Mandarin Chef Express

My husband and I were looking for some good comfort food on a snowy night tonight. We had never heard of Mandarin Chef Express but after looking at an old version of their menu we thought we would give it a shot. A tiny hole in the wall off Astrozon and Chelton, it didn't seem like much and we wrinkled our nose at the dinner prices (lunch is super cheap on the other hand!). Well, we put our money where our mouth was and it was 100% worth it! Please visit this place and keep them open. It's family run by the kindest people. We ordered the Kung Pao Chicken and spicy Chicken curry, both with fried rice. 8.5/10 will definitely be eating from here again. (Please excuse my hodge podge plating haha. I was very excited.)

for the 80916 not getting respect from the " downtown " and 'north ' let me tell you this is a great place for food. family owned and we have been customers for 2 years and Never had a bad meal or experience. so there lol :P

This food is gross, I got chicken wings and teriyaki chicken. I recommend not eating here if you want good tasting food worth your money. Also lo mein noodles look like fettuccine not what you'd expect. Very good customer service and nice people but $32 for This food is robbery. Teriyaki chicken looks good tastes like it was boiled in dirty dishwater and then seasoned

I've been going here for years and I really like the food. Service is fast and friendly, and they even do delivery. Personally, I highly recommend this place!

Am only in town from grand Rapids michigan and I was in a hurry unto eat and get ready this was so good sorry for no pics!!!! Super fast super hot could tell it was fresh

Terrible. Stay away. Went there a few days ago and she charged me dinner price at like 3pm, lol. Also I told her I can't eat rice and I just wanted the meal with the main portions and then substitute something for the rice. She said she just couldn't do that and proceeded to charge me like $15 bucks for a tiny box of mostly broccoli and shrimp. This place also definitely didn't strike me as super clean inside either. Overall, garbage, rigid and overpriced. And they wonder why Panda Express is putting them outta business.

I called to put an order for pickup was asked to hold . Ok then the lady asked me to call back! Really? I'll be taking my business elsewhere. Thank you for nothing!

Pull up 20 minutes before closing all the lights are on as soon as I pull up they shut off all their lights to not serve me for takeout. Horrible customer service do not recommend at all. Looks like a crappy hole in the wall Chinese food place.

They LIE on their menu about their dishes. I recently bought dinner there for my husband and me simply because they are close. I bought food there a couple of times a year or two ago, and it was decent. Therefore I chose it again...What a mistake. First issue: I like wonton-egg drop soup. It's exactly what it says, a combination of the two. I asked the lady for it. Most places don't have it on their menu, but they're happy to make it. I understand if they charge more. So I asked, and got a simple answer: "NO". Seriously? I told her I'd pay extra. Same answer. She finally said she would sell me one wonton soup and one egg drop soup and I could mix them myself. Arguing nicely got me nowhere, so I said fine, I'd take 2 wonton soups and 1 egg drop soup. Her response! 1 wonton soup, 1 egg drop. I kept correcting her, she kept insisting that I only wanted 1 wonton! BTW, her English was just fine. When she told me dinner would cost $57 I was shocked and said NO SOUP. That solved the soup issue. On to the main courses. I ordered Beef and Broccoli for my husband. My choices were steamed rice or fried rice. I chose fried. An order of boneless spareribs. Then my order, Happy Family. I told her I wanted fried rice too. She charged me for an EXTRA fried rice! I only meant WITH my meal, not an additional one. Unfortunately, I didn't discover this until I was home. The rice has changed. It's like no Chinese fried I ever had. Dry, with no visible added ingredients. It's more like they took leftover steamed rice and browned it, then called it Fried Rice. I suppose that's legitimate, but most definitely not what I expected! I asked what came with the dinners, since the menu offered these as dinners, not as single orders of each. "Nothing". Wow. At their prices, those should have been meals, not just a container of each entree. "Dinners" should include soup, and most likely a second side dish such as an egg roll, etc. The only extra was a fortune cookie. But it was late and I was tired. I sucked it up and paid for our dinner. My Happy Family was advertised as containing crab. I asked if it was real crab, and the answer was yes. Nope! It was that awful imitation crab. I don't like it, and if she had been truthful I would have chosen something else. They should not lie about the ingredients. If there's no difference then why not use real crab? If it's supposed to be just as good as authentic crab then why do they feel the need to lie about using it? Why not be honest and say "imitation crab" on the menu? They're changing a premium price as if it is crab as well. There's a real difference in taste, texture, appearance, etc. and I don't like the imitation stuff. Luckily my dog does. They used the same slices of pork in the Happy Family as they used for boneless spareribs. They used to have REAL spareribs. Cooked in sauce and tasting just like the bone-in version. What they are using now is NOT the same cut of meat nor is it cooked the same. If I'd wanted SLICES of pork with some sauce dribbled over them I would have asked for that. So except for the Beef and Broccoli, which my husband pointed out had very little of each but a lot of sauce and other filler ingredients, NOTHING I ordered was as I expected or remembered. And the bill was a whopping $47! For 2 people. 2 Entrees and a few extra slices of pork. They even have the nerve to have a tip jar there. Tip? For what? Handing me a bag of food? Isn't that her job? Did she expect a tip for doing her job? Wow.I learned my lesson. I used to stop by occasionally just for an order of boneless spareibs. NEVER AGAIN! If you like paying premium prices for crappy food with the wrong ingredients you'll love this place. If you want to get what you ordered at a fair price look elsewhere! I would have given them ZERO stars, but it wasn't an option! I know inflation has gotten to all of us, but they've raised their prices significantly and skimped on the quality of their food. What a shame! They used to be a hole-in-the-wall little restaurant with decent food. Now?STAY AWAY!Summing it up: The food quality has diminished noticeably. They're taking shortcuts that affect the food in very noticeable ways. They lie about their ingredients. It's sad. They saved a few dollars and in exchange lost (more than) a few customers. Sad....

for hard times like today I am very careful where I spend my money. Yesterday we spent over $58 for moo goo gai pan, sweet and sour chicken, and mu shu pork with a crab wonton appetizer. We did not even eat half of what we ordered. All of the chicken was dry to the point it was not edable. The moo goo was singed and disappointing. First time I had it. Needless to say my money was wasted.