O Mandarin — Restaurant in Town of Greenburgh

Food: 7/10 Service: 10/10 Atmosphere: 9/10 Value: 6/10 (definitely on a pricy side)

My family had a rather pleasant dining experience here two days ago. The place looked quite odd outside because a big storage building right next to it. But once you push the heavy door, you would see a totally different world. I liked the simple traditional elements all around. From the China red columns to traditional wooden engraved tables and chairs. They reminded me the Forbidden City. The most beloved 8 Treasure Manchurian mini sweets by Empress Dowager, elegantly lying in this exquisitely made gift box ( see my photo attached). I think I was sold just buy this setting. Lol! Now food. The place offered mixed styles of dishes, Sichuan mostly, traditional Beijing and American Chinese.

The steamed fish: 9/10. I requested no oil pouring on the fish as the final touch, which it is considered as the most key step of this dish🤣. I personally just never found that was necessary nor healthy nor pretty. Not that I did not respect the chef’s expertise (my husband often warns me I would be kicked out in Europe when dining in. lol).

The Peking Duck: per my son 10/10🤣 however don’t go buy this. Because he has never had a real Peking Duck in Beijing yet. But judged from this presentation, the skin looked thin and crispy. The color looked nice n rather atttactive in its red brown, that was most appealing. However, the duck meat was so thickly cut under the pretty skin. The wrapping pan cakes were nicely warmed and a bit challenging to seperate them. One order of wrapping cake wasn’t not enough so we ordered another set.

Salt & pepper pork ribs: 8/10. Surprising not greasy and very nice flavor. Not of the bone so it was fun to work on it a little bit.

Bean sprout in garlic: 8/10. It would be so much more enjoyable if less oil. Again, the Golden Rule is, the simpler the better.

Beef with Napa cabbage and Chinese asparagus in chill oil: 8/10. The flavor was great. MSG of course but not too crazy. What a pity the cut of beef was too thick.

Silky tofu with thousand year old egg in chill oil: 8/10. Very good in terms of flavor. I know it was diodes to enjoy with a heavy chill oil. This dish was in a beautiful cold metal bowl on a traditional engraved metal stand. If the chops of garnish more refine, this would be 10/10.

Dan Fan noodles:6/10. Very average. The noodle was too soft for Dan Dan. Lacking of chewing sensation that traditional ones requires. The topping missed finely chopped preserved Chinese cabbage, as well as crushed peanuts. But it was very popular on the table.

The final and the highlight of the brunch was the 8 Treasure old Manchurian mini sweets! 11/10! Yes, you heard it right! 11/10. lol! I was a snub when came to sweets. But these from here I could eat them every day. There well fresh out of making and extremely light in taste. I honestly felt like the Empress Dowaher for a moment. Thank you chef, as a Manchurian, I was ecstatic!

Service: 10/10. Our waitress Nook was very pleasant and sweet. Constantly checking with us if things were needed. She wore a day time makeup and very much respect her job and the guests. The girls at the front door needed to be seriously trained to be the front face of the business. They had no smiles nor warmth. I almost mistaken them as two Egyptian...

If you want to experience of being asked to moved table in the middle of your dinner this is the place. Ive been to o mandarin before. Food was ok. Lunchtime was not crowded. So on one Saturday nite we decided to have dinner at this place. It was 5.30pm place was crowded. I asked the host for table for 4 people and a baby. He was checking his book and went to see if there is empty table. And he told us politely that they have bunch reservations at 7pm so if we can finished dine in by than he can seat us. We agreed. Thats plenty of time for us. He than took us to a section where there are 3 rectangular table next to each other. Number 1 and 3 table was occupied it was a 4 seater. The middle one (table no 2) which are assigned for us is a 6 seater. So we ordered. Food came. Everything was good. We noticed the people from table 1 and 3 finished their meal and left.than not long after the waiters clean those 2 tables the host came and asked us nicely if we can move to table 1 because they hv reservations of 11 people coming in. (They need our table and combined with table no 3) I dunno what to say. We are in the middle of eating our meal. I told him we should be done by 7pm as u told us before (i look at my phone it was 6.14pm. The host keep on begged to move us and when his sense we reluctant to do it and we pointed out the 7pm time limit. He said "please, i was trying to accommodate you guys even tho we busy. I try my best and gave you this table if not you would have still waiting for the table now" he than said he will give us drinks on the house. We told him we dont drink. And ge also said we can stay as long as we want if we moved to the other table. Im just surprised he made it sounds like he did us a favor. I would rather he told us they fully booked than told us yes theres table until 7pm but at 6.14pm in the middle of the dinner he interrupted us and asked us to move. Anyway we moved. The other staff also appoligizing.The restaurant gave us cucumber pickled and fried dumpling on the house plus $6.70 manager discount . Even tho they try to compensate us but i really think its not appropriate. Never in my life i ever asked to moved table in the middle of dining. Kinda...

O Mandarin is stunningly awesome.

Having experienced all manner of Chinese regional cuisine, in Hong Kong, San Francisco, NY Chinatown, and the unsung but amazing Flushing, NY (not to mention Westchester County’s OK but unremarkable collection) - O Mandarin is at the absolute top.

The quality rivals gourmet specialty Sichuan restaurants anywhere, the quality-to-price ratio is unbeatable (for any style restaurant anywhere), and the place is gorgeously designed and decorated.

I’m a natural fan of Sichuan cuisine, being partial to spice heat. Sichuan peppercorns with their uncanny flavor and oddly anaesthetic affect (think “novacain spill” with citrus overtones) are used with discretion, not overwhelming. The kitchen is happy to go easy on the spices on request - but I’d recommend against asking them to do anything but what they do, which is create absolutely stunning, varied, subtly differentiated, complete preparations with every shockingly different dish.

We’ve only just begun our tour of the menu, but every item so far has revealed an amazing range of taste and mastery of spice unrivaled anywhere.

Our recommendations, limited only by what we’ve tried so far, are the Crispy Fish (we would like to see them offer the 3 different sauce options as a sampler), the Peking Duck, the Beef Chow Mein, the awesome Mandarin Pork Shank, and Pork Belly with black bean sauce. Next on our tour - Chonqing Chicken. We’ll come back and tell you about it!

Reservations for 3 or more are a must on the weekends. During the week is still walk-in-able - (until people see these reviews!)

-(a week later) We tried the Chonking chicken and Sichuan eggplant, both amazing and great together. Every morsel of chicken, deep-fried, was crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside, seasoned subtly and replete with savory chicken goodness. The multiple spicy and savory other elements in the dish appeared to be cooked separately, mixed together only before serving, offering a cascade of varying tastes, textures and intensity all in one dish. Absolutely not to be missed...and perfectly completed by the slightly sweet and equally complex eggplant. Stunning and...