It's quantity over quality at this Chinese restaurant in Macon
The Mandarin Chinese Bistro is by far the prettiest Chinese restaurant in Macon. With an entrance that any Chinatown would be proud of, Mandarin opens up into skylights and red lacquered beams, with ornate carved furniture and sculptures.
I only wish the food lived up to that quality.
We started with several appetizers: the crab angles, fried gyoza and vegetable spring rolls. In the style usually reserved for Japanese restaurants, we received small, lettuce-only salads with a ginger dressing while we waited for our next course.
The crab angles were tasty due to the cream cheese mixture, but they could hardly be called crab anything. The gyoza was over-cooked and bland, but the spring rolls were OK.
At this point we noticed our plates were piling up, so we stacked them ourselves. Otherwise, our service was fine but not stellar.
One server had food on her shirt, giving the impression that things were not run in a tidy fashion — something the 88 health rating seems to bear out. I don't expect to be pandered to, but I do expect to hear some suggestions when I want to know what they do best.
For entrees, we tried the General Tso's chicken, shrimp mei fun and sesame chicken. All of the dishes were plentiful but below par. The General Tso's sauce was extremely thick, and I left most of the chicken pieces on my plate because they were mostly just fried bits of flour.
The mei fun was a bit better, with a huge heap of rice noodles topped with shrimp, carrots, and cabbage. The sesame chicken was the tastiest of the three because the sauce was not as heavy as the General Tso's, and the meat was not over-fried.
If quantity is more important to you than quality, you'll be happy here. Otherwise, Mandarin seems like a glamorous movie star who has gotten tired of showing off.
Restaurant: The Mandarin Chinese Bistro
Address: 3086 Riverside Drive
Phone: 478-477-5728
Hours: Lunch 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday; Dinner 3-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday, 3-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Payment: Credit card, cash
Smoking: No
Alcohol: Yes
Kids menu: Yes
Noise level: Medium
Wheelchair accessible: Yes
Health rating: 88
Website:www.themandaringa.com
Price range: $9.50-$19.95
Rating: 2.5 stars