Mandarin Taste — Restaurant in Tulsa

to be honest, I was really excited to try this mandarin taste restaurant. I seen it on the Internet by several people and me, and my boyfriend were intrigued to go yesterday evening. when we got there, it was slightly busy, but not too busy to where we couldn’t get a table. When we first walked in we noticed everybody was just kind of like looking at us as in the Staff in the building, and the lady hostess took several minutes to even greet us, but she did see us just wasn’t talking to us. There was nobody in front of us, nobody around us by the host stand waiting but us. That was the first red flag and at one point I did notice a slight uncomfortable look that she gave my boyfriend and yes my boyfriend is African-American, second red flag. I let it go because at this point, I’m ready to sit down. She finally says how many people? I tell her just 2, she then doesn’t even reply. She just immediately looks away and walks off, so again, we’re waiting to still be seated then finally after 10mins another staff member comes up to us and says, are y’all the two needing a table? I reply yes she then sat us in this very front corner. That’s kind of hidden by a wall. we sat there for 20 minutes with nobody looking our way. It almost fell intentional for them to purposely not look in our direction, because as a waiter and a waitress, the duty is to monitor your tables just in case you have customers sitting in them. Nobody came and asked for our drinks. Nobody did anything after we sat down, we got seated for 20 minutes with the staff ignoring us, and it felt very racist, judgmental and uncomfortable and humiliating for my boyfriend and I. ( I'm also hispanic) The other customers all had their drinks, appetizers, entrees and the staff was even cleaning other tables seating more people, while were still not being greeted. These were also Adults in the building not “ high schoolers “ the staff knew we were seated but refused to come to our table, I disagree to say this wasn’t intentional. Even the woman that sat us, never tried coming back was helping...

Let me start out with saying that my family have been faithful customers of this restaurant for years and years, dating back to the first location. The food cannot be beat, very high quality and amazing.

The reason I am writing this review is because of a recent horrible customer service experience. First of all, I tried placing an order on their website using a gift card. The gift card was not accepted as a form of payment on the website, even though I am 100% sure the gift card has money and is from the right restaurant. So, I decided to call and make the order. Big mistake. The lady on the phone was not using the phone correctly—even with my volume all the way up, I could barely hear her talk. Additionally, I had to repeat myself slowly multiple times for each item in my order because she could not understand what I was saying the first or even second time that I said each item. I am sure this wasn’t a problem with my phone since I successfully make calls on my phone all the time. After painstakingly relaying my order in the manner described above, I was informed that orders on the phone over $50 must be paid in full at the time of the call. I had no problem with that policy so I proceeded to try to pay with my gift card. I was then told gift cards are not accepted over the phone. Also fine, but I asked if I could pay for part of the order and pay for the rest with the gift card in person. I was then very rudely told that would not at all be acceptable and that the only way for me to get my order would be to come in person, pay, and then wait for them to make it. I cried after I got off the phone because of how belittled I felt. I am very frustrated with this entire experience. None of this would have happened if their website accepted their own gift cards. Or if they would have been willing to make a one-time policy exception for me! My order was only $12 over the $50 limit! Horrible...

The food here is so good! Authentic Chinese food, and I really love this place. I loved it before they moved to a new location, but I'm so happy they did because it's absolutely beautiful, especially the patio. And as I understand, a second dining room and bar are still under construction, so I'm looking forward to that! I went shortly after the soft open. The staff are still in training, so service wasn't supreme, and they are working some kinks out, it's totally understandable. My constructive criticism would be making the physical menu and the QR upload menu match, because currently they are very different. I had the spicy pork dumplings, and they were perfection. The cheese wontons are the perfect combination of filling and crust, so creamy and delicious, best I've ever had. I really love spicy food, but I would advise if it says spicy on the menu, it is. It's filled with chili and jalapeño. I adored it, and my date loved it too, but he was dripping sweat. Ask for a pitcher of water lol I had the flan and mango pineapple cheesecake for dessert. The bottom of the flan is a robust coffee liqueur. The mango pineapple cheesecake is canned fruit pieces with cream around a mango cheesecake, it's really very delicious even though it's canned fruit. I really loved all of the food here so so much! My only complaint would be with the spicy jumbo shrimp entree. The shrimp were still in their shells?? What's that about? All of the spice was on the shells you had to peel off, with your hands. I tried to do it with a fork and it was so difficult. So your hands are covered with sesame and chili oil...they definitely should have taken the shells off before cooking them. I want to go back and try more dumplings! The prices are very reasonable. We had two appetizers, one soup, three entrees, and three...