Ballard Mandarin Chinese

Recommends

marcchavez

Joined 5 years ago

Huge menu - great portions - nice people. The menu here is very large and included all the standards plus a bunch of combinations I had not had before. I'd had the traditional sweet and sour shrimp at lots of restaurants generally fine no earth shattering taste sensation. At the ballard Mandarin they had a sweet and sour fish. tender white fish in smallish chunks in a light batter with a sweet and sour sauce.

Mostly I'd like to talk about their lunches. I was on my way to burger king and decided to stop in. For less that 6 bucks, there are more than 2 dozen items served in large portions with fried rice, tea and the everpresent fortune cookie with the bill. That's a GREAT lunch deal. The people who run the place are very nice and are trying very hard. They also run the greenwood mandarin.

It's summer and the air conditioning was nice on a warm day and I got MUCH better food than burger king could ever give me. Well, no milk shakes but that's OK

Doesn't Recommend

ashesofdreamer

Joined 5 years ago

the worst chinese experience of my life!. my boyfriend and i were really eager to scope out the cheap chinese scene in the ballard area. we had tried around a little but were drawn in to ballard mandarin in passing one day. we even read some previous reviews about it that ranked it above average for the price so we thought we would be adventurous.

we entered into the restaurant and the whole front was pack, giving the appearance like it was a good local find. we were seated in the back area (which we were really okay with) but then realized that we had dropped off their radar. our waitress was so rude and was table side for no more than 5 seconds! because we showed the slightest bit of hesitation, she immediately left and did not return for 10 minutes! this happened twice! when asked about one of the many description-less menu items, she proceeded to give us no real answer and act like it was some bother! whatever.

finally.. we decided on the dinner special. my egg flour soup came and had peas, carrots, and corn in it! wtf! my boyfriends' hot and sour soup also had a random assortment of such vegetables. i was grateful to see my beef with broccoli come but regretted it the second it entered my mouth! it was so distasteful and the meat tasted more like rubber. this was quite a stark contrast to the mongolian beef platter my boyfriend ordered, which was charred to a crisp and practically inedible. the only thing worth eating was the bland, dry sticky rice.

the whole experience was deplorable and we couldn't even speak up about the food considering we never saw that waitress again... only when she came to slam down the bill on our table. when it arrived, we wanted to die... 30 dollars for completely inedible imitation food! i am ashamed to say i have even eaten there and religiously flip it off every time i drive by it.. in honor of my great experience.

if you want authentic chinese at a value, you are better off eating at panda express.

WORST DINING EXPERIENCE EVER.