Mandarin Roots

Nothing special. We had better. It's just average Chinese food for a bit higher than usual price. Garlic noodle was okay, but the price was a bit higher than what anyone should gladly pay. Orange chicken was probably the best, but again not for the price here. Mongolian beef was spicy, and nothing unusually outstanding. Beef with Chinese broccoli was okay, just average. Chilean Sea Bass was bit sweet, and really expensive. Spicy seafood noodle soup was good, but again why so pricey? String beans were okay. One server was nice. But another one, just didn't want to be there. He complained about opening the table leaves to expand the table to accommodate all the dishes I ordered. Well, he was not cute enough to be in a bad mood, and get away with it. Get your act together, or go do something else, okay? Just average food for more than what anyone should actually pay for. And time for attitude check.

I love this place, but the food isn't quite there. Ambience: 5 stars Service: 5 stars Food: 3.5 stars Value (food awesomeness vs price): 3 stars The plating and decor were always tasteful, but the food is a bit too Americanized and a bit bland or lacking. I'd bring someone here if we want a Chinese dinner in a nice place, more upscale, but only if they don't ask for 'legit' Chinese food. PS. Their desserts menu looks amazing. I had the green tea tiramisu and it was very good.

Good flavorful food with very good cocktails! It is a bit hard to find, there's a small and you can easily miss if you aren't attentive. There's parking at back in addition to the street parking. Had Firecracker Mojito interesting twist on the regular - worth a try. I also had the Penicillin whiskey drink, liked it very much. Others at the table pretty much ordered one of every cocktail on the menu. A couple drinks ended up on the sweeter side - so if you don't like it that way, let them know. For appetizers got the roti/scallion pancake and fried tofu. Both were good and we ordered seconds. For dinner got the orange peel, mapu tofu, fried beans, fried rice and noodles. Food was generally good, very flavorful. The chicken was crispy with a nice orangy spciy sauce and went down well with the fried rice. Others also enjoyed the food. The hostess managed to convince us to try dessert - so got two lava cakes - pretty decent. The service was very good, attentive despite being a crowded night. Highly recommend.

The food was nice and tasty. We ordered garlic chicken noodles with clay pot basil chicken and it was amazing. The cocktails were also nice, we had asked for some customisations to it like make it less sweet and they heard it

I have been to Mandarin roots twice and on both occasions I liked whatever we ordered. This is upscale Chinese food which is not very spicy and has no smell or thick oil slick associated with Chinese cuisine. I will go there again.

We enjoyed the Chinese Chicken Salad, Buddha's Fried Rice, Salt & Pepper Calamari, and the Wok-Tossed-Clams. Everything was delicious! We make it a point to come here every time we are in Palo Alto at lunch time.

This Asian fusion restaurant has a huge menu of both food and drinks. My bowl of spicy seafood noodles was really tasty and a seriously huge portion (~$17). The noodles themselves were a good texture, the soup was alright and not that spicy, and there was a very generous amount of seafood included in the dish. My lychee sangria was also very good and quite different than your typical run-of-the-mill sangrias. I sat in the beautiful outside patio area, but the inside looked quite nice also. Service was great and the wait staff was attentive. However, I wish the menu included more vegetarian options; specifically, the small plates section had next to none vegetarian options.

Excellent flavors, great Chinese food. Had the wonderful hot and sour soup, pot stickers, pork belly quesadilla, and Mongolian Beef. Everything was delicious. Not crowded at lunch.