Ballard Mandarin — Restaurant in Seattle

Honestly,

It's Christmas, I'm new here to Washington and my flight to visit my family got cancelled, because the world is upside down.

SOOOO, I ended up not making anything or having anything ready for my solo dinner. I decided to get take out and of course, Chinese is the #1 for Christmas.

I read a few reviews. It looked like a safe option for something tasty. However, I'm starting to believe people in Washington don't have tastebuds or don't know what quality food tastes like based on how many places I've been to that really is more basic tasting then actually good.

I ordered General Tsao & Chowmein Chicken.

I opened them up and General Tsao is more like orange flavored, semi sweet, watered down chicken with A LOT of vegetables and the Chowmein, same thing again, I actually believe there are so many vegetables I'm eating a noodle salad then chowmein.

It's incredible on the amount of vegetable to noodle ratio that's happening here.

The flavor of the Chowmein is overcooked, so they're breaking apart into tiny pieces, watered down so little flavor, and honestly I hate it. I was expecting robust, full flavor, full noodles with delicious chicken to go with both.

Instead I have an upset stomach, disappointed taste buds and I am down $35.

I won't be eating here again, I doubt they'll read the review, but if you do read mine, take note, it's only ALRIGHT at best. If you want something worth $12-15 per entree, find a different restaurant.

I would rate this place at less than $10 per entree and with all of the vegetables... I'd say $7.

Sorry Mandarin Chinese Restaurant, you didn't make the cut. Let me know if you get a better chef. And again, I understand it's Christmas, but any chef a restaurant has should be a consistent...

The food here is mediocre at best. The General Tso's is passable, but the crab rangoon is bland, and most of the appetizers are dry and overpriced. The restaurant itself feels a bit run-down, but it's par for the course as far as Chinese restaurants go. That said, the staff is genuinely kind - they're always friendly and even offer treats to my dog, which I really appreciate.

Because I live on the same block, it's convenient in a pinch. But I wouldn't recommend going out of your way for it. My real point of disappointment and fury is with the bar in the back. They routinely overserve patrons late into the night, often leaving the door wide open so loud music pours onto the street while smokers gather outside. It disrupts the entire neighborhood.

Just tonight I was woken up at 2 am by a group of clearly intoxicated adults scream-singing karaoke out front. I understand they can't control every patron, but it's irresponsible to serve people to the point where they forget they're in a residential area.

As much as I appreciate how kind the staff are to my dog, I wouldn't feel the slightest bit of regret if this place shut down. A business that consistently disrespects its neighbors and makes the community worse doesn't...

Just moved to the area and trying out the Chinese spots nearby. We came here on a Friday night and there were 4 tables seated including ourselves. They gave us tea, I thought it would be jasmine or oolong but it was lipton black tea, which was a bit out of the ordinary for a Chinese restaurant.

We got the appetizer platter so we could everything we liked. The crab cheese rangoons were the best part of the appetizer platter. They were crunchy and had a nice amount of crab cheese in them. The egg rolls were crispy on the outside but were a little mushy on the inside. The dumplings were okay but I think they were a little older because the dumpling wrapper was white when you bit into it. BBQ pork was okay not much flavor.

Orange chicken was saucy and flavorful and tasted great with the rice. My only wish is that they would have made the pieces smaller, they were huge!

Favorite part was the house chowmein, which had chicken beef and shrimp. The shrimps were really big and tasty and the beef tasted great.

side note: rice is not included in entrees and should be ordered separately for you...