Mandara Nail Spa

The ONLY thing keeping me from giving 5 stars is their $ 35 minimum to pay with a credit card, and a gel manicure costs $ 33. I love trudging around the corner to the ATM by Frudruckers when it’s 100°F outside.
Otherwise, Mandara is hands-​down the BEST quality gel manicure in the Tri-​Valley area! They do such great work; their technique and process and product are the best that I’ve had in the Dublin/​San Ramon area.
I used to go to Good Nails — stop it. Their gel manicure is chipping and peeling off in a week.
Bollinger Nail Salon is usually pretty good, but kind of hit-​or-​miss depending on who does your manicure.
But Mandara is always a good, solid, quality job that often lasts 3 weeks for me. The ladies are all super friendly and it’s worth it to fight the parking nightmare at Hacienda Crossings to come in and get my shit done right :)

I used to really like this place– great colors for gel and long lasting. But over the last year, and $ 40 with tip for each gel manicure, I left with my fingers cut up. Whether a cuticle, or a cut in the side of the nail. Always. And they’d say sorry and throw some alcohol on it. Ouch and thank you. These ladies are lovely after seeing them over and over but this business runs on quantity and how fast they can go. If they slowed down it would be better all around. I got a pretty gel manicure on Sunday and also have a great bandaid to go along with it. Not what I paid for. Sadly, I will now be looking for a new place.

Price is REASONABLE, come on ladies! I lived in Dallas and Scottsdale and both charged almost 2xs as much as this place. It is CA and they need to make a living too!
Tips are CASH ONLY so come prepared to take care of the ladies who take care of you.
Quality products makes a difference in how long your service lasts– I can go 4 weeks between visits, which is the best ever!
TIPS: make an appointment. Bebe and Sue are best on artificial nails. NANCY is best on pedicures.
I love this place! Kind, friendly people and CLEAN! Thank you Mandara!

This was my go to. Price was really the reason. I have had to stop going. My nails look great when I leave. I never wear shoes the rest of the day. I always wait until the next day and every time my nails smudge. This tells me they must be watering down their polish.

Great service!!! Amazing customer service! The work is amazing! Everyone is great! Eric is amazing!!!

I was debating whether or not to drop another star because of the ridiculous price of the services, but being that the ladies did an excellent job and were quick I’ll just subtract one star.
Pros: super clean, friendly employees, take pride in what they do. Not a single nail even looks remotely blemished. Also a perk is that they’re open late on the weekdays (8pm) which I wish most nail places followed suit so we didn’t have to all rush in on the weekends
Cons: COST! When the lady told me it was $ 76 for a gel mani and pedi (natural nails) I thought I heard wrong. Having lived all over Southern California, I’m use to exceptional service still being relatively inexpensive. If I’m paying over $ 50 for a simple gel mani and pedi it better comes with a glass of champagne (unfortunately you don’t get that here). It is what it is, it’s Dublin, I get it.
Overall I most likely won’t return because of the price (the place I go to in San Leandro cost $ 43 for the same services). But with that said the service was great.

We were a group of 6 walkins and the ladies here accommodated us all. Took their time and rubbed our legs during the pedicure and rubbed all the way up to the elbow during the manicure.
Price was $ 35 for a pedicure and manicure with clear polish. But for another girl I was with they charged her $ 38 for a pedicure and eyebrow wax, so I’m guessing the prices aren’t set. And it doesn’t smell like a typical salon since they mostly just do gel and natural nails. Not much acrylic nails done here.

I have gone here a couple of times now and have had a couple negative experiences. First time, made an appointment for 3 pedicures on our lunch break, 2 of us waited over 45 minutes before anyone started our service. A bit frustrating since we had appointments.
The last time my friend and I went again at lunch and got right in. They did a good job but when it came time to pay, they informed us of the 35.00 minimum charge to use a credit or debit card after our service. Yes, they had it posted by the cash register, and we both were prepared to pay the tip in cash as most places prefer, but this is a business. They should take card payment for services they offer. Our pedicures were 25.00 each. They insisted we pay together! What a joke. I wasn’t about to pay an extra 10.00 for service I didn’t get.
I will never go back.

It pains me to write this review because Mandara has been my go-​to nail spa for a few years now. It’s large, clean, and doesn’t smell. However, they took away their price sheets they used to have upfront, have no other pricing listed anywhere in the salon, seem to make up pricing when you go to pay, and worst of all, gouged me — a long time customer — the last time I went here with my daughter.
I came in the day before the 4^th of July holiday, so I expected it to be busy, and it was. Luckily, I planned for that and arrived right at opening at 10am with my daughter and we were one of the first people seated, which was great. However, our mani/​pedis felt rushed since there was a huge back up shortly after opening and it seemed both girls were in a big hurry to finish us as soon as possible to get to the other women who had come in after us. So it definitely wasn’t the most relaxing or thorough mani/​pedi we have had there. My daughter’s mani/​pedi was done in HALF the time mine was and the lady was off to someone else.
I could have lived with that, given the holiday, but when I went to pay, I was told the bill was $ 75 (before tip). I know an adult pedicure is $ 25, and they raised the price of their adult manicure to $ 17, from previous times I had gone in by myself, but combo they’ve always given me a «discount» at $ 40 for both services.
That means they were charging $ 35 for my 5 yr old daughter’s mani/​pedi, that was HALF the time mine was, with no designs (extra $ for that).
When I was paying, I asked how much a child’s pedicure was. One of the ladies just said «$ 35 for your daughter» which didn’t answer the question I asked. It seemed as if they just made up a price for her on the spot and decided she should be $ 5 less than me even though she’s 5 yrs old and they spent 50% of their time on her.
I felt gouged and taken advantage of and won’t be returning. It’s the second time the random price gouging has happened to me there, and I’m disappointed as I’m a long time customer they know by name.

Waited

Got my first manicure done here and I really enjoyed it. The ladies who did my pedicure and manicure were very nice. They charged $ 10 to bling each of my two ring fingers and they told me the price after she had applied the first few jewels. I didn’t like how my clipped nails were visible under the pink in the pink and white acrylics I got done but all in all a well deserved 4 out of 5 stars.
I liked it enough that I hope to be back soon. :)

I came here on Valentine’s Day. Compliments of my soon-​to-​be-​hubby.
He’s the sweetest ever, I have to add. =)
I got the shellac red polish manicure and red polish pedicure. Wanted to go red for V day. The spa is very clean and the ladies that work there are great. They don’t speak in Vietnamese like most other nail salons do. I find that rude and so annoying. My favorite is when they are talking on their cell phone while doing your nails. Fun! Kudos for multitasking but seriously? Very unprofessional.
You have no idea what they are saying. Most likely they are talking crap about you but of course smiling while doing it.
Back to this place, FYI, tips are are or check only. You can’t add it to your card.
I do LOVE this place and it’s my new go to. It is quite far from me and a little pricey but totally worth it! Quality not quantity. :)
I will go back and I highly recommend this place.
They deserve 5 stars from me!