New Mandarin — Restaurant in Aspen Hill

I'd normally shy away from a 3.7 star rated restaurant, but my wife decided to order there for some reason and to our shock and delight, their Kung Pao Chicken was made with the recipe we grew up with, chicken, peanuts, slightly spicy brown sauce, nothing else! Thank the stars! A Chinese restaurant that gets it!

Since then, my wife, the fussier one of us, has been pleased with Kung Pao Tofu, Szechuan green beans, and the vegetarian spring rolls (crisp wonton shell wrapping a soft, engaging cabbage mix, followed by a salty, oily finish that's oddly pleasant. Will order again.)

The fried rice is better than many I've had, the fried dumplings could have been crisper, but the flavor was good.

I may be sounding critical, but we've been so disappointed with so many Chinese restaurants, serving sweet, dumbed-down flavors meant for Americans that don't actually like Chinese food, it needs to be emphasized that a restaurant that can serve so many dishes this well needs to get more business. New Mandarin is and will be in regular rotation for our dining out selection.

EDIT: -Bad reviews are mostly old. They may have ironed wrinkles out. -We ate at the restaurant, so our meals were hot and the spring roll wrapper was crunchy and fresh. Maybe you'll fidn that you're happiest if you eat there? That applies to most restaurants. COVID got people getting carry-out all the time. That's kind of on y'all if you decide not to eat food as it's prepared and let it steam itself into oblivion in carry-out containers. No food improves that way. Live a little, get out of the house. -Apparently chicken wings are disappointing, but WTH? Wings? Why are you ordering wings, anyway? Are you ordering Kung Pao at KFC? When in Rome, people.

EDIT Again: We ordered some Moo-Shi vegetable that tasted burned. Not good. Maybe order something else as well in case it's something about the recipe and not a fluke. Everything else has still been good. Had that one unhappy surprise. I'd still rate it between 4 and 4.5.

3.7 is...

During this pandemic, I applaud restaurants that are open and adapting to the current need for safety and provide good service to their clients! I got takeout for the three of us at New Mandarin. Plenty of parking, place was empty but clean; tables and chairs stacked to the side. My order was ready and waiting for me. All the employees were polite, distanced, and wearing masks. The food was good; everything was hot, the dinner specials were ample and packed well; my order was complete and correct as ordered, and there were plenty of soy/duck sauce/mustard packets. I also ordered fortune cookies, (they come in a package of 4) and they were fresh. I enjoyed the food - especially the steamed vegetables and the chicken with string beans - and will order take out more often. Thank you...

I believe 5 ⭐️’s is a rarity! I mean you’d have to be perfect across the board! Ok with that being said I just happened upon this place yesterday and thought why not my wife and I have been trying to find a good Chinese food spot for a while! I went in around lunch time and ordered shrimp egg foo young and shrimp fried rice! I was pleasantly surprised that they actually know how to prepare shrimp egg foo young as I remember it as a kid! The eggs were actually eggs not some weird spongy texture like most of the others I’ve tried! The shrimp fried rice was actually fried and not some steam yellow rice pretending to be fried rice! I definitely recommend this spot if one of those dishes is your...