Mandarin Garden — Restaurant in Sandy

Dated 1/7/2025

Was in the area, pulled into the shopping center, had lunch.

The General Taos chicken was so good, perfect textures with a delicious amazing restaurant style sauce.

Hot and sour soup was again on par. Everything was excellent.

Want authentic Chinese food. This is the place.

It used to be operated by an Asian family. The business must have exchanged hands.

The staff/and owners are Hispanic, friendly-cordial, pleasant; they don't speak much English. You might point to the choice of dishes.

Updated: Saturday 5/4/2024 Shrimp pan fried crispy noodles complete with fresh, crispy vegetables. Amazing sauce drizzled over a bed of noodles, another winner. Hot-n-Sour soup again was delicious, perfect texture of the broth complimented with diced tofu, egg flower, mushrooms and some other veggies.

• This Sandy location has an excellent-impressive high health scores inspection inspected by the Utah Health dept of only 17 health score which means this restaurant handles food preparation in the highest regard and food prep work. The lower the score the better. We want to and care to eat at a restaurant that is a clean kitchen and food handling process.

And the higher the health scores like 99, 75, 65, 50+ health scores mean it's a dirty dining restaurant from foodhandling, food preparation, cleaning utensils, cutting boards, washing sink, etc.

Updated Thursday 1/18/2024 We dine here quite frequently through the years and this place is our regular go-to spot.

Great service. Facility is clean (tables/booths). Excellent menu choices and good prices. If we were to visit Pei Wei, for the same costs and much better foods in quality, portions, and tastes, we take a drive to Mandarin Garden, Sandy. Or every time we drive by Highland Drive, we pull over to this strip shopping center restaurant.

You can order (pan fried or steamed potstickers) we usually go for the pan fried, comes with a vinegary dipping sauce. $6.99 or $7.55.

Hot & Sour Soup was wonderful with diced tofu, mushrooms, seas of flower eggs; broth texture was perfect (not too runny, not too thick). Large bowl $5.55 reasonable.

Haven't tried garlic shrimp $11.95, it was very tasty; loaded with fresh crispy veggies (green bell peppers, fresh white onions) in a sauce served with white steamed rice.

Can't say enough. If you want authentic, genuine Cantonese/Mandarin signature dishes in tastes, textures, flavors, good food portion, and service. This is the place.

As a San Franciscan native and business travelers, we know what 'good food' is when there is a Chinatown in the SF Bay Area, we dine at many Asian restaurants in Chinatown. It's similar to Asian restaurants in New York City, a Chinatown in NY as well.

We are excited to return and will visit more often like we always do.

1/2022 - Food Portion: 5 star

Texture & Taste: 5 star

Cleanliness of Facility: 5 star

Customer Service: 5 star

Setting & Atmosphere: 5 star

Noise Level: 5 star

This is a family oriented restaurant, perfect for families and kids, great place to have lunch with friends, a comfortable-pleasant setting. We don't think any dishes could go wrong at this place, everything is freshly made, hot, tasty. Tried their hot-and-sour soup; delicious is an understatement, their chicken dishes (drunken noodles has a sweet happy taste, love the noodles, drizzled with a dark sweet sauce) love it. Would recommend this...

This place used to be a regular establishment for me and my family and we enjoyed coming here often. About two months ago, I came back for the first time in a long time and the experience overall was very mediocre. There seem to be some staffing issues because it took them a long time to even acknowledge that we were there, let alone check in with us after our orders were placed. I thought this was chalked up to just a bad night until I went back again tonight.

The service tonight initially was a bit better, but that’s about all I can say that was good about this experience. The food preparation from the time we placed our order to when they brought it out was arguably too fast. I’m fairly confident that what we ate tonight was not cooked, but rather reheated. Furthermore, I’m more than willing to bet that the food is being prepared with rancid oil. The beef lo mein my son ordered tasted, as a previous reviewer had indicated, like something out of the barn stall. I know what rancid oil smells and tastes like and I know when somebody is shortcutting their cleanup duties by not changing the oil they cook in regularly. The overall flavor of beef with snow peas was awful, the ham fried rice was NOT fried and about the only thing I really enjoyed about this place was the water they gave me with a lemon wedge. When I pointed the issue with my son’s beef lo mein out to the waiter, he went back and got the manager, who was quick to defend her meal preparation, saying that there is nothing wrong with their food, that everything was cooked fresh, and that my assessment of their preparation with rancid food was flat-out wrong. As an added bonus, she offered to take my son’s plate back and make me tacos instead. Tacos! At a Chinese restaurant! If I’d wanted tacos, I would have gone across the street to Beto’s instead of dropping $45 for rancid, overcooked, and poorly prepared food.

This is really sad that the owner, if they are reading this, isn’t doing anything to address the reviews that are being said about this place now. I see responses from the owner to some of the other reviews posted that don’t impress me at all. It’s almost as if, rather than serving up quality food or addressing our complaints, you’d rather serve up excuses and condescending remarks about how we don’t have to eat there. You guys used to be great. What happened? I’m very sorry to write a review like this and I really hope you guys can turn this...

Authentic, clean Chinese food with fresh ingredients and reasonable prices! Mourning the closure of Chin Wah in Sandy, we finally found our new spot for tasty Chinese. Arguably an improvement over Chin Wah, as this Latino family uses fresh, clean ingredients like orange zest and ginger in the Orange Chicken dish, and fresh vegetables for the Chow Mein dish. The breading on the Sweet & Sour Shrimp is light and not oily — my wife’s stomach tells her quickly, in a not-so-friendly manner, when low-quality or dirty oil is used…not the case with Mandarin Garden. The Ham Fried Rice was better tasting than Chin Wah’s same dish — a favorite for my family for decades. They may use oyster sauce or fish sauce, it tasted better and more Asian-authentic. The family running Mandarin Garden is friendly and they clearly have big hearts! While my order was Carry-Out, I noticed how clean the restaurant and tables were, every table set and ready to occupy. We ordered: Orange Chicken (“as a combo”, which includes two dumplings, a veggie spring roll, a flattened & fried shrimp, small bowl of egg drop soup); steamed veggies (all fresh!); veggie chow mein (all fresh!); Ham Fried Rice (entree); Sweet & Sout Shrimp (my wife had already served herself so the photo appears smaller than it really is); steamed rice and a small rice seasoned with soy came with. Plenty of food for dinner and leftovers for the next day. The only complaint I have is regarding the "crispy noodles" for the Chow Mein: see photo, they're the same chow mein noodles sold at the grocery store. Pan-fried noodles (yakisoba or ramen) would elevate the dish much better. Maybe this is better described as a preference on my part. Either way, not enough to ding the 5 stars for food...