Mandarin Plaza Restaurant

If it wasn’t bad for your health, I could live on egg rolls. When someone mentions they had a great egg roll, I get there as soon as the schedule allows. This Chinese restaurant, while very small compared to some, was by and far the Holy Grail of Egg Rolls! They had so many options, I just broke out into a huge grin. The server was super helpful and added his recommendation, as he eats there regularly. I ate my fill and ordered more to go and checked with staff on the best times to show up. My new Number 1!

This is definitely the place to visit! It has so many different kinds of Chinese food. They have mastered the Mongolian dishes in every way. The Mongolian platter is awesome! Served with all sorts of meat and veggies. It probably serves two people… A bit expensive than other joints. I sure hoped that it would serve about 3 to 4 people, but it didn’t. A bit disappointed by the service of the staff. They mixed up my table and brought us someone else’s order and it’s happened more than once especially when there is a large crowd. After their screw you’d think they’d put a rush on our order, but no, we ended up having to wait another 30 minutes. I’m a little torn because their food is good, but their service is atrocious! At least it was served hot, so hot in fact that if you bit into anything you’d burn yourself. Something I actually like. The location seems to be a bit on the questionable side of town. I ha d issues finding parking too. This place has a lot of potential, but it’s being squandered by bad management and what looks like a lack of training with their staff spitting out late orders.

I am 41, and had been going there since I was a Teenager. I think this was a place that I took all of my dates and frequented weekly. To understand the rating, is more from sentimental point of view. I live in Texas now, five years ago I took a trip back home to San Diego, and I had not eaten there 4 years prior. There buffet to me is always good. Its not big, but because its small, its changed out often. The buffet only really gets you in the door.
This place has a very large menu. The magic lay however in knowing you AUTHENTIC food, knowing the people and asking them to make you something special. They are happy to do so. Those ladies remembered me, even asked about my oldest daughter (now 17). The best part is the price. Very reasonable, it wont break your wallet, in fact it will allow your pallet to explore if anything.
So, I love this place as a good olé familiar must go stop and eat a lunch and say hi. They remember me as a Teenager-​young 20’s all the way to my oldest. Thats says a lot about the character of a place =)

***CLOSED*****
I live in the neighborhood. They have been closed for months.

Amazing food, there is no more buffet. The orange chicken is the best i have ever had. The Mongolian beef was full of flavor and was savory. The egg rolls were thick and tasted fresh. the hot and sour soup was delicious. Prices were perfect about 10 for plate that INCLUDED the egg roll, soup and choice of rice. service was great too. i think we finally found a great place with fresh food.

Brutal…
Usually you can find 1 thing to fill up on at least… not here… not for me. It is like one of those places with one setup for dishes… maybe 10 selections total. Don’t believe me… wanna try it yourself… the 1 star they do get is that they offer BOGOs in the local ads… but I’d gladly pay $ 5 not to eat here again.

I have been going to this place for years. my Mom ate here when she was preggo with my sister and I (and my sister is 31). Is it fancy? Hell no. Is there better Chinese food in San Diego? Yeah. This place is still great for the price.
The servers are always super sweet and try to keep your drinks full and your table cleared. If it’s busy, they might be a tad slow, but it’s understandable.
The reason I didn’t go 5 stars is because lately their dinner buffet has lost it’s luster. I have an awful feeling they can’t keep up with the competition («Yummy Buffet» just opened on Midway Dr. and I think people are trying it out instead of eating at the old reliable haunt). I have seen people get upset when coming in for dinner because there is’t much food out. I know that the reason why is because they don’t want food sitting out all night! They want to make it fresh! AND THEY WILL. My boyfriend and I have both talked in around 7:00 and seen a small buffet line waiting for us, but we know that as soon as we sit down, they will start cooking.
It’s nothing grand, but it’s still good. I have known the folks that run this place and they work their ASSES off to try and provide the best they can. Everything is closing nowadays. It’s awful. I hope that people will stop being so picky and support this place.

I’ve eaten at this restaurant since I was a teenager, which was (sadly) probably 30 years ago. I still visit every now and then, but not too often, as it’s not too close to my house.
To begin, I was shocked at all of the one star ratings. The food used to be pretty good. I almost skipped it myself, but figure I’d grab some takeout today and give it a try.
I ordered a kung pao chicken lunch combo & a sweet and sour chicken lunch combo and this was a «to go» order. I thought the food was well-​priced. Their website offers a 10% discount if you order online. Each meal was $ 6.50 or so after the discount & included an eggroll, a fried won ton, choice of egg drop soup or hot and sour soup, the entrée and steamed or fried rice.
You are allowed to add comments to the order so I told them I exactly what I wanted and when I wanted to pick it up. The order was ready precsely on time. The woman who helped me was friendly and joked around in a fun way. I read other reviews about cranky service and I didn’t experience that.
What about the food quality? I thought it was decent, and I think decent is a fair term to use. The fried rice was average, but reasonably tasty. Nothing to write home about though. I might go with steamed rice next time. The kung pao chicken was slightly above average as was the sweet and sour chicken. The won ton was average & the soups and egg roll were a bit above average. Overall, I’d give the food 3.5 stars, but since they’re getting destroyed by most of the Unilocalers, I’ll stretch it to 4 stars.
The restaurant is a bit of a time machine, meaning that if you visited it 30 years ago, it looked almost exactly the same, although less dated. Some people like that and others don’t. In a way, I sort of do like it, although this is not the place I’d take a date or client who I wanted to impress.
So it’s certainly not the best or nicest Chinese restaurant in town, but I can’t help but think that the myriad of Unilocal 1 star ratings is a bit of overkill. Maybe the buffet isn’t too good, but the take out seems to be a bit better than decent and certainly much better than 1 star. I won’t carry a craving for Mandarin Plaza, but I’ll go back again.

Why we ate here I don’t know — big mistake
The egg rolls were rancid after having sat under the heat lamps for hours — and i mean foul smelling — i spit it out — the other old buffet items were sitting in stagnant goop — even the watermelon was growing fuzz —
BEWARE really unhealthy, unsanitary and gross —
— they charge $ 2.60 for an 8 oz. iced tea

This is a wonderful little hole in the wall. I just had the buffet and it was as I remember it several times past. Decent. In an era of tight money, I would think people would recognize good value, but then I am very practical. If I lived closer, I would frequent this establishment once a week. At least.

Not that good. Not much of a selection for the buffet

I was really hungry and I decided that I wanted Phil’s BBQ. Awesome idea because I have not been there ever! Oh wait hold on… the line has wrapped around the restaurant, I said forget it! I need to be experiencing that with friends. So next time!
But wait, I saw a chinese buffet place. I went inside and as you enter, your typical Chinese restaurant décor with buddha statue upfront (respect), some bamboo plants, the smell of Chinese cooking in the air. This place had two rooms, and I decided to go in the room with the buffet.
They had your typical suspects served: bbq pork, mandarin style fried rice and noodles, sweet and sour chicken, fried chicken, vegetables, salad and dressings, soup, etc. As i looked at the food I said to myself, «I can’t believe I’m about to pay $ 8 for this!» And I did… I had 3 plates, I had to make suer okay, don’t make fun of me! As I was on my 3^rd plate, I was contemplating that next time… there will be no next time.
Customer service, non existent, just the typical «How many?» and «Thank you.» as you pay for your bill. I don’t like giving a one star to a place, but I have to. THEY HAVE POTENTIAL, and we’ll end with that!
SYU asks «Why??? WHHHHHYYYY???» pom pom

Old School, inexpensive, Chinese buffet. One of the original Chinese Restaurant left in San Diego. I have been coming here ever since I was a lil kid in the early 80’s. To me the quality of food has stayed the same through out the years. The gracious staff always delivering great service. The decore is from the mid 90’s appeal to it. Not sure why the others gave low rating, but i highly recommend this place…

I can honestly say that this is THE WORST chinese food buffet I have been to yet.
The egg rolls were chewy and dried out as were the sesame rolls. The sweet and sour chicken was chewy and cold. The BBQ Pork tasted like it had been dipped in Kraft BBQ sauce (Since when is that real Chinese BBQ Pork?) and as for the chow mein… eehhh. $ 34 for 2 adults and one 9 year old. NOT worth it. My stomach is begging me to never return to this establishment.
Two heads ups… Anyone who says that the food at the Mandarin Plaza is even remotely good, obviously has NO TASTE BUDS and I have to agree that the ladies who work there really need to work on their people skills. (And the one… really needs to learn to actually LOCK the bathroom door when she is in there! EEEEEWWW.)

I give them 1 star * like everyone else * for their welcomeness and their efforts in hospitality. Like everyone else, we went to MP cause PHILS line was wayyyy too long and so * with iphones in hand — lazy cousin DIDNT Unilocal this place* we went in and GAH ! there were 10 of us tacky shitty buffet, with their infamous STICKY TABLES. lol the food was mediocre at best. Their was a group on the other side of the place, pretty much blocking the entrance to the one stall bathroom.
The outside shows it as your typical Chinese buffet, with lunch prices all over the windows, hiding the bent and broken blinds. The Tables were so sticky but its weird cause they are pretty clean everywhere else and they were given an A by the SDHD so idk?
anyway, maybe one day, many years ago they had a golden age, but idk cause it sure isnt now.
WE SHOULD HAVE WAITED FOR PHILS

1 star just for having a lazy Susan on the table! Cuz I think those are rad.
Sticky table, Dirty Silverware, Food Selection =BAD GROSS YUCK BLEH BOO HISS NASTY !!
Went only cuz it was my co workers Bday & she wanted to go there of all places. Didn’t get the chance to Unilocal it & see, just got shoved in a car & driven there.
1^st of all I hate buffets, don’t care how cool you think it is, its really starch filled gross’ness, from Vegas to the Starch Plantation! Don’t do em, hate em, unless there is mimosas involved then I’m cool and down!
Ill never ever go back to this joint. Lunch time too, and they have nothing, Luckily i stuck to rice and soup. I tried a few bites of this or that, and bland flavor less — Just all around gross!
So HBD to my Girl here at the office, but Boo to her choice of Comida Chinita

If you are really hard up for some Chinese buffet and in the area I would say give this place a try. If you are driving from any further then 5 min, you probably have something better in your neighborhood.
I’ve been here 2 times in the last 5 years. The last visit was due to us wanting BBQ and the line at Phil’s just being way to long for our hungry belly’s. We decided to just fill up here for a cheap price. Which it is, about $ 20 for 2 people, but you get what you pay for.
They have all the usual suspects you would expect to find at a buffet place like this So nothing really sticks out. One thing about the ambiance is that it felt like I was eating in an old Pay Less shoe store or some other strip mall type store.
In summary, I would suggest finding something a little better unless you are parked in the lot and hungry with all the other places close by completely packed.

Wow am I reviewing the same restaurant as you guys! Looking for somewhere reasonably close to Canes to get some Chinese and this place crops up.
Place was empty at 7 P.M. so initially a bit weird but we got settled in and grabbed a couple of beers. Wife had the salt and pepper chicken wings for starters and they were amazing. I had the deep fried wontons and they were excellent, nice dipping sauce and mustard to go with.
Mains were good too, Lemon chicken was tangy and gloopy enough to coat the batter and my mandarin kung pao was tasty too; could have done with being spicier but I like very hot food so maybe this was hot to normal people.
Toilets were clean, staff were friendly, all in all a nice little place. Would I go there for an anniversary meal? hell no, would I go there to get some god cheap Chinese food? hell yeah.

I don’t know what happened. Maybe someone else was in the kitchen tonight, but the food was inedible.
Soggy sweet & sour pork. Undercooked potstickers. The General Tso’s chicken was just… gross. And the won ton soup tasted like water.
It will take a lot for me to go back, in spite of my fantastic experiences before. Bummer!

Okay, so before I go about documenting this terrible «dining» experience, let me say this.
When you open a restaurant, you are creating an establishment where people come to eat. Therefore the food should be edible. That’s all I’m saying.
So it’s Christmas Day. I KNEW it would be difficult finding a place open, but I can’t fool my tastebuds. Why I didnt head straight down University Avenue or Convoy still amazes me; I took my ass down Sports Arena Blvd. Wow.
We chose Mandarin Plaza over the overpriced Thai Restaurant down the street and Bakers Square (no explanation needed). It had a buffet for $ 8.50, so it sounded perfect, until we walked in. We were greeted by a smell Pete and I still can’t agree on: I say it was chemical-​like, he thinks it was bad fish.
We stepped onto the buffet side and glanced at the buffet… Everything there looked like it had been sitting for at least a few hours. Any entrée in sauce was so saturated it was hard to tell what was what, and the seafood looked like a Health Code Violation waiting to happen. I went to scoop the mussels and saw that the «sauce» had formed a skin. No Thanks.
Instead of leaving (the buffet should have been our first warning), we decided to sit on the restaurant side and order something fresh. Yeah, about that…
They brought ice water, hot tea, and fried wonton strips. The tea was lukewarm and tasted dirty, but the wonton strips — OH the Wonton strips– tasted like they has been fried in used grease and left to sit for as long as the buffet. My boyfriend and I each ate one and stared at each other. I had to ask the waiter for a batch that didn’t taste poisonous.
We ordered Won Ton Soup, Singapore Noodles, and Sweet & Sour Pork.
Pete was fascinated, as was I, at how clear the broth was. And tasteless. We had Water Won Ton Soup. Amazing.
The Singapore Noodles were actually good except that the shrimp were easily recognizable as the small frozen kind you get from the market, and the barbeque pork wasn’t in slices, but rather teeny tiny strips. But I have no right to complain compared to what Pete went through. The Sweet and Sour Pork LOOKED normal, except when you bit into it. It was, no joke, 90% batter, with a teeny tinny BBQ Pork STRIP in it. And when I say tiny, I mean slightly thicker than a blade of grass. LITERALLY.
Rather that argue, complain, fight or be incredibly angry, we paid the bill and left. What the hell; it’s Christmas.