Mandarin Grill & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Clive

My wife and I went here on Christmas Eve because the reviews were high and it seemed to be the best in the DSM area. It was quite the opposite. My dish (Bulgogi) was okay, but it was far from the ‘best’ I’ve ever had at other places. It left a lot to be desired in terms of flavor.

My wife’s Bibimbap was served cold. I wasn’t even remotely lukewarm. We asked the waitress if they could just heat it up without having to go through the trouble of remaking it. It was brought back warmer than it was originally, but not by much. 30 seconds in my microwave at home would have done more.

I don’t understand why my wife’s food was practically the same temperature as a salad. The kitchen was packed with people bustling around cooking for the steady stream of to-go orders or Uber-eats drivers. However, it tasted as if it had been sitting out for 30 minutes before being served. Which couldn’t have been the case as they were relatively quick from the time we ordered to serving, I’d say 10 or 15 minutes tops. I just find this odd for a place that holds itself in such high regard.

What also bothers me is that the manager didn’t even try to apologize or explain why it was cold. The waitress did apologize for the inconvenience, but that was only briefly (after we had to flag her down as we didn’t see her too frequently). The manager, or supervisor of some sort possibly, was clearly aware of us. She kept peering through the pickup window at us multiple times before and after our food was served. My wife and I even made direct eye contact with her a couple of times, to which she’d quickly look elsewhere or slide out of sight.

I didn’t expect them to comp the meal or anything like that. I just would have liked an explanation as to why the dish (that’s traditionally very hot) was served so cold.

Ultimately, my experience left me thinking that they are grossly overrated. The website claims that some people drive over 3 hours to eat here, but I find that incredibly hard to believe when the service, flavor, and overall customer service is better at a local $5 buffet or Panda Express. I almost wouldn’t be surprised if we had the experience we did at a cheaper place.

Food and service aside, it was an aesthetically pleasing and clean environment. It was just quite a let down for our non-traditional Christmas tradition. The whole experience just left me thinking that they’re very overrated and unprofessional.

Save your money and go to a local Chinese Buffett, because this place was definitely not worth the...

OK staff. Good sushi, or anything Japanese (sweet-flavored assortments) is great here.

We ordered Chinese + Korean food, all pretty authentic. Everything seems decently priced, maybe a little bit on the medium-high side. The problem is that the portions are disappointing. $13 of any dish of the Chinese or Korean assortments give you hardly anything to start with. They give you little portions of meat, but jam-pack the whole thing with vegetables to make it seem like it's an ideal amount. It wasn't.

We ordered spicy everything, unfortunately, hardly spicy. Spicy, stir-fried squid was bland and tasteless. The 'spicy' sauce seemed like it just was water + peppers so that it tasted hot. It did taste hot, but it had no flavor. Absolutely disappointing.

We ordered spicy seafood soup. It looked hopeful, decent portions for the soup and lots of nice seafood stuffed into it. The soup, again, was tasteless. It had no comfort / savory bite to it. It tasted like the last drops of a soup that was clear. The spicy seafood soup should taste like any other 'crab' styled soup, where the soup would taste with variety. It was literally just water, pepper, and if lucky: some seafood bite to the taste. It wasn't spicy either, unless I managed to trap the peppers in my throat and hoped the best.

The sweet and sour beef / chicken was good. Tiny portions, overpriced.

Don't go here if you've gone to a great korean / chinese restaurant at some point in your life. This place is flavorless compared to even Panda Express. Unfortunate.

Do go here if you like foods with no tang or bite to it. I do give credit to this place for its heart and soul, they throw passion into cooking their meats near perfectly, but their spices and ingredients aren't being used properly.

Did I mention they have good sushi? Go here for sushi. It's...

Covid claims another victim. I used to eat here with my expanded family pre-covid. The food was always hot, fast, plentiful and delicious. Post covid I've only been able to order take out 2 times for lunch and both times been disappointed. I ordered and was told 15 mins. I showed up in 15 mins and food was ready to go. I thought that was great, but I drove the 1 min back to my office and as I hungrily dug into the bag, quickly became disappointed. The salad and sushi were warm and the bento box tepid and soggy. Also, I've had the bul go gi many times before and this time it was virtually flavorless and tasted powdery. Not sute what that's about. The tempura veggies used to look like fresh veggies dipped and fried. Now they look like frozen veggies from a bag! Tasted kinda like that too. If you look at my reviews I am the type of person who will compliment as mush as critique. I'm not willing to give up on Mandarin yet because they uses to be so good and I know the pandemic has been hard on everyone, but I don't recommend take out at the moment. Hurry up and get back to great please,...