Choice of Mandarin

This place has mediocre food. Delivery was fast/​on time. When I received my food I got the chicken and mushrooms. I ended up with a few mushrooms some chicken and mainly zucchini. Literally I paid for zucchini. I really didn’t even know zucchini was In there. Also the chicken tasted like it probably wasn’t chicken. My best guess (just a guess) would be duck… Lesson learned I guess. The sweet and sour chicken was good.

this place has been my all time delivery fav since i moved into the area! EVERYTHING ON THE MENU IS AMAZING!!! my favorite is the noodles and cheese crabs: D LOVE THEM!!!

Went on Saturday and just because it was close I assumed it was gonna be good. And by far was the best food I’ve had in a long time. Loved the customer service they were so polite and kind, just made me want to go even more! Loved it I recommend it to people!

Came here for lunch after running around doing errands. I actually have been here before I started Unilocaling and I love this place.
As we enter, the lady at the front greets us. She was friendly. We sat at a booth. No one else was in the restaurant. I love the red and black décor.
I was very hungry, so the nice lady gave us wonton chips with sweet and sour sauce. We ordered the combo which comes with your choice of soup (egg drop or hot and sour soup). I went with the egg drop. You can see the egg cooked inside. It was a little bland so I added some pepper. Tasted hot but descent.
For my main course I had the chicken and mushroom with steamed rice and an egg roll. The egg roll was pure vegetables. Tasted okay. The chicken and mushroom was delicious. It wasn’t too salty and was just right. It also had cooked slices of carrots and cucumbers. So good! Steamed rice was hot and had perfect texture. Flaky as you broke into the rice.
Service was excellent. The waitress made sure we were taken care of. I would definitely come back here to try something different. I always get the chicken and mushrooms. Highly recommend!

Those were not salt and pepper chicken wings. I will drive to National City to Royal Mandarin for some real salt and pepper chicken wings before I ever go here again.

The chicken was dry, even with the sauce. The crab rangoon was disappointing. Oh and don’t bother paying for fried rice because its not really fried.

I’ve ordered serveral times from here hoping it will get better… NOT it just keeps getting worse… the food the bland, waste of time, waste of money. Yes it’s quick and they deliver but it’s not worth the trip… If you want quality good Chinese definitely look elsewhere.

So my husband and I ate here for the first time a couple weeks ago and were terribly disappointed. We ordered take out and had it delivered since we only live about a mile away, so I have no comments on the actual restaurant or service. We ordered the general tso’s chicken and the house lo mein. The egg rolls tasted as if they were frozen and reheated in a microwave. The general tso’s chicken was made with terrible quality meat and the sauce was unimpressive. They also give you a ton of metiocre fried rice (just fried rice and egg) and barely any chicken. The house lo mein was alright but there was barely any meat in it and the quality was terrible. We are definitely not going to be ordering from there again.

I was super stoked to try this place after moving to the area, and even more so once I figured out that they delivered. BUT, it was OK at best. The egg drop soup just tasted like water, the «crab» ragoons had little to no crab, fried dumplings were just OK and a lil less crispy than I prefer, the fried rice is more like steamed rice they stirred a egg into. The entrees were bland as well. We ordered 2 combination dinners and 2 appetizers, and were given 2 soy sauce packets…2, guess they were running low. Overall, yes, it’s Chinese food, but no, its not good Chinese food. But they delivered that bland meal promptly though, so they got that going for them.

This is like, my childhood love. I’ve always loved their food and hospitality. Their crispy garlic chicken is my favorite with some fried rice. Nice environment, adorable ambience. I hope it never changes!

Tierrasanta can’t get asian foods rights, despite what their reviews says. I worked in the neighborhood numbers of years ago and now reside in the area.
I was hoping Choice of Mandarin would be decent because, you can’t screw up Chinese… right? Not even Americanized Chinese.
The wor wonton soup was ok. The broth wasn’t bad, but the ingredients threw me off. Regular baby spinach instead of bok choy, regular mushrooms instead of shitake or straw mushrooms. The wontons were more wrap than meat. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either.
The honey walnut shrimp was awful. The glaze was wrong. I’m not sure what it was. And they put it over a bed of romaine lettuce salad. Do you know how awful that tastes and smells when it gets warm? There’s a reason it’s usually served over shredded cabbage and/​or crunchy rice noodles. You know what’s worse? Smelling it as leftovers the next morning.
I’d love to give this place another chance. I gave them two stars because they were really nice. But if I want Chinese food, I’m just gonna suck it up and drive to my usual spots on Convoy or in National City. Hell, I’d even take the chain restaurants in the Murphy Canyon area.

We’ve been here several times over the years and, although it has improved, the best I can say is that the food was «fine.»
We had the Wor Won Ton Soup, which was good. The Szechuan Beef was pretty good, and they can dumb down the spice some if you don’t want it spicy. The Seafood Combination was okay, but a little bland. The portions are generous.
The prices are inexpensive — for three dishes, just over $ 40 for dinner for two with tax and tip.
They don’t have any duck dishes ;-(and they don’t have Sweet and Sour Pork (although they have S & S Chicken — ??? They have a good variety.
The staff is pleasant. The waiter was attentive, until he left without letting us know, and the woman started waiting on us — we had trouble hailing her a couple of times.
We’ll probably go back when we want something easy and close to home, or for delivery.
Adequate, but not exciting.

The food is just okay. I haven’t been particularly impressed, in fact, pretty disappointed with most everything we’ve ordered. Not exaggerating, this is the second worst Chinese food I’ve had in the states.
I’m writing today because I’m really pissed off at them — I ordered a sweet and sour chicken lunch combination plate to go. I was in a hurry. It’s 8.95, and comes with the food, an egg roll, and your choice of soup.
I was informed that pickup orders don’t get the soup. I said that’s fine, but I’d like an egg roll at least.
I was charged the full amount and didn’t get EITHER the soup OR egg roll. So, let’ see — $ 9 bucks gets me about 8 oz of food, ¾ a to-​go container full of parboiled rice, and you leave out the extras that make this deal more expensive? WTF, guys? I actually tipped you! I’d say I won’t tip them next time, but there won’t actually BE a next time.
Contrary to what others may have posted here, I feel this place isn’t empty because the majority of their orders are take out. I feel this place is empty because I’m not the only one who’s gotten piss poor quality and service.
I left one extra star on here because the one time we ordered out, they gave us a large box to hold the food in as support which was cool. It’s become a favorite of my cat Merlin. He goes in there to pout. I call it «the sad box.»

I’ve been coming here since childhood. Solid menus of classic dishes and a few «americanized» options too. And the décor is perfect. Cute, private, quiet. Good for dinner with friends or a date night. :)
Food:
It’s all about that Paper Wrapped Chicken and the Egg Drop Soup. Oh and they always start you off with some delicious jasmine tea. I usually go for the Kung Pow Chicken or the Teriyaki Rice Bowl.

The thing about this place is that it’s just basic, Americanized Chinese food. But it’s the BEST basic Americanized Chinese food place I have ever been to.
Don’t be fooled if you go in there and it looks empty, most of their business is take-​out. (They deliver in Tierrasanta).

Pretty disappointed… We got sesame chicken, it came on a bed of soggy iceberg lettuce. Fried rice was not good at all… It was pretty dry… We also got Thai chicken… There was not really anything Thai about it besides some peanuts thrown in the mix.
The egg rolls were tiny… Hot and sour soup was blah. Sadly we threw most of the food away.
I’m still looking for a delicious restaurant in this category…

Terrible response to not having a Chinese food staple sweet and sour pork. No attempt to try and accommodate. Just flat no. «You make choice». Do you have sweet and sour sauce. «Yes». Do you have pork? «Yes» but.,

Their website says they will deliver within 3 miles. See herehttp://www.choiceofmandarin.com/index.html
However, they refused to deliver to my apartment building that is 2.5 miles away from their business. I’m going to leave up the bad review until they change their website to not be misleading

I really hate to have to remove a star but last night’s food just wasn’t up to par with my first visit.
We loved Choice of Mandarin so much when we first found the restaurant about a month ago that we decided to drive all the way back to Tierrasanta from Del Mar for dinner last night. Since the Mongolian beef was so delicious on the first visit, we repeated the order along with trying the garlic chicken and chicken lo mein. Sadly, something was off with the Mongolian beef and I believe it was overcooked. There was a slight burnt taste to it and the meat looked a little shriveled. I remembered it being so good before and it broke my heart a little that it didn’t live up to the memory.
Thankfully, the chicken lo mein was delicious! I wish I had just ordered that instead of the Mongolian beef. My boyfriend’s garlic chicken wasn’t what we were expecting but it was decent. I just don’t care for breaded meat, especially at Chinese restaurants.
As before, the meal deal is amazing and I love the egg drop soup, fried rice and ice cream!
We’ll definitely be back and I may even try the Mongolian beef again. I’ll hold out hope that this was a fluke and my delicious beef will be back again!

I finally found a Chinese place that’s worth going to in San Diego. The food was absolutely delicious and the service was great!
After much searching, I finally found a decent General Tso’s chicken on the west coast. My girlfriend got the Mongolian beef, which was perfect and I haven’t tasted better since I’ve lived in San Diego.
The best part is that you get complimentary hot tea and wontons with sweet and sour dipping sauce with your meal. For a $ 1.50 extra, you get a choice of soup (egg drop or hot and sour), egg roll, wrapped chicken and ice cream. Great deal and everything tasted good! The quality and quantity of the food was both impressive!
As for the service, you couldn’t ask for a friendlier staff.
Unfortunately, this restaurant is located in Tierrasanta, which isn’t the most ideal location for a restaurant. But if you want good Chinese food, it’s definitely worth the drive. I live in Del Mar and I will continue to come here, even though it’s about half an hour away.