Grace's Mandarin — Restaurant in Oxon Hill

Wow… what a huge disappointment. I have been to Graces several times POST pandemic (never pre, wasn’t in the area) and have had an amazing experience! Food was amazing, ambiance was amazing, and it justified the bill….

With ALL that being said, I was craving some delicious “Asian American cuisine” and decided on Graces for a bite before my Wine tasting event…

Arrived at 3pm. The restaurant wasn’t crowded which was nice because they don’t take reservations..

My party of 2 was seated wayy in the back at a corner booth table (seemed strange, considering I’ve always been seated in the main part), but it was what it was. Our waitress, Ivy, was pleasant enough. We were hungry so we ordered right away. Chose the General Tsos cauliflower and spring rolls to start. The cauliflower pieces were Extremely LARGE and difficult to eat/cut, especially since they don’t give you a knife. I remember them being smaller in size and more manageable to eat. The flavor was ok, and they weren’t HOT, kinda tastes like they made them before the spring rolls were fried off… the spring rolls only had 3 and they were left whole, can’t remember if this is how they were typically served.. and as far as taste… kinda plain and mushy in the inside. If it weren’t for the sauce…

Next, we were kinda rushed with ordering our entrees, the waitress asked about our Entrees BEFORE we even received the Appetizers… 😒😒…

My date ordered the small plate of lamb chops and Raved about their Broccoli dish, she remembered it being delicious and served with this brown sauce. I chose the Basic Fried rice, no protein, but there was some confusion about the vegetables, I believe I said I didn’t want to ADD veggies, but how it came was fine. My waitress heard NO VEGGIES, and I received a bowl of FRIED RICE WITH EGG… NO VEGGIES what so ever!! Btw.. the broccoli was no longer this delicious dish, it was literally just large chunks of steamed broccoli with some garlic.

I’ll move on the main reason for this LOW review.

We were seated in the back, and adjacent to this table where a young lady held an HOUR plus FACETIME CALL ON HER PHONE (with 3 people (my date saw the screen at one point)… her voice was overbearingly LOUD and her topics very inappropriate for a restaurant! We could barely hear each other and enjoy OUR time. We tried to ignore it, HOPING that with each passing minute, the CALL would end! It never did. When we finally couldn’t take it any longer, we informed Ivy, who apologized and confirmed she could hear it as well. She went to inform the Manager. When Andrea, the manager, came over, her response to OUR discomfort was poorly received and handled. She simply said, “i can’t put her out the restaurant, it will cause a scene”… FIRST, How can you ASSUME what the outcome will be before even making an attempt… 2nd, which WE actually SAID, was I’m not asking you to completely remove her, no one said that, but as the Manager of the restaurant, your responsibility is for ALL the guests experience, and you can ASK her to take her call off the restaurant floor so that other guests can enjoy their experience. To which Andrea then DEFLECTED and said She wishes we would have said something earlier and we could have been moved and it looks like they (the other party) is leaving now”.

At this point, my date and I were over Her and the entire experience, our dessert had arrived and we said “thank you, that will be all, and we just want to finish our dessert”. Andrea awkwardly stood there and said are you sure. I replied YES.. she stood for another moment and asked again, I STERNLY said, YES, we are fine, you may leave so we can enjoy our dessert. Thanks

She then walked away.

Poorest customer service Experience at such a Caliber of a restaurant EVER…. Not sure what has happened, but for a $150 experience.. I Expected Much better, from the food to the ambience to the service.

Can’t say I’ll be running to have Graces EVER again…

In this day and age, you are only as good as your LAST SERVICE!!!

This one has no pictures because I wasn’t even wowed...

Our first visit to Grace’s Mandarin. Glad we did an Opentable reservation, as we were seated the moment we walked in (as opposed to at least 5 groups already in the lobby, perhaps all walk-in’s, waiting for their tables).

Beautifully decorated. Reminded me of a high end Vegas restaurant with an enormous Buddha, a cascading water wall, tall ceilings, and two floors of seating. Since we were nearly to Christmas, there was a 15-ft decorated tree, red poinsettias, and other holiday touches. Very tastefully done.

We were greeted and told to walk up stairs (or use the adjacent elevator) and a hostess would seat us at our table. We were led to a 2-seater right against the windows near the corner of the restaurant. We were brought this cute little furniture accessory that looked like a cushioned kneeler for our purses/umbrellas to keep them off the floor. The table adjacent to us had this unique wooden butterfly that enveloped the corner table for two, like a cozy nook (see picture).

They brought a lovely bottle of water infused with mint and orange (see picture). We were unsure if we were to use the small cups on the table for it as they looked more like tea cups, but we did! The silverware and chopsticks were heavy and elegant, and placed upon this unique stainless steel utensil caddy (for lack of a better descriptor) to keep them off the table between courses.

We were on a timetable, as we were trying to catch a show at the nearby MGM National Harbor, so we dug right into the menu. They had an extensive cocktail menu, which I appreciated. We ordered two martinis, and naturally I can’t remember the specific names, but one had mango liqueur and lime juice and mine had a jalapeño flavored liqueur with orange and lime juice. I later had a drink called Woo-Tang something, which was like an alcoholic punch. Also good.

We opted for a few small plates to start, and then a shared entree. We did the chicken gyoza, vegetarian spring rolls, and spicy crab stuffed avocado. Each had a unique presentation. For example, the spring rolls came in a little basket with dipping sauces. For our entree, we shared the Scallop Duck, which was thin slices of duck breast with a drizzle of plum sauce (like Peking duck) along with sautéed scallops, all placed upon a dish with green leaves and rose petals. It looked beautiful. (See pic)

We had just enough time to share a pot of French press coffee and the Grace’s signature dessert, which was a tempura banana with toasted coconut and local honey drizzle—-scrumptious! Even the coffee cups, saucers, and teaspoons were little works of art. (See pic).

Only thing to mention: both our fortune cookies were very odd, and not really fortunes at all!!definitely the strangest fortune cookie I’ve ever received!

It ran us about $67/pp for the shared meal, which seemed reasonable considering we had 3 cocktails, coffee, and dessert. We got there about 6pm, and left about 7:40 (would have been sooner if we skipped dessert). It was leisurely, but we didn’t feel ignored and never waited long for our server to clear dishes or check on us. The dining room is dark, so we needed our cellphones for additional light to read the menu (and we aren’t that old!) and the restaurant was to capacity, so conversation at a larger table could be difficult over the din of the full dining room. But along the window near the corner where we were seated was slightly less difficult to talk across from each other at our small table. I think it would make for a nice date-night restaurant or celebratory dinner...

This restaurant is hilariously overpriced for exceptionally mediocre food. Came here on a Saturday night for dinner around 5-530 PM. Was seated promptly and put in our order shortly after. We ordered Singapore rice noodles with pork, crispy salt and pepper tofu, a kid's fried rice, smoked salmon with cream cheese, and a "The Rosada" drink.

The Singapore rice noodles were just OK. The curry mix is not as thick as typical Chinese places do it where you might see some clumps of curry powder and you get that curry "grittiness" from the noodles. No shrimp or long slices of onion, mainly green onion and mung bean sprouts. The pork was on the dry side, I feel like they could have done a better job with the meat velveting for a stir fry noodle dish that costs 25 DOLLARS~1!! And, I would rate it as sub par versus a take out Chinese place.

The crispy salt and pepper tofu was the worst. It's like one package of tofu, 1/3 of a zucchini, an a handful of broccoli florets for 27 dollars?!?! The fried tofu had nice texture, but the taste was bland. I didn't get any hint of salt or pepper. Then my wife was saying there was grit in the dish. It was grit and not large chunks of salt because the grit did not taste salty and the dish was bland. The hypothesis is the green onion that was sliced in was not properly cleaned and the grit in between onion stalks got into the dish. The margin on this dish must be insane.

Not much to say about the sushi. Six pieces of AAA battery diameter sushi for 10 dollars. Not enough to satisfy a 4 year old.

The kid's fried rice was egg only. Not bad, good separation on the rice and nicely seasoned. The fried rice was accompanied by those crispy things you usually get with an order of soup from a Chinese restaurant, one quarter of a green apple, and a small chocolate chip cookie. Only 15 dollars AHHHHHHHHHHH.

Lastly the drink was nothing special. Nothing notable on the presentation - black straw in a clear 12 oz. glass with ice. Light pink in color, strong alcohol flavor, no hint of anything resembling grape fruit (as the menu suggests).

I can't believe we paid so much for such mediocre to below average "Chinese"/Japanese (sushi) food. It must be the area and they need to hike the prices sky high to pay for the location. I should have just gone to Fogo and loaded up on a year's worth of cholesterol to start the year off right.

In my opinion, the only upside is the service. Our server was friendly and prompt. They also have Dr. Disrespect working as a maitre d. We dropped a fork and the moment I turn my head after picking it up, he was there with a new one. Amazing. The 18% gratuity tagged onto every check is deserved.

If you're thinking of eating here, I'd recommend somewhere else if you're aiming for Chinese food closer in flavor to a typical Chinese restaurant or your favorite take out place. The place was pretty packed though. I don't understand where people get all this money to eat here. It's probably...