"From the strip-mall parking lot, O Mandarin looks like the average Chinese restaurant. But entering the restaurant feels like a passage into owner Peter Liu’s native China, with intricately carved screens and Chinese antiques. Chef and two-time James Beard semifinalist Eric Gao specializes in Sichuan cuisine (expect lots of mouth-numbing peppercorns across the menu) and dishes that aren’t found on Chinese American menus, like silky thousand layer tofu, Sichuan hot pot, beef tendon, and a Peking duck that requires a three-to-four day process of air drying and roasting with malt sugar before being tucked into handmade pancakes." - Samantha Garbarini