Mandarin House

Honestly the food here isn’t that great. Everything is subpar. What brings up the star rating of this place is the price, atmosphere, and service. The lunch special is INCREDIBLY cheap (around $ 7 – 8 a meal) and the interior decorations are cute and cozy. Service is also much better than most Asian establishments. So there you have it. If you’re a broke college student like me you’ll come here for lunch.

The Bi Bim Bam that will bring a tear to the eye.
The seating is ample, but still intimate, with high backed wooden booths that gather people together over steaming bowls of food.

I’ve been here a few times, mostly because it is close to Northwestern campus. As a Chinese, I do not like there Chinese food, and their Korean noodle is just awful. The four stars is actually given to their hot stone bibimbap, which is pretty good but slightly pricier than other dishes. I would go back again for lunch during weekdays for their bibimbap.

The Bibimbop here is definitely the best I’ve had in the Evanston/​Rogers Park area. Definitely order this if you get a chance! The Galbi is also quite nice and they give you a large serving. My only complaint is that in peak hours, the service is a little slow because there’s only one or two staff around.

I absolutely love my lunch special here! Within 20 minutes they have a chicken bibim bop ready for me with hot and sour soup. All for under $ 8. And the portions are generous. It is enough for two lunches. And the flavors are excellent. Furthermore, they do not skimp on the desirable ingredients: vegetables and meat. With great prices, portions and flavors, you really can’t go wrong. The staff are always very friendly as well. I’ve never been for dinner, but I highly recommend the lunch special!

The hot and sour soup was inedible. The order was screwed up. Ginger chicken was watery and limp vegetables.

I’m torn between 3 and 4 stars, because we really enjoyed the stone-​hot bibimbap — which seems to be the big draw-​card for Mandarin House. On the negative side of things, the customer service we received was a tad surly at times, and the décor is nothing to write home about, and the egg rolls were definitely on the greasy/​heavy side of things. Those are all easy to look past (or avoid in the case of egg rolls). we would go back, because the BBB was a really nice way introduction to Korean food, and was a great price (especially if you split it, as we did). Just be sure to order the stone-​hot one, not the cold one, which looked much less appetizing.

I have been going for 29 years. Love this place. Great food at a great price. Nothing fancy, but that would ruin the experience.

I’ve had both positive and negative experiences here. I’ve definitely had better Chinese and Korean food. If you find a dish here that you like and come by for it every single time it just might work forya but I’d recommend you try eating somewhere else otherwise. The Korean food is better than the Chinese and the owners look Korean too. Try the bibimbap? Confused as to why they named it the Mandarin House…
The place itself is a tad worn down and you can tell it’s been around for a while but the ambience is still okay. Friendly service

My friend and I were experiencing heavy Korean food cravings, but we were really broke, so we typed in cheap, Korean food in google, and Mandarin House was the first that popped up. I was really expecting the worst, because I never heard of the place, although I lived in Evanston for a good three years. However, when I stepped in, the restaurant gave off a pleasant, family-​clean, clean vibe. The furnishing was nice, and the small space was inviting.
The 3 panel-​menu offered both Korean (2^nd panel) and Chinese (3^rd panel) food. The Korean menu is what my friend and I were looking at– we were surprised to see many unique dishes on the menu.
I had the seaweed salad, the grilled mackerel and rice dish, and my friend had the bibimbap. The seaweed salad was refreshing and delicious. Ironically, my fish tasted like it came straight out of a salty salty ocean. To be concise, it was extremely salty. I mean salt makes everything taste good right? It was okay enough for me to eat the whole thing (I am one who hates wasting food, especially meat). I also asked for kimchi on the side, and I was extremely happy when the waitress brought it out. To my dismay, it was also a salt package. I also tried a bit of my friend’s bibimbap, and it was okay. It tasted savory, but it just lacked a freshness or wonderful addictive kick to it.
I hated myself for consuming so much salt later, while I was riding the bus back to my house. I was parched, and I couldn’t wait for the bus ride to end. As soon as I got off, I drank a ton of water like a crazy lady.
I don’t think I would come back again for Korean food. Maybe the Chinese food is better, so I might try that later, but if I am really craving Korean food, I think I will go somewhere else, or try making it myself with minimal salt and fresh vegetables.

Price to value, this place falls a little short.
Came here for dinner and ordered the beef bulgogi. For about ten dollars it was a handful of beef and two handfuls of raw shredded cabbage and carrots. Flavor was ok and it came with rice, but the portion and quality just didn’t justify the price.
Might drop in for what I’ve heard are good value lunch specials, but I wouldn’t come back for dinner unless I really needed Asian up north.

I went there on a weekday for their lunch specials. Service was fast and efficient. Their lunch specials are a pretty good deal — for under $ 10 you get unlimited tea, soup and an entrée. However, there was no vegetarian option for the soup, which was disappointing. My girlfriend ordered the bibimbap, and she thought that was pretty standard. I have been here a couple times before and enjoyed their tofu dish and bibimbap when I went before. You can get better Korean or Chinese food elsewhere in Evanston, but I’m not sure you can get better food for the price. Overall, not a bad option for a quick lunch on the northern side of Evanston

The lunch specials here cannot be beaten on their quality to price ratio. You get tea, soup, and a giant plate/​bowl of food for under $ 10. Unlike most sit-​down places on Noyes, this one is super quick, so you don’t need to block off a whole hour for lunch if you don’t want to. Also, unlike most sit-​down places in general, it feels completely acceptable to come here by yourself. I have never had to wait to be seated at Mandarin House, even in the middle of the lunch rush and even when I’ve come with a large group of people. I can’t really explain this because this place is really popular, but somehow they make it work (probably the super fast service).
I always get the beef bibimbap with hot and sour soup, and I stand by that combination. You can upgrade to a hot bibimbap, which is the exact same thing but served in a hot ceramic pot instead of just a bowl, so your food stays warm the entire time, and your rice gets nice and crispy, if you’re into that sort of thing. Is it worth the extra $ 3? That’s kind of like asking if it’s worth getting your burrito with guacamole at Chipotle: it’s an intensely personal decision that after careful meditation, each of us must make for ourselves. Choose wisely.

Great lunch specials that are cheap! Comes with soup! My friends really like their stone hot bibimbap.

I’m kind of disappointed at Mandarin House. If this was a truly Chinese-​Korean restaurant, why don’t they serve jajangmyeon or tang su yuk??? Really. That’s what I wanted to order. I wish they had a menu online so that I didn’t end up disappointed when I got to the restaurant to check it out.
From the inside, it looks like I’ve been to the restaurant before, and I kept wondering if perhaps they have a separate Korean-​only menu. Alas, I don’t how to read Korean so it wouldn’t have helped if they did.
After scanning the menu looking for jajangmyeon and tang su yuk and coming up disappointed, I opted for the yuk gae jang instead. It was decent. It wasn’t as spicy as I expected it to be. I like Mandarin House’s version more than Noon Hour Grill’s, but that’s about it. This soup didn’t stand out to me. I’m not impressed by it. I wonder if perhaps I should have gone with my first instinct and chosen the bibimbop instead. Perhaps next time.

This place is great for lunch specials. The food otherwise is a little bit over priced for what is, but if you don’t have much time and need a quick korean fix, it definitely fits the bill. The mongolian beef is good as well as the bibimbap. I was surprised at how much I like the mu shu pork too. Definitely go for lunch though.

update: i’ve been frequently visiting this place the past few months because it’s the closest place i can go to for a quick 1 hour lunch break. Again, don’t think the food is particularly authentic, but I’ve found a few dishes that I’ve grown to enjoy. Food seems pretty home-​made and fresh, which is always a plus. Never overly oily, which is huge plus in my book. And the prices are nice. $ 8 with tip and tax for a filling meal!

Well, I will say that as far as the Mongolian Beef goes, it was delicious.
Anything else besides that though is a bit below par, including service. There’s a grandma over there who pretends like she doesn’t hear people who want to order.

I’ve learned to only get bibimbap here if I come (which was normally out convenience) just because otherwise I’d more than likely end up wasting my money.
Things like noodle soup, really really bland.
The lunch specials are an okay deal, but not really good food. Don’t get fried rice; it always seems really old like it’s been sitting there drying forever.
Cucumber salad — half of a sliced cucumber in some white vinegar. gross.
mandu — once, it was decent, the other couple of times… soggy and gross.
Bulgogi is okay, but somethings kind of soggy-​feeling that just isn’t pleasant. Can’t really describe.
Hot and sour soup — really flavorless, but tongue burns after a while from spiciness, which is not really the point of hot and sour soup
Egg drop soup is okay. I’d get this with the lunch special instead of hot and sour.
bibimbap — 4
90% of everything else that I’ve wasted my money on trying — 1, maybe 2 on some.

Oh Mandarin House, I’m so torn about you.
I don’t like your Chinese dishes. The lunch special soups are off in one or more aspects, yet I come for your Korean dishes every so often. The stone-​hot bibimbop is a nice novelty, and quite warming on a cold winter’s day.
I’m glad you got actual windows installed, so you can see into the restaurant. It makes you seem much less sleazier, even if I didn’t think you were in the first place.