Mandi House — Restaurant in Tempe

3/15/25: Short version - very delicious food, friendly staff, beautiful decor. It did take some time for the food to come out, the interior was clean (but also a bit tight w/ tables & booths), parking lot is not well striped, blind driveway could be disastrous if you're not careful.

Longer version - Mandi House has been on my list of places to try for a very long time. This particular Saturday we finally decided to check it out.

Parking? Their parking lot is on the east side (west side is the apartment complex). It is a tight driveway, I do not think two cars would fit if one were heading in and another out (especially if one of those cars as an mammoth SUV). It is a very blind driveway coming out. There is a "watch for pedestrians & bikes" sign (that has been graffitied) but we discovered just how low the visibility is (thanks to the building on their east side). Thankfully it was spring break for ASU, because honestly, we had to stick the nose of the car so far out in order to see any kind of traffic (vehicular of foot) that I can see how easy it would be for a collision to occur. Don't let that stop you from trying out Mandi House, just be very careful. The parking lot wasn't the cleanest and I think its overdue for some new striping, but it was fairly large.

Food/Drinks? Tasty and hot, cold & bubbly, respectively. Not going to lie, we did almost turn around & leave once walking into the door -- but only because we saw a butt load of buffet bins laid out on multiple tables. We thought "Is this a buffet place?" We kept going in anyway, which is when we saw a few booths full of people, and figured they were just cleaning up the bins, preparing for a buffet at some later date & time. We placed our order (hummus, hannieth meat, mathbi meat (both lamb dishes, one spicy, the other sweet). Unfortunately they were out of all their juices (I wanted mango), so we had to scour the multitude of drinks in their coolers, settling on a couple Freez mixes (pomegranate, lemon & ginger).

It did take some time for the hummus to come out, so be patient. The food is worth the wait. The pita came out steaming hot, and we devoured the entire thing. Pita was so dang good we asked for more.

Our entree plates came out & we both gasped at how large the plates were. The lamb was fall-off-the-bone delicious. I mean it -- it really fell off the bone. The rice was interesting, in that we saw three colors. It was a very colorful plate of scrumptious food. The Hannieth Meat I got was just this side of spicy; not burn-your-mouth spicy, simply full of flavor. The Mathbi Meat dish my sister got was on the sweet side. Both of us enjoyed the food immensely.

We opted to go for dessert: kinafa. It was nothing we had ever tried before, and the gentleman behind the counter (Ral?) was very nice & explained the difference to me -- its description read cheese, but he explained at Mandi House they use a cream. As he was explaining it, I laughed an said "so the cheese isn't a mozzarella or anything?" But apparently, he said some places to actually use that type of cheese, but they wash off the salt. Huh, learn something new every day. Which brings me to ...

Staff? Ral was actually the only staff we spoke to, since he not only took our orders but brought the food out as well. We did see a couple other gentleman walking around but one appeared to be focused on bussing the tables and the other seemed to be cleaning up the restaurant in general. Ral was polite & friendly.

The kinafa came out hot, and we had another laugh because we had seen the dish in their display case. Both of us thought it was rice. Ral laughed along with us, saying that's what most people think it is. We dug in. It was yummy. It was crunchy (thanks to the shredded phyllo dough), but with a creamy center. It had a touch of sweetness. If you have had baklava, think half of that sweetness. That is how mild the kinafa was. Luckily we were full from the other grub, so we were able to save some for leftovers.

Would we visit Mandi House again?...

Very rarely will I write a review after just one visit. Today I break that informal guideline. My son invited me to meet him at Mandi House, a middle eatern restaurant that he heard about in Tempe. I arrived early and found a stand alone actual old blue building which obviously had once been a home on Apache Blvd just west of McClintock. Parking is located behind the eatery, so you must take the small alley road just east of the building.

The house has 3 main areas/rooms that allow inside sit-down, outside dining, and even inside private parties. The staff is polite and very quick to respond to help. While there are a lot of tables for dining in, the traffic for pickup orders is also constant.

I began with ordering hummus and pita appetizer. The hummus was very flavorful and the pita fresh, warm and apparently just baked. Excellent. For a main meal, we decided to order a full platter to allow us to try the lamb, fish and chicken. This also came with two types of basmati rice, yogurt sauce and a a delicious kind of salsa. The chicken was fall-off-the-bone tender and nicely flavored. The lamb was roasted, bone-in and juicy. The fish was an entire body, with skin, tasty grilled fish. All of the food was nicely prepared and worked perfect together.

Since we had a large platter meant for multiple people the price was about $50, but quite reasonable on a per person basis.

I would highly recommend Mandi House to anyone seeking moddle eastern food. An...

I came today to open iftar with my wife and mother. We came at 630 and picked up fruits and juices for iftar. Then once we open iftar we prayed and went all the way in the back outside by the parking lot. By the time we came to get food majority of the food was gone. Starting from sambosa,flafel, potatoes, rice, beef multiple styles of chicken dishes and other products. We waited and ask the gentlemen with glasses hey will you be refilling and he goes yes but I am by myself so it’ll take time. I said ok that’s fine. We and many others who waited at the line for refill and the only thing the gentleman brought was chicken, shrimp and lasania style product. I said hey is this all you will refill and he goes yes. I said well that’s not okay especially when this our first round of food and yet you are still charging me $71 for buffet 3people. To me if your running low and you know there’s a huge line then you should tell people you will not be refilling main items so people don’t have to pay $71 for nothing, that’s not being honest. I will be calling the manager Ibrahim to get this resolved as this is not okay at all. People work hard to earned and then to be robbed like this is not...