Mandarin Garden Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in South Lake Tahoe

This was our second visit here. We enjoyed the food when we visited Tahoe last year, and it was just as good this year.

We were greeted by the same energetic and friendly waitress that helped us last time.

The atmosphere is clean and inviting, cozy tables.

We were super hungry after a day at the lake, so we ordered the dinner for two. First to arrive was the most delicious Won Ton soup! It was hot and tasty and packed full of wontons, shrimp, mushrooms, pork, and veg. Practically a meal in itself. The usual fried won tons, egg roll, fried shrimp were all good. The paper wrapped chicken tasted amazing. We really tried to pace ourselves so we would have room for our entrees!

I had the Mu Shi pork, which I loved. Always my favorite at Chinese places, and this didn't disappoint. My husband got the Scallops in Oyster sauce. Presented on a bed of broccoli with carrots and snow peas and bell peppers. It tasted fine, but afterwards he thinks maybe he should have ordered the Szechuan or Kung Pao Scallops for a spicier flavor.

As it turned out, there was so much food we took so much with us, we had enough for dinner the next night as well (gotta love hotel rooms with in-room fridge and microwave!), so great value for what we paid.

We will definitely make it a point to eat here again next time we...

1.5 Hours for Food — Unacceptable!

This was one of the most frustrating dining experiences. It took 1.5 hours for our main course to arrive, and an hour just to get water. Meanwhile, several parties were waiting and eventually left in frustration. Honestly, I share their pain—management should have been upfront about the delays.

It’s clear the restaurant is understaffed for peak days, and the lack of communication made it worse. The person cleaning tables didn’t even make eye contact or ask how we were doing. He brought water to every table except ours. That’s outrageous!

As for the food, it was just okay—too greasy and overly sweet for my liking. But hey, atleast we got the food!

The only saving grace was the hardworking lady at the front desk, who tried to keep the crowd calm later on and explained they had limited chefs. Kudos to her, but this experience was unacceptable. I wouldn’t recommend this place unless you’re prepared to wait endlessly for...

05.02.24 3:30pm Very good Chinese food, restaurant has been here for 54 years! Very kind lady who waited on us gave daddy delicious coffee cake squares with a candle in it to celebrate his 84th bday, awww, thank you for the sweet gesture!

All 3 dishes ordered were very good; *Mongolian Beef is nice & spicy *Beef with String Beans and Black Bean Sauce *Mooshoo Beef was salty enough so didn't use the oyster sauce it came with, Mooshoo came with 4 wrappers.

Steamed rice is ordered separately, doesn't come with meals.

Hot tea (jasmine) was delicious! Tahoe water is 99.99% pure and is so refreshing and tasty as is as well as all beverages made with this water!

Restaurant isn't kept up in decor or anything but the food is very good and we...