Mandarin Box — Restaurant in Bengaluru

We went into this place at around 8.30PM. Ordered food and took a table as it was self service. The food was good. We ordered some rice combination as well as American choupsey. Then I asked for some water and the waiter handed over water bottles, 2 of them which was 200ml each. We were about to pay the bill and I was just checking and verifying the Bill total. The water bottles were charged without informing. While asking for water, it was not mentioned that bottled water will be charged. I thought that was default. Anyway, I wanted to drink bottled water. I noticed the price on the water bottle was Rs.8/- and the restaurant has charged Rs.15/-. I asked for the reason and the waiter simply said he is aware of it and it's wrong to do such a thing. He called upon the manager of the restaurant and he started telling me it's management decision. Any product that has an MRP, especially water bottles, restaurants are not supposed to resell at a higher price. They have to charge the MRP on the product. If there is no MRP, then I am ok if the restaurant charges Rs.15/- and a lot of restaurants do such things. The problem is when the manager tells me you can go and do whatever you want and it doesn't matter. The restaurant policy and management decision to charge Rs.15/-. The manager dint behave well and was so rude as if I was wrong even though I am asking and explaining him very politely. Zomato is telling me to be polite and friendly while writing this review. I was so furious. If the management is really bothered about their restaurant running well, they should immediately sack that manager. Not just that, I am not going to leave it here. I have the water bottle, pictures and bill. Helps me in going consumer court and complain about this as well.

Rating:

Food - 2/5

Ambiance - 3/5 (Dirty tables and wooden planks. Not maintained well)

Service - 0/5

VFM - 2/5

I would caution zomato users if they want to get looted by mandarin box's...

Well, my family and I went for a stroll along church street and decided not to go to our regular haunts and try a new place. Heard great music and a place with decent lighting, and ended up in Mandarin Box. All right, so we had to choose our combination for the meal, but so what - greater choices right? We ended up with 2 boxes of noodles, a box of momos and 2 soups.

This was a disaster of epic proportions. You have to understand how terrible the food would have to be, for a couple of hungry people to want to leave the food. The sweet corn soup tasted like sugar corn syrup (which it most probably was). The noodles seem to have been cooked in a cement mixer at high speed and we're almost non discernable. The momos were dry (I have NO clue how that can happen) and to top it off they charge 15 bucks for a bottle of water that's for 8 rupees - which is against the law, since this is a packaged product - that is being sold AS-IS.

Anyway, I've written hundreds of reviews for restaurants all across India, but I just didn't have the patience to water down this review. In summary - Avoid this place and don't get drawn in with the music...

It's a nice place to eat if you know what you are doing or know what you like as it is a make-your-own-meal kind of joint. All my friends have had bad experiences with the food here because they didn't know what ingredients go well with what they want. I for one loved the food here, especially the Oyster sauce dressing (although it can be a tad bit salty sometimes). So yeah, that's like a word of warning. Go here only if you are able to mix and match ingredients well.

Other than that, the space is nice and open with a street level view of Church Street. However, since it's an open space, it can be a bad idea to visit this place during rains as the indoor seats are very limited.

My previous visit, I had a problem with the amount of time they took to make the food but that was rectified in my later visits. However, they still do take a significant amount of time for the food to be made, so avoid the place if you are on a schedule.

In short, go here if you know what you want or like and have some...