Mandarin House

Because it is Chinese New Year, we want to eat Chinese food to celebrate the New Year. Found this 4.5 starts on Google view, so came to try it out since it's very close to us. This should be American-style Chinese food, which is sweet, even the soup is slightly sweet. Maybe because it’s run by family, there were a lot of to-go orders. Even though there were only two tables, we still had to wait for 30-40 minutes before our food was served. Three dish + one bowl of rice $57

This place is absolutely fantastic with delicious authentic chinese food and best service! I felt home and eat with a peace of mind just like my mom cook for me years ago! We ordered a beef chow fun and hunan lamb with spicy sauce. We highly recommend this restaurant to anyone who loves Chinese comfort food. Even if you’re new to Chinese food, you will be surprised with the quality and variety of options available! Give this place a try!

Fresh, Authentic & Delicious! Three key words to our experience/first time dining at Mandarin House. The Spicy Chicken House Special 🌶️ was not a disappointment at all and don’t get me started on the chicken chow mein and shrimp fried rice, a must try! Will definitely be making my way back when my Chinese food cravings kicks in!

Ate here for well over a decade and was always ok... the other night however we couldn't believe it was the same food!! it was disgusting!! soup tasted like dish water - egg rolls were greasy and cooked in old oil.. what happened!?!? sad they let someone ruin this place - oh well

This place used to have a fair quality prior to Covid. Now it is awful. For $16 you get a box of house Chow Main with mystery meats. Dark dried up left over re-purposed lunch meat sold as beef. Microscpoic 2 shrimps. And white cube shape mystery meat aka chicken. Tastless with overcooked noodles. I am surprised this place is still in business. No sauce, no utensil. Not even a pack of soy sauce. NOT EDIBLE AT ALL. We really think they are taking left over lunch specials and make it into so called House Chow Main. All is dried, tastless....please call it mystery Chow Main Not House.

Solid 4 star. We had the Hunan beef combo plate and sweet and sour pork combo plate. Both came with fried rice and an egg roll. Very tasty, hot, and enough to take home leftovers. We beat the dinner rush, so we got served quickly. If they had the fried bananas that were on the menu it would have received 5 stars.

First time here. Ordered takeout. Food tasted good but the beef chow fun was too saucy imo. Pleasantly surprised to see the atmosphere welcoming and decently large considering the restaurant didn’t look that big from the outside and was at the corner of the plaza. Would come back again to try other items on the menu.

Not sure why my wife and I hadn't been aware of this place earlier, but is our new go-to for Chinese food, even though a bit further from home than our recent previous choice. We started with Crab Puffs and Pan Fried Dumpling (pot stickers). (Pleasantly surprised that appetizers arrived before mains.) The Crab Puffs had a very slightly sweet filling and lovely bubbly crispy wrappers. They were served with a sweet/sour sauce that had a nice flavor and was not thickened, so just the right amount stayed on the bite. The Pan Fried Dumplings had slightly thicker dumpling wrappers than we prefer, but they had good texture and flavor. The bottoms were nicely browned and crispy, with no burnt spots. The filling was very flavorful and delicious. A winner. We added some hot chili sauce from the jar at the table to the dipping sauce, and got a nice bit of heat added to the already great flavor. Mains were Chili Chicken (#18 under "Chicken") and Changsha Chicken (#5 under "House Special"). We had them served with BBQ Pork Fried Rice. The Chili Chicken is described as "Diced chicken dry sautéed with chili and green onion". We were torn between that and the one above that says it's deep fried because we were in the mood for not-deep-fried. Turns out that Chili Chicken *is* deep fried. But it was delicious. Nice and crunchy and spicy and sweet. Figuring that it would not re-heat as well as the Changsha Chicken, I had just my first portion of the latter and concentrated on eating most of the Chili Chicken. The Changsha Chicken is described as "white meat chicken sautéed w/cilantro in garlic sauce wrapped with aluminum foil paper". Aluminum foil paper is what I grew up calling aluminum foil. Nicely presented as a fairly large aluminum foil pouch, sliced open at the table and served. Lovely sauce surrounding tender chicken with sprigs of fresh cilantro mixed in. Delightful. The BBQ Pork Fried Rice was the best we've had in quite a while. Rice was light and fluffy. The BBQ Pork had very good flavor and texture, and the whole dish had a flavor that was good in itself and a nice complement to the other dishes. Before this, the recent fried rice dishes we've had elsewhere we've wanted to take home to fix. This one, we took home to eat with our other leftovers as is. Servers were very pleasant and helpful, and apologetic about the menu confusion on the Chili Chicken being deep fried, trying to get us to send it back and get what we wanted. But we *liked* the Chili Chicken, so kept it. Towards the end of the meal, I noticed that we never got our hot tea, but that was really the only service problem. As I said at the top, this is our new place for Chinese food. My wife will likely be sending me here for "to go" frequently.

Food is amazing and really fresh. Service was amazing. Restaurant is very cozy and welcoming. Will return.

Food was very oily and not flavorful. Upset my stomach. Wanted to like this place given positive reviews and proximity to house.

I am happpy to have discovered this place as the food is really good but a bit disappointed as this place could really use some organization to make it look esthetic inviting. We went there after the farmers market at the Princeton plaza and honestly almost thought would not eat here as the place looked so disorganized with lots of restaurants goods lying around. Seriously people, we should clean those up to Make the place more inviting for people who care about the ambiance. Now talking about the food and service was a different story, our server was Kevin and he was very informative and patient with our order! Our food: house fried rice, vegetable noodles and stir fry string beans were super delicious. Now I want to try other dishes soon but unless they clean up the place it will be mostly takeout for me when I want to eat at home!

Came here with family to celebrate a birthday. What we tried: eggplant with shredded pork claypot (3/5) -- eggplant was a bit overcooked and the sauce was overpowering orange chicken (4/5) -- sweeter than average, super crispy battered chicken but more batter than chicken. A little bit of a kick and easy to eat by everyone. beef broccoli (4/5) -- tender meat, big portion and solid flavor peking pork chops (3/5) -- too sweet for peking sauce..maybe too much ketchup and the pork was soggy beef chow fun (3/5) -- the fun was a little too soft for my liking so it kind of felt like overcooked? And the sauce was super strong for me The quality of ingredients is good, but flavors a bit off for me. I would be willing to try more dishes of theirs

An update! I want to give a shout out, this is genuinely the best takeout restaurant in the area. The food is decently priced, but is always hot, fresh, and amazing tasting. The biggest thing? THEY HAVE GLUTEN FREE OPTIONS. To all my fellow gluten-sensitive/free people, they have a bunch of options. They can make pretty much anything breaded with cornstarch, and it is FANTASTIC. I know gluten free is pretty hard to find in terms of takeout, but this place has nailed it. My family and I come here regularly, and absolutely adore it. Typically I order it and pick it up, but when eating in, the restaurant itself is adorable. The staff is always so kind, and the food is pretty speedy. It's a simple pick up, go to the register, give the name and phone number, pay, and boom! Fresh, delicious take out. Make it worth your day and go here!

Amazing food like seriously the best General Tso's chicken in the area. A household favorite for sure!

My other local takeout places closed so I needed to find a new place. This place is definitely now on the list. It was a bit pricy but I got 5 or 6 meals out of it so it worked out. I started with the Fried Wonton. These were nicely crisp, not too greasy. Nice dipping saw. I then had the Honey Walnut Prawns and Sesame beef. Both entrees were flavorful. Lots of shrimp in that dish. Good flavor, lots of walnuts. The beef was good too. Nice flavor. Nothing was too heavy or greasy. I also had House Special Fried Rice. This was tasty too. Lots of veggies and various meat and shrimp in it. Overall a nice meal. Definitely more of a takeout place though they do have a small # of tables. Typical Chinese place with limited decor. I definitely will get takeout again.

Great Chinese food and service. Been here twice and did not disappoint. Mongolian Beef, Honey Walnut Shrimp, and Fried Rice were all delicious. Will definitely be coming back.

Tasty Chinese food! The portions were generous, with plenty of vegetables and meat, and everything was served hot. The place is spacious and cozy. Takeout was ready quickly. Some dishes were a bit greasy, but overall we were very satisfied.

Friday evening service was efficient. Rohan Claypot was flavorful. Fried silken tofu works well in the dish. Chicken chowfun was good but noodles could have been more chewy. I know it's challenging task but many were stuck together. The dish could use more bean sprout in my opinion. Overall a nice meal with friendly service.

Amazing food. Husband and I found this place when shopping close by. We ordered chicken corn soup, chicken with broccoli and Kung Pao shrimp. All tasted delicious. Really good Chinese food. Would highly recommend. Owner is very sweet and ambience is good.

I was visiting the bay again and had to hit up one of my fav Chinese spots. We were crunched on time so just ordered appetizers. It was fantastic. We saved some to-go and ate it before our flight. It was perfect! Until next time, thank you!!

Every entree we ordered was delicious. Their food is the best Chinese food I've had in San Jose. The service is excellent, and you don't have to wait an eternity for your food. Sorry, I don't have pictures to share, but we were hungry! We made the food disappear. The restaurant can accommodate anyone, we had nine people in our party. The restaurant is clean and well kept.

Did I order just crab puffs for dinner? You bet I did! If ya'll haven't tried them yet... you absolutely must. The crunch, the flavor, the ideal ratio of shell to filling. They're perfection. Life-altering deliciousness. My other notable fav here is the pork fried rice. Great flavor. Loads of meat. Orange chicken is also pretty tasty. The misses for me were the honey walnut shrimp and the mongolian beef. But hey, not every dish is going to be a home run for every person. I'll go again and again for the crab puffs and I'll keep trying other things. Keeps life interesting

We got chow fun, char sieu fried rice, and orange chicken. All fantastic in flavor and exactly what we wanted in Chinese American food. Good portion size for the price you're paying; easily enough to feed 4-5 people/meals. I think the stand out was the orange chicken because it had a nice spicy kick to it with the dried peppers included in the dish. The staff that was handling the orders was very friendly and gave us extra fortune cookies when asked. I'd come back again.

I normally wouldn't go out this way to eat Chinese food, but we were invited by family for dinner and checked it out. I would give this place 5 stars just for the customer service. The staff was attentive, friendly, and quick, and made our dining experience very enjoyable. All the dishes we tried were flavor-packed, super hot, and prepared well. I did notice, however, that the food was on the tangier side! The Orange chicken and the Hot and Sour soup were super yum, but very tangy. If that's not your thing, you might want to avoid it, but my wife and I enjoyed it because it is different.

Mandarin House is a wonderful local gem. The food is always piping hot. Our favorites are Mongolian Beef, Kung Pao Chicken, Salt & Pepper Fish, Hot & Sour Soup. Owner Jenny is friendly and accommodating too.

I came to California today and ate at a very good Chinese restaurant. Overall, the food was very good and the service attitude was about the same.

Mandarin House is a friendly little place to have some tasty Chinese food. I went with a group of four on the recommendation of a friend. We found the food to be good, very average actually. Service was fast, the food was hot. The Szechuan dish needed at least double the amount of peanuts given and lacked the appropriate heat. Everything was okay. Chopsticks are by request only and they are very elegant. There are no tablecloths. The bathroom was clean but the door to it , inside and out, was dirty. Parking is a breeze because it is in a huge center.

Delicious wholesome food, ready for pickup on schedule. Ordered the Beef Chow Fun, Wor Won Ton soup and Walnut Shrimp. Highly recommended.

We got: Egg rolls, crab puffs, salt and pepper tofu, shrimp and walnut green beans, chow mein general sao chicken white rice . I liked the shrimp and everything was larger portions, it fed 4 adults, 2 kids and we still had left overs.

I had decently good Americanized Chinese meal here. It's a bit pricey for what you get though so I would only come back if it was my only option. I ordered vegetable fried rice, large wor won ton soup, and beef chow fun. This was ~$51. The fried rice was good, although pricey. Considering the ingredients and, you know, that it's mostly rice, I wouldn't get it again. Just too much for some vegetables and rice. Good but you can make this at home. The won ton soup was not successful. First, the broth was near flavorless. I did not appreciate that. Second, there were 4 shrimp. Literally. 4. They say it serves 4 people, so everyone gets 1 shrimp. That's just hilarious. I would rather have no shrimp (and no broccoli) and extra won tons. This was just not worth it. The beef chow fun was really good. Very tender noodles and good flavor. Perhaps a smidge more soy sauce would help but I do like my chow fun on the salty side, so I'll forgive them. This was the best dish of all 3. Overall, not bad, but too pricey. If you want Americanized Chinese food and this is your only option it's ok. Parking can be tricky during peak times as it's in a popular strip mall. And they take credit cards.

It's been year's since I've been to Mandarin House to eat. It's under new management and the staff is very polite, friendly and professional! The inside has been remodeled and looks nice. We ordered the combination platter 1) magnolian Beef. It comes with an egg roll & either fried rice or steam rice. It has a really good flavor unlike any other Chinese restaurant I've eaten at. 2) walnut chicken fried rice and egg roll. The egg rolls are hand made in the restaurant when ordered. They are vegetarian and tasted delicious! Their is plenty of parking in the Plaza, if you've never been here i recommend going to enjoy a good meal. Monday through Friday they even have lunch specials.

Definitely recommend getting the Mongolian beef because it was super flavorful and always a good dish to share. You really can't go wrong with getting different options to share as we also got the bbq pork fried rice, hot and sour soup, bbq spare ribs (which not many places do so it was nice to see on the menu that they do the actual rib instead of pieces like I've seen at other places), egg rolls, string beans, and beef chow fun. Will definitely be back!

Service - This family owned restaurant definitely scores big on their level of hospitality. Don't expect anything fancy but this place has the potential to become your go-to place when you crave for some really awesome Chowmein and ChowFun! Cozy ambience but might be constricted for a bigger group. We tried the Crab Rangoon, Chicken chowfun, Basil chicken and Kung Pao chicken. Food was prepared fresh and packed with tons of flavor! Must visit if you are in the area! Don't forget to try their Chowmein!

Our go-to Chinese food spot. Always tastes good, nothing fancy, and is exactly as you would expect.

Food is always amazing. Big portions. Fresh. Delicious. Flavorful. The staff is efficient and hardworking.

Mandarin House has a Green Light. With its new owners. Go. I had a combination plate with succulent honey walnut prawns and chow mein The portion was huge. Most importantly, I did not suffer indigestion. I tasted the complimentary pot stickers that are very tasty. Getting to the restaurant and be tricky. I used Maps and found it easily. It is a small restaurant, but seating is comfortable.The staff are friendly. I will be going for the luncheon specials.

Disappointed this time Chow mein, eggplant and tofu dish , were very oily and stuck together came out of container in clumps Not the usual that we enjoyed in the past.

Chinese restaurants are usually hit or miss for me, but I think this will be my go to spot for decent Chinese food. I ordered cashew chicken, hot and sour soup, and honey walnut shrimp. The portion sizes are good and there's a balance of meat to other ingredients in everything that I ordered. All the dishes were piping hot and o ordered takeout. The cashew chicken was seasoned just right, not too salty or plain. The hot and sour soup was delicious and I can really taste the white pepper. The honey walnut shrimp was perfect and savory. There were plenty of parking and the meal came with fortune cookies. There is one lady that takes care of it all. It may take a few calls as the line may be busy, but worth it!

Had lunch special with the wife and the food was above average, a bit on the sweet side for me (4 stars). The lady waiting on the table and answering the phone was very attentive and pleasant (5 stars). She was on first name basis with half the customers who were dining. Impressive. Also I did not detect any MSG (5+ stars, THANK YOU!). Restaurant was very clean too. Will be back for dinner soon.

Been to this place a number of times. This is how I remember traditional family Chinese restaurant. Good menu selection and very reasonably priced. It's more popular as a to go place but dine in area is very comfortable as well, we always manage to find a good table. Service is fast and friendly. Try the beef tomato chow mein, my honey absolutely loves it!

Some items are decent but the chowmein is utter garbage- absolutely no taste, not even salty and the chicken is dripping with oil. Mongolian beef is very oniony. Twice cooked pork is quite decent.

All the food I ordered was so salty that I couldn't even eat half of it and had to throw it away. Even the spring rolls! I used to really like this place for a long time, but I think it's time to say goodbye.

It's the one place I go to get good takeout- so this review will just be for that. The interior looks good and the space is decent enough to sit and dine but I've only ever ordered takeout due to convenience and the situation were in (running behind on dinner plans) . We always order the classic go to options- pork chow mein, Mapo tofu, walnut honey shrimp, beef and broccoli and fried rice. We go for the "you can never go wrong" options. The portion size is decent- not too small and not too big. The flavors were good- again, it's well balanced and savory

Excellent food, clean, fresh and delicious. Always accommodating when I request NO MSG. Service is excellent and staff is very attentive.

When I see a family run restaurant I really like to support them with the expectations that flavors are going to be authentic. Gave this place a try and honestly it was a huge disappointment. We ordered: Spare ribs - 3/5 - these were huge pieces of ribs that were red in color clearly food color added. Flavor was ok String beans - 1/5 - omg these strings beans were the biggest disappointment. The beans were not crunchy and above all they were more mature and dried beans aka older beans Hunan lamb: 3/5 - I had high hopes for this one but the flavors definitely did not do justice to the hunan lamb that we have had at so many places Fried rice - 3/5 - the only thing that tasted alright Service was ok, ambiance was ok too. Will not be back

Ever since moving to San Jose we tried multiple Chinese food spots, this is the only one that we found that we consistently go to. The price point is awesome, you get such large servings and the staff is also very accommodating. There have been times where we get kind of bored of the usual order that we get so we ask the staff what would you recommend and every time they have recommended something new it has been absolutely delicious! If you don't really know what to try here or what to add to your usual order definitely ask the staff and they will steer you to something amazing! We also did order food from here for our daughters birthday party and I think that was the first time we tried the orange chicken. It is so amazing! I personally really like the panda express orange chicken but this one completely puts it to shame. It's so aromatic and juicy, and the spice on it builds so after you've had a few you really get the full experience of the kick that it's supposed to have. I personally really like that the spice level builds because when we did purchase it for the birthday party my grandmother had some and she cannot handle spicy foods at all. But she tried it and she absolutely loved it and because it builds she was able to just stop when she got to a comfortable point.

Food is ready in time, ample amount of servings, nice person at entry. Meal was hot and tasty as ever.

They food was absolutely horrendous, threw it away! Almost no pork and the pancakes were tortillas!

We finally found an awesome Asian restaurant!! Great service and food absolutely delicious! Highly recommended and very well priced.

Sorry but beef choufun I ordered today was the worst choufun I have ever had. The noodle was soggy & mushy. Not stirfried. Was not seasoned well either. The noodle was not well coated with oil either. Very disappointing.

I have tried many Chinese Resteraunts and this place is the best. It used to be Kowloon kitchen in Almaden. New ownership ruined that place Mandarin houses chef is a renowned chef and that is why the food is so remarkable.

Tried this place a couple times. Food is standard American Chinese, not authentic Chinese. Most Americans will be fine. You expect Mandarin House to be Northern Chinese cuisine, but it's not. It's just a standard menu of American Chinese that Americans expect. Too much starch, too much salt, probably MSG. The place is a bit small, but most people order take out I think.

Just picked up my comfort food - war wonton soup! So fresh, so good. My kids love many dishes here - the veggies are always fresh, and my husband's favorite is the Changsha chicken. Favorite Chinese restaurant I've had!

Food is average and lacking taste. Service is good but after trying twice I won't repeat

Overall impression - just okay food, would not come back again I had a great customer experience here when paying for my order. She was so warm and welcoming :) I ordered the beef chow mein, general tso's chicken lunch special (comes with fried rice), and orange chicken. Came here looking for some basic chow mein and orange chicken, but was disappointed in my meal. The chicken was on the soggier side, and the orange chicken was way too sweet. I also feel like the chow mein lacked flavor, and didn't contain much beef. Price wise, they give sizable portions and I had chow mein leftovers for days!

First n foremost the lady at the counter was very polite and nice. Hence the 2 stars. The food was not good. First time trying the place. *Orange chicken had a weird tasting sauce *Shredded Pork was the worst. It was a FOUL dish, made with rotten meat. Probably was weeks old *House Special chicken something was only loaded with bamboo shoots, barely any meat *Chicken chowmein was just about okay *Chicken fried rice was so so. Should have ordered Panda Express for the half the price. Since the quality was equally pathetic

This is the second time ordering food from Mandarine House. I had gotten shrimp with snow peas and broccoli. It didn't taste too good and there was slimy gloop mixed in with the food. This time, I got sweet and sour shrimp. The shrimp and sauce are separated, which I get. But the shrimp was heavily battered and wasn't cooked all the way through. Oh, also, the meal does not include rice.