the time. Since I rarely drive by during the lunch hour, this explains the recurrently empty parking lot.

Great deal for a poor college student. I used to order from here pretty often when I lived in the dorms. It’s $ 7 – 8 for a combo meal, and what you get is enough for 2 meals.
Thanks to Campusfoods, I found this place and felt like I got a great deal. Whenever I got the combo, I would get a complimentary drop egg soup and a fortune cookie! I’ve never actually been to this restaurant, so my review is based on my experience with their food and delivery service.
The actual food is often greasy but tasty.

Correction: This place is actually called Mandarin Palace II, not Mandarin Palace… 1?
The driver, whoever he is, must be the happiest Chinese takeout driver I’ve ever met… when he called me to say that he was outside my building, I was greeted by a very enthusiastic «hello, Chinese food!»
Anyways. They have these combination plates, where you get your main dish + pork fried rice + spring roll, all for $ 11 or $ 12ish, depending on what you get. I always feel uncomfortable whenever I have to pay double digits for takeout Chinese, but it isn’t so bad because they give you a lot of food. On a scale of 1 — 10, if your hunger level is between 8 and 10, you could probably eat the whole thing… otherwise, sharing is definitely a possibility.
I ordered recently around 11pm, and it took them about 45 minutes or so to deliver (which was the time quoted to me, so kudos for accuracy!). There is a $ 8 delivery minimum, and they will automatically tack on an extra dollar as delivery charge.
The quality of the actual food is meh, but for Chinese takeout, you get what you pay for (actually, they are slightly better than other Chinese takeout eateries in the area). However, considering the amount that you have to shell out to eat here, it might be better to consider elsewhere.

Remember Joe Peci’s line from that stupid Mel Gibson Movie…“they f%$k you in the drive thru…”? Well, they f%$k you on delivery too! I’ve been here for the lunch buffet and it wasn’t bad… now they’ve gotten a new, super shiny delivery menu out that makes the place look «ooooooohhh!!» and so professional. Don’t be fooled!
I ordered spicy dumplings… no spice whatsoever. I also ordered Tom Yum spicy thai soup… no spice whatsoever again. I actually think I got dishwater rung from the rag like the diner commercial with the pissy waitress who hates the guys ordering iced tea. OK… maybe it wasn’t quite THAT bad, but it wasn’t Thai and it wasn’t spicy and it really wasn’t what I thought I would get. I guess that’s what I get for being lazy. Yuck!!!

I’ve lived about a block away from the Mandarin Palace for three years, but it’s taken me until recently to get up the nerve to order food from them. The place always seemed a bit sketchy to me from the outside because no one ever seemed to be eating there. (Though the parking lot seems to get a lot of use.) I’m still not unconvinced that it’s a front for the Chinese mafia and/​or some midtown prostitution ring. I mean, c’mon. (Cash businesses are a great way to legitimize some income.) Granted, it’s Chinese that’s a notch and a half above Panda Express, and the building was an IHOP. I’d get carry out or delivery rather than dining in, too.
I ordered the Kung Pao chicken combination plate which came with a veggie egg roll and pork fried rice. The Kung Pao was fine after I picked out the baby corn and fungus. The veggie egg roll was pretty standard, and the rice was a bit salty, but good. I’d prefer egg fried rice to pork, but overall, it was serviceable food. Not great, but not mall food court foul. And it was still steaming hot when delivered. I don’t like my food to be lukewarm, so I’m lukewarm on food delivery, usually.
There is a very ample parking lot, and it’s free unless there’s an event at the Fox. (I imagine it’s still free to customers, but don’t hold me to that.) It also seems to be a popular place for people to come park their cars and not get out at all, especially very late at night. I know this because my balcony overlooks the parking lot. Maybe they are getting Chinese food through some Star Trek-​like beaming of food (though I think the restaurant might be closed by 2am). Perhaps they are smoking dope like their high school math teacher feared. Or maybe they’re johns getting serviced by the midtown trannie hooker contingent. I wonder, but I’m afraid to find out.
Having said that, I bet you wonder why it didn’t take longer than three years to order from there.

The food was delivered quickly by a frendly waitress. Food was good for the price but I’ve had better. Tables were sticky and the décor could use a lift but it’s a good place for cheap takeout.

One of the better Chinese food places I have found in town. The dumplings are pretty good so those are for sure at the top of my recommendations.
Friendly service, I will be back here for sure.