[Rating:2.5/5]
Ed: Quality has fallen and is now inconsistent.
We visited Mandarin Trail on three separate occasions and liked the place all three times.
Very elegantly decorated in a woody theme, it offers two types of seating – benches and tables or lounge style with big comfy sofas. They also have this very attractive motif that’s been used all over the place, including their menus and business cards. The area is also split into three sections, each of which have a nice view of their kitchen. The service is *very* good and I don’t say that very often. One nice touch is the complimentary jasmine tea they offer their guests. Also, most managers I’ve met seem to be lifetime members of the Clueless Restaurant Managers Association. Not the chap here though – Pradeep Kumar. He’s smart, savvy and will make sure you have a good time. Take a note of the icons they’ve used to mark the male and female loos. Very interesting indeed! Only minus point would be the high level of transparency of the glass used to partition off the private section of the loo.
We tried their Hot and Sour Chicken Soup, Vegetable Spring Rolls, Chicken Kothe, Vegetable Noodles, Chicken Noodles, Chinese Greens with White Garlic Sauce, Lamb with Chilli and Coriander, Mixed Vegetable Salt Pepper, Crispy Conjee Lamb, Chilli Hoisin Fish, Walnut Brownie with Ice Cream and Date Pancakes with Ice Cream. We also tried their Meal Bowls Prawn Hunan Style and Spicy Garlic Seafood. With the exception of the Crispy Conjee Lamb, which was tough and hard, the rest were good. As simple as noodles may sound, it is definitely possible to go wrong there, but they didn’t. The soup was just right, the spring rolls were light, crisp and neatly rolled and the Chicken Kothe was filled right and tasted good. The Chinese Greens were well flavored and went well with the Noodles. The Lamb was exceptionally tender and quite delicious while the Salt Pepper were light, crisp and tasty. The Meal Bowls, which they only serve during lunch, were exceptionally well done – filling, hot and quite good. The desserts, while common, were well done and left no room for criticism.
I also must mention, they provide excellent chop sticks for their guests. Though made of plastic, they’re well balanced and high quality – a definite step up from the cheap or garish ones provided by most other places.
You *must* visit Mandarin Trail at least once to experience the place and don’t forget to ask for Jasmine tea!
- Sid
Update: 25th December 2008 – We paid another visit to Mandarin Trail today. As usual, we had a good time. A point to note is that the place was operating to full capacity, and yet we were served on time and they even managed to keep our starters and main courses separate – which is quite an achievement at rush hour and something most places botch up quite badly.
We ordered Sweet and Spicy Chicken Bao (chinese buns, traditionally filled with spicy pork, but Chicken in this case), Mix Veg Salt Pepper (vegetables, lightly coated with dry cornflour and spices and flash fried), Chicken Spring Rolls, Chilli Hoisin Fish, Shredded Lamb with Ginger and Spring Onions, Fiery Hunan Chicken, Steamed rice and Vegetable Noodles.
We were served three buns in the Chicken Bao, which were quite well done. The Chilli Hoisin Fish was even better than the last time. The lamb was surprisingly tender and quite good. A slight disappointment was the ‘Fiery Hunan Chicken’, which we were expecting to be a little more spicy than it actually was. Perhaps they could ask diners the level of spice preferred, in the case of such dishes. Good thing my mother wasn’t around – she would have recommended the ‘Fiery Hunan Chicken’ for dessert!
All in all, everyone enjoyed the meal, which we ate traditional Chinese style (individual bowls of noodles and everything else shared) – Sid
BTW: If you’re looking for good jasmine tea – try INA Market. You can get a 500gm tin of genuine jasmine tea (which is really a blend of green tea with jasmine flowers) for about INR 500. I’m not a great judge of tea, so if you are, perhaps you could judge the quality of the green tea used and buy accordingly.
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Let me tell you, every word from sid is true. Also the sister place of this is The Ruby’s Tuesday. Its an american chain but the same owner maintains it and the service quality is good. I am a vegetarian but still I like Mandarin Trail, I rate it better than the Noodle Bar, Noida (not the Noodle Bar at Chandigarh, thats awsome).
There is one starter with eggplant their, thats really cool
@lokesh: Glad you liked it.
I would like to promote a lunch to my staff as a promotion for their performance, on regular basis. Do you have any proposal/ special package ?