Mandarin Garden

this review is an update on their all you can eat Saturday buffet! they no longer offer it unfortunately; according to our waiter it was «too much work» which is really interesting since it brought in a lot of customers. We came in and there was just one other table eating which is quite concerning. food was great as usual but was just disappointed since we came for something else.

Just tried this place for the first time tonight. The service was great and the staff very friendly. It’s located in the Whole Foods center.
We had Moo Shu Pork and Orange Chicken. The Moo Shu pork was awesome. Great taste and plenty of food. The Orange Chicken wasn’t the best. It was coated too much in batter and we found ourselves feeling like we were eating mostly batter with very little chicken. The have wine and it’s very reasonably priced.
The appetizers were good as well. The ribs were delicious.
I’ll be back and look forward to trying some additional items.

Fantastic Egg Foo Young at this olace, only $ 10! Portion fills both us up and the Chardannay is only $ 4.50! Great place and super clean even the water fountain.

Ordered beef fried rice and combo chow mein for myself. When I picked it up it came out to 20.00 (which is way over priced). I figured I’d give this place a shot since its right around the corner from my house. Got home and the fried rice smelt funky something like rotten pork and the chow mein was tasteless. This place is not worth the money. I should have saved my money and went to in-​n-​out down the street. Worst Chinese food EVER

Great quality food with lots of variety! The service is absolutely AMAZING and friendly. Great family atmosphere!

Yuck! Can you make bad Chinese food? Apparently yes, you can. This food was very bland and boring. I read all the bad reviews but was so sick in bed that I couldn’t drive anywhere. So I had no choice but to order from the only place that would deliver — besides pizza, which sounds really awful when you have flu. I have now shared my view of this place and hope that you sway from ever eating there. Thanks!

My friends and I used to dine at Mandarin Garden on Saturdays when they offered the Lunch Buffet. We can understand the price increase for the buffet. What we don’t understand is why after the price increase, they soon discontinued the Lunch Buffet! Not a wise business decision in our opinion.

Plenty of parking, fairly clean, service is good. The lemon chicken and sweet sour pork had to much breeding on it. No sour to sweet and sour chicken. House beef was tender and was the best dish we ordered. Didn’t like the think chow mien noodles. Overall if ur hungry for Chinese it will suffice, but had better.

Mandarin Garden has been our go to spot for our Chinese fix. Food is always good and hot. Delivery service is top notch.

Ordered vegetable soup, chicken chow mein with fried rice from the lunch menu.
The soup was basically broth with a few pieces of mushroom and leafy greens floating in it.
The chow mein was mainly noodles and fried rice was brown looking and few pieces of fried eggs mixed in.
All this delight was for $ 17.00. It was awful. Will not go back.

So I really wanted to like this place. Seen the food walking past and looked good.
At least from the window, the food looked very good and not like something you would find a Panda Express
Decided to go here, took about 10 minutes for someone to greet us and show us to a table.
Waited about 10 more minutes until the server came over and fill the water glasses and gave us wonton chips to snack on.
Had to flag down the server after about 10 additional minutes and place the order. At this point, a little disappointed
The food came out and looked amazing. The quality of the meet, and chicken were subpar while the barbecue pork was very good.
Flavors are bland and not. Complex at all.
The check came and I paid for it, change came back and they were short $ 20. Had I not counted the change, I would not have noticed that shortchanged me. I spoke to the person at the cash register who apologized and gave me the $ 20. He was not surprised that he made a mistake, it was almost like he got caught and was correcting the problem.
Overall,
2.5 stars for food
1.25 stars for service
One star for staff
I would rate them 1.5 stars but, I’ll be generous and raise them to 2.0

Yuck. I went for their buffet on Sunday and bit into a cream cheese wonton only to find a 2 inch piece of sharp plastic in my mouth. It left a cut on the roof of my mouth and not to mention I almost threw up when I felt it in my mouth. The woman said it was probably from the cream cheese package and apologized. The rest of the food was ok and the service was extremely slow

Sunday buffet is good!
Good variety and taste is good. I love that they don’t have huge container for the food like the food has been sitting there forever. The containers are small, they make the food fresh and keep refilling frequently.
The fish pond inside is something toddlers would love. Everytime we go, my hubby and I would take turn to take the toddler to watch the fish swimming, so each of us can still take turn to eat even after he is done. lol

My first visit to this place and provably my last. It took forever to have my dinner. Even when the waiter was so Kind, he was in a rush attending 7 tables. I couldn’t believe that they had just one waiter. The other waiter was just refilling the water and picking up the used plates. We waited too long for the waiter to take our order.
The food seems good from far. We chosed the plan B from the dinner section. (16 per person)
Everything were either salty or over cooked, made it impossible to finish anything. The only thing I really enjoyed was the cookie that they gave me at the end… It was delicious.
In addition it is too much food, we were starving at the beginning but we finished taking home almost ²⁄₃ from the two main dishes, so If you want to try the food of this place it would be faster and cheaper if you order ahead or take your order to go.

Casual ambience with a friendly staff. Linen table cloths and nice table settings to round out the dining room with plenty of seating. Central to the dining area is a fountain with koi fish.
Nice variety on the menu with entry of options for every diner. Honey walnut shrimp is a group pleaser and the three flavor in a basket is delicious. Fried won ton strips with spicy mustard and sweet & sour for starters provided but venture into the menu for some tasty appetizers.
Centrally located in the shopping center two-​doors down from Whole Foods. Give them a try.

Not sure why this place has any negative reviews, I love it. Have been coming here a few years and their food and service are always amazing.
My favorites are the Orange peel chicken or beef, sweet and sour chicken or pork, hot and sour soup, and cream cheese wontons.

Very excited to learn that one of my favorite restaurants, New Mandarin Garden in San Clemente, was opening a 2^nd store in Laguna Niguel.
Went tonight to the LN store for the first time. I won’t return.
THE GOOD:
Our busboy and waiter were very charming and personable.
Enjoyed the won-​ton chip and sweet/​hot sauce delivered w/​our water.
The fountain sound was lovely.
The restaurant was very clean.
The Won-​Ton soup was very good.
The hot tea, fortune cookie and almond cookie were tasty.
THE NOT SO GOOD:
The food was not good.
We ordered a family style dinner. As mentioned, the soup was good. The food on the appetizer plate was not good. The spareribs were laden with fat and very little meat. The spring roll was luke warm. The fried Won-​Ton like item was soggy. My son ordered the Sweet and Sour Chicken; I ordered the General Zau (spelling?) chicken dish. My son’s sweet and sour was very oily. The batter was thick, the chicken very tiny. My food looked unappetizing — a mound of dark chicken meat bites and green bell peppers. The rice servings were all-​right, but very small.
Our waiter stopped by several times, but we were never asked how our meal was. Did I offer a comment at the meal’s end? No. My comment will be that I will not return to this locale. I will, however, return to the San Clemente location that I remember so favorably and see how it compares. If I don’t have time to drive to San Clemente in the future, I’ll return to my other stand-​by, Peking Dragon in Dana Point.
THE TAKEAWAYS:
Improve your food quality.
Ask your customers how the meal is.
If you get a negative response about the meal, have a way to address it at that moment.

Very clean and relaxing atmosphere. Staff are very nice and the food is very good. We had the lunch buffet and tried a little bit of everything.
I wasn’t aware that they didn’t have iced Jasmine tea on the menu but they made it for me anyway.
10/​10, I’ll be back.

I’m sorry but the food here was just terrible. We ordered the sweet and sour chicken, beef and broccoli, and vegetable chow mein.
The sweet and sour chicken seriously tasted like chicken nuggets drenched in sauce. It was mushy and just not good. The beef and broccoli was way too salty. And the chow mein was bland. The food quality was below Panda Express and we probably paid 3x as much.
I saw another review that said something about expecting it to be higher quality since it was right by Whole Food. I agree! Sadly we were very disappointed with the quality of food. We will not be returning.

I’m torn between a 2.5 and a 3. I’m not the biggest fan of Chinese cuisine, so I may be extra picky here. The reason I rounded up to a 3 was because the service was good and the restaurant has a nice setting. We’d been passing by here many times and thought to venture in and try it.
The Orange Chicken was unimpressive here and I think I would have enjoyed Panda Express’s version better. PE’s is really addictive in general and rarely, so I’m not trying to put Mandarin Garden down. I’m not even that crazy about PE, but they do make a popular Orange Chicken. China Moon in Laguna Niguel’s Orange Chicken is also better but I had a bad experience there so I most likely won’t go back. Those are the two places in South OC (South OC doesn’t have many good Chinese restaurants for the most part) that I can think of, and there are other restaurants farther away that do it better.
Well, to describe Mandarin’s version: it was very crispy, perhaps too crispy. It had the right amount of sweetness, but I didn’t really want to finish it. We had another dish, too, but it just wasn’t memorable. I’m sure there are better menu choices but it seems that I didn’t pick them!
I feel bad giving them a lower score, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. South Orange County, when are you going to get some excellent Chinese restaurants? I guess you will have to go to Irvine for that. I could be convinced to go here again if someone reliable with a similar palate knew what was good to order from their menu. I guess if you’re in a pinch and this is close to you, you might take a gamble. Let me know if your experience is better than mine and what you picked to eat.