Pei’s Mandarin

I have been going here for 14 years I love their food my favorite is their crabmeat ragoons and the hot and sour soup! The staff have watch my children grow up and they always remind my son of how long they have known him. We love how welcome we are when we come in. Love this place for their food, their staff and atmosphere.

Decent price for lunch buffet. Better than a lot of other Chinese places in town. Egg rolls were fresh and tasty.

Found this place traveling thru Cedar Rapids. Fantastic fresh food. They say everything from sauces to egg rolls are prepared fresh in the back and I believe it. Can’t comment on the buffet since I prefer to order off the menu since I don’t like onions.
Princess chicken was great and the veggies and especially the chicken were crisp and fresh. They allowed us to order the chicken and veggies off lunch menu even though lunch menu isn’t available on weekends
Don’t be fooled by the fact it looks like an old Denny’s it has fresh great Chinese food.

This is only a review of their Chinese menu… I’ve eaten Chinese all over the country, from New York to San Francisco to Salt Lake City and just about every point in between. I didn’t expect that much in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and my suspicions were sadly confirmed.
Pros:
All ingredients were fresh! (thus I gave 2 stars instead of 1)
The steamed rice was great!
Cons:
Their food has absolutely no flavor!
We ordered wonton soup, the fried chicken wings, mandarin lo mein, and the broccoli beef. It was all beautifully prepared, all ingredients were fresh, but he dishes had absolutely no flavor! The meats were not seasoned, the sauces were not seasoned, they sis the season the batter nor salt the fried chicken wings, nothing. At least they were not masking any off favors.
Maybe their Korean or Japanese dishes fare better…

Wow some of the worst Chinese food ever!
Hot & Sour Soup was just weird. It was like Salt & Sour Soup couldn’t eat it. Never seen it served with peas, carrots, chicken, and shrimp. BTW shrimp was bad tasting probably left over from the previous week. Pot stickers were odd as well. Supposed to be crispy outside soft inside these were the opposite. Oh and the hot tea, not sure what the heck it was maybe over brewed Lipton but one sip was enough for me! Even the fortune cookie was crap.

The sushi was very good. They personalized it for us since there were no vegetarian options on the menu which was very helpful and kind. I like the buffet very much, the variety of the buffet was great and the food was high quality. The buffet items were the same items that were on the menu, but for far less and with more variety. I can’t comment on the on menu items but I would recommend the buffet and the off-​menu sushi.

Exactly what you want when you think LOCAL food. I can’t say enough great things about Pei’s — the chinese is amazing and the sushi is outstanding. After eating here quite a few dozen times over the years — each person has to discover the Korean menu; simply outstanding.
This is just one of those great places to belly up to the sushi bar, enjoy a great drink, conversation with staff or other patrons and eat a great local meal.

I was very impressed with the good service and friendly wait staff. The egg drop soup was very good. I ordered several sushi rolls and singles. After waiting 30 minutes, I was not impressed. Nice presentation but the fish and rice did not taste fresh. It was not worth the money.
It was obvious that others there were repeat customers and ordering off the menu.

Very nice servers! They always make me and my company happy. I love Korean-​Chinese style noodles and dishes in Pei’s. You should try black bean paste noodle.

Chow Mein — Meh. I’ve experienced better.
Tasteless. If you don’t want something to test your taste buds then get this.
I got take out, the front desk was nice and I think I’ll give it another try by getting something else on the menu.

The wait staff here is fantastic and very personable. They worked with my on food allergies (nut and shellfish) and the sushi was great and went with owner, Tom’s recommendations.
Looks to be a good lunch Buffett but haven’t yet tried… Usually stick to the sushi bar. Easy to find, quick food, always been treated fantastic. Will continue to come back.

The location and atmosphere leave a bit to be desired but the food and service make up for the difference. I was immediately greeted when I arrived and sat at the Sushi Bar where I made great conversation with the chef. The sushi menu wasn’t flashy but the ingredients were all fresh and handled professionally. Also was asked how spicy I like my rolls which was a new question for me at a sushi restaurant. Seems like a good place for locals to check out for sushi, but not sure about the buffet or dining experience.

This place used to be great. The Sunday buffet has gone down hill everything was cold and we came at 11am. Sushi is still great though. I am currently sitting at peis with my girlfriend for her birthday, the waitress walked right past our table with our empty drinks waiting to be filled. Another worker also walked past with a pitcher of water asking if we had water (we were drinking sprite) we said no, and instead of him picking up our cups to refill them, he just walked away. My girlfriend got up and walked over and filled our drinks for us with the employees just watching her. That’s ridiculous service. We keep getting disappointed by peis every time we come back. Edit: I just had to get up and get my own box after waiting approximately 15 minutes…

I did the lunch buffet for take out today and it was not fantastic. Initially all was good– filled my container, got my soup, yada yada. I got up front to pay. $ 8.60 which seems VERY reasonable.
For a take out order I was surprised to have to ask for a container for soup, chopsticks, sweet and sour sauce. No bag was offered so I carried all of these items out in the windy cold day certain I would lose something.
And for the not so great at all! 3 crab rangoons and all were literally empty! nothing was inside. BUMMER– move onto main dish– 2 bites in I bit into a quarter sized bone in the breaded chicken. I’m not finished yet but really not excited to finish this lunch. UGH

This place is great! We go there a lot and the waitress remembers you and is super friendly. Love the crab Rangoon’s and the lunch buffet is great also.

Fairly busy for lunch time. I can see why. It’s quick, a good value, and decent food.
The buffet is lacking a lot of options. To be honest the selection is fairly limited. Because of this the food moves fast and is fresh.
I usually prefer quality over quantity, however this place is OK. I would come back.

Remember, we are in Cedar Rapids, I remember eating at the Dragon Chinese Restaurant downtown, my recollection of that was my first introduction into Chinese food and it was great. Pei is very good too, good basic Chinese food, prepared competently, good service, clean restaurant. This is not the Chinese food of LA, San Francisco, or Chicago but it is good…

My family and I visited this place after reading the reviews and it has to be the worst place we have eaten at so far. My husbands shrimp tasted like it had been frozen when it was out in the fryer. I ordered chicken lo mein and the noodles were slimy and just all around bad! I would not recommend this place at all.

I live downtown Denver where the culinary delights and diversity are difficult to match when i come to cedar rapids. But i have been coming this establishment for ten years, twice a year while on business. Best sushi in Cedar Rapids. Sit at the bar. Say hello to David. Get a glass of wine, miso, octopus salad, sashimi and ask what they recommend. They will always let you know what just arrived in that day. Sometimes they have Uni. Sometimes not. Solid integrity and friendly.

It’s such a pity this place is so bad. I had really high hopes. There are a bunch of sushi/​teppanyaki places in Cedar Rapids (I swear they have just discovered sushi), and this place is by far the worst I’ve been to.
First off, it’s all broken up and ugly inside. I know the restaurant itself is at least 20 years old, but c’mon, at least fix up the slashed bench seats. Maybe touch up the paint on the walls? Speaking of the paint on the walls, dark gray? The entire restaurant was black and gray. Well, aside from the interrogation style lamps hanging way too close to the tables. Yuck. The whole place made me sad.
On to the food. Oh gosh, the food. To start, my egg drop soup (which I was so looking forward to!). Egg drop soup is supposed to make you feel better when you’re feeling down, it’s all bright and yellow and tasty. Yeah, not at Pei’s. At Pei’s egg drop soup is some kind of salad suspended in a gray jelly like substance. It might have been not-​yet-​set jello. There were small pieces of crisp celery and carrots and onions suspended in the gelatinous substance they call soup. It was gross. Then came the entrée, sweet and sour chicken. Now, you can’t really go wrong with sweet and sour chicken. The only reason Pei’s is getting 2 stars instead of 1 is because the sweet and sour chicken was fairly good. Not the best, oh no, but it was ok.
The service was pretty bad. I asked for my tea twice before getting it. The server just seemed to have too many tables to wait on. The place is pretty big, perhaps it was just a matter of too many tables for one person to wait on.
The moral of the story is I will not be going back to Pei’s. I will try every other Chinese place in Cedar Rapids before I will go back to Pei’s.