Mandarin House — Restaurant in San Jose

Not sure why my wife and I hadn't been aware of this place earlier, but is our new go-to for Chinese food, even though a bit further from home than our recent previous choice.

We started with Crab Puffs and Pan Fried Dumpling (pot stickers). (Pleasantly surprised that appetizers arrived before mains.)

The Crab Puffs had a very slightly sweet filling and lovely bubbly crispy wrappers. They were served with a sweet/sour sauce that had a nice flavor and was not thickened, so just the right amount stayed on the bite.

The Pan Fried Dumplings had slightly thicker dumpling wrappers than we prefer, but they had good texture and flavor. The bottoms were nicely browned and crispy, with no burnt spots. The filling was very flavorful and delicious. A winner. We added some hot chili sauce from the jar at the table to the dipping sauce, and got a nice bit of heat added to the already great flavor.

Mains were Chili Chicken (#18 under "Chicken") and Changsha Chicken (#5 under "House Special"). We had them served with BBQ Pork Fried Rice.

The Chili Chicken is described as "Diced chicken dry sautéed with chili and green onion". We were torn between that and the one above that says it's deep fried because we were in the mood for not-deep-fried. Turns out that Chili Chicken is deep fried. But it was delicious. Nice and crunchy and spicy and sweet. Figuring that it would not re-heat as well as the Changsha Chicken, I had just my first portion of the latter and concentrated on eating most of the Chili Chicken.

The Changsha Chicken is described as "white meat chicken sautéed w/cilantro in garlic sauce wrapped with aluminum foil paper". Aluminum foil paper is what I grew up calling aluminum foil. Nicely presented as a fairly large aluminum foil pouch, sliced open at the table and served. Lovely sauce surrounding tender chicken with sprigs of fresh cilantro mixed in. Delightful.

The BBQ Pork Fried Rice was the best we've had in quite a while. Rice was light and fluffy. The BBQ Pork had very good flavor and texture, and the whole dish had a flavor that was good in itself and a nice complement to the other dishes. Before this, the recent fried rice dishes we've had elsewhere we've wanted to take home to fix. This one, we took home to eat with our other leftovers as is.

Servers were very pleasant and helpful, and apologetic about the menu confusion on the Chili Chicken being deep fried, trying to get us to send it back and get what we wanted. But we liked the Chili Chicken, so kept it. Towards the end of the meal, I noticed that we never got our hot tea, but that was really the only service problem.

As I said at the top, this is our new place for Chinese food. My wife will likely be sending me here for "to...

I'm Chinese (specifically Cantonese) and my family ran a well-known local spot on Bascom back in the 90s-early 2000s, so I'm pretty picky when it comes to any Chinese restaurant. I realize this is a more Americanized place, but I get cravings for Chinese take out like anyone else! I normally order hot and sour soup and some kind of vegetable dish to go (either the bok choy and mushroom or the string beans). I have to say this is one of the few places that I feel does hot and sour soup really well. It's not too sour and it's not too spicy, it really has the right balance, and it's also not too thick. I've had hot and sour soup from other places in the area and I think this is one of the best in my opinion. And their vegetable dishes are great as they still have some crunch to it and is never overcooked. Really appreciate this place and I'll definitely continue supporting their business!

Update 2024: I ordered 2 large orders of the hot and sour soup for my New Years Eve party and people went crazy for it! My Cantonese friend had 3 bowls! I can now confirm via multiple people that this place has hands down the best hot and sour soup. Highly...

I love the food here. They have dine in and carry out. Orders usually take just fifteen minutes unless they are super busy. They have a wide variety of foods to suit everyone's tastes. Their sauces are what really makes the dish. They serve every protein with almost every sauce. Portions are large and meant for sharing.

This restaurant is what I call Americanized Chinese. It's the Chinese food I grew up with like beef and broccoli. The food is not very spicy (even the hot dishes), so most will be able to easily try dishes like general Tso's without worrying about too much heat.

For a small footprint, they pack in quite a bit of tables without feeling crowded at all. Take out has chairs on one side of the register and tables on the other side keeping the restaurant area quieter Servers are good and speak decent English.

This is our go to Chinese restaurant and I'm happy to go to some place that...