ottawa foodies

We went to have dinner here again. For 4 of us (2 couples), we ordered our favorite "Crab Meat and Sea Foam Soup" as usual. For the dishes to go with rice, we ordered the following:
- Lobster with Ginger & Green Onions ($21.95)
- B.B.Q. Duck (half only) - $12.45
- Steamed fish with Ginger and Green Onions ($13.95)
- Stir-fried choy sum with shrimps

Overall, the meal was okay. See the comment for each dish below. Next time when I am here to eat, I will stick to the deep-fried Mashed Bean Curd (pei pa tofu) and deep-fried chicken and beef with green onions.

Oh! Service was impeccable (we got May as our server)! She kept filling up our tea pot. Our dinner was relaxing since we carried on our dinner conversation until their closing time. So, this is a bonus point added here!

Every one likes lobster. Here is the "Lobster with Ginger & Green Onions".

This is the "Hot Pot with Bean curd and BBQ pork with other vegetables". In the winter time, you want every dish to be steaming hot.

This is the "Steamed Sea Bass with Ginger and Shallots".

Cantonese like to cook fresh fish using steaming since this cooking method lets you enjoy the delicacies of a fresh fish.

This is "Pork with spicy salt". The taste was not bad. You need to eat more rice to go with this dish.

Note: This is a very popular dish for Chinese.

This is the "deep fried sweet and sour fish fillets". I don't know what type of fish. But I guess this is a popular dish for Canadian customers.

This is the stir-fried Choy Sum with beef slices. Taste was not bad. Although the beef was very tender, my taste bud told me that the baking powder used for the beef is a bit more than normal.

Note: I was told that most of the restaurants used baking powder to make the beef more tender.

Stopped in tonight for quick dinner and was very disappointed. I've heard from neighbours that the dinner buffet on weekends was good, so we went about 5:15 figuring things would be at their freshest.

Sadly, I can't really comment on the taste of the food because everything was cold. The hot and sour soup had been in the pot so long there was a solid, wrinkled skin covering the whole batch. We tried a few dishes off the steam table and when all were either room temperature or cold, we informed the server who said "Oh." and went over and turned up the temperature on the steam table. We tried a few more dishes and when we told the server that this food was also cold, he argued with us that it couldn't be, because he had just turned up the temperature. I politely said that I wasn't sure it was safe to eat things that were cold, and asked wasn't there a practice that required things be held at a minimum temperature on a buffet table? He still insisted things were hot and did not offer to prepare anything else or reduce the bill. We contented ourselves with the carrot cake and blueberry cheesecake on the dessert table, but left hungry, angry and $36 poorer.

And a word of warning if you order for delivery: We watched several times while the server scooped cold food off the buffet table into takeout containers and sent them off for delivery. One wonders how safe those things were to eat by the time they got to their destination. I'd be happy to hear if anyone else has had a more positive experience here.

I found the food bland - under seasoned.

It's not horrible, I'd say about averagish but slighty dissaponting, enough to give it a thumbs down.

I had two egg rolls, chicken fried rice, and the cantonese style noods.

Just in general there was a trend with all of it..bland, under-seasoned, though it was not without any flavor(at least the chicken fried rice had some) Even though it looked the least authentic. (seemed more boiled than fried and ingredinents not fused together properly)

Don't think I'll order from here again.

I ordered the "Dinner for 2A" with my aunt last week for a late lunch. It was my first time eating at the Mandarin Court and I was really impressed by both the food and the service.

This dinner is 21.99 and includes:

Soup (we had wonton, but hot and sour was also an option); 2 egg rolls; chicken fried rice; almond chicken guy ding; sweet and sour chicken balls; garlic spareribs; 2 fortune cookies.

The waiter timed everything really well and was very friendly. I had my 10 month old son with me and they were very good with him. The food was all really fresh and presented nicely. The egg rolls weren't greasy and the filling was light, but very tasty. The garlic spareribs were huge, compared to what I usually see.

I'm going to go back this week!