Mandarin Touch Chinese Restaurant

Food was just ok! We sat outside and ate to enjoy the day. They charged us over 18 percent on a tip on our bill. I could understand if we were a large party. But for a small meal and all lunch specials and lousy service it is not worth it. Only time you see someone is when they take your drink order and food order. Come back to give you your food and come back with the check.

Most unethical restaurant owner I ever saw. I took my family here to have dinner since most other places closed because of Christmas Eve. I could clearly see his attitude change when he is dealing with white and colored people, as RACIST as it gets. He asked us to wait outside since it is crowded inside, but he let other white family come stand inside and seat them first!, we waited for over an hour, and other people came after us were seated, while we kept waiting. After a while I confronted him about that, a simple apology would have sufficed, but the attitude he showed was disgusting. I have 3 years old twins they were hungry and cranky. What was supposed to be a nice Christmas Eve turned into a disaster because of this. Don't let the crowd fool you, there was crowd just because other restaurants are closed.

Mandarin Touch is my go to for chinese food (i love their almond chicken, along with other dishes). I used to be a customer in their old location and now their new location is even better. They have a great bar, the food is awesome, the wait staff are wonderful!!

The people who have given this place a good review must be either insane or in dire need of a taste infusion. Or maybe the night we ate at this restaurant the chef was sick and they had trained chimpanzees making the food, because this was bar non the worst Chinese food (if you can call it that) that I have ever had. First of all, the service was terrible. The appetizer we ordered came last, they completely forgot one of the dishes (but charged us) and we had to genuflect and bow to the floor to get a waitress to come to our table because they were apparently all too busy inspecting the ceiling to be bothered by customers. Now to the food. In all honesty, I can't say what we ordered other than the paper wrapped chicken (the very late appetizer) and the fried rice, because I actually swallowed a bite of each of those. The paper wrapped chicken was seasoned properly, but was left in the oven far too long; or perhaps the chef enjoys eating chicken that is so dry that it evaporates into dust when you bite into it; I've never had "bad" fried rice, so I can't complain--but both my wife and I can both do much better even though neither of us is Chinese; hell, I'm so white LAX created a law to keep me from taking off my shirt anywhere near the airport so my skin won't blind the incoming pilots. I tried all of the four entrees we ordered, and the best of them was bland; the worst of them made me worry about food poisoning. I am prone to exaggeration (obviously), but in all seriousness, I could only swallow two bites of that horrendous meal, then went back to the hotel and ate cold leftover mac & cheese, which was as ambrosia compared to the worst Chinese food in the world. What really surprised me was that the place had plenty of customers who were actually eating the food, and either enjoying it or putting on a very good act. We even saw a couple Chinese people in there, and I wanted to shout at them, "What the hell is wrong with you???" for gagging down that less than fair fare. I suppose this place stays in business because it's the only Chinese restaurant in Solvang, and apparently the locals really need their Chinese food and don't care if it has the remotest trace of flavor. Another thing that surprised me was the prices. Evidently, many reviewers have only eaten at very expensive Chinese eateries if they think these are good prices. In LA, I can get incomparably better Chinese food for a third less. I didn't know about the unspoken 18% service charge because I didn't pay the bill; but now I'm glad I insisted our group not leave a tip of any kind. Perhaps the restaurant adds the service charge because otherwise no one leaves a tip; or maybe it's their way of paying for an excessively large, lazy staff so half of them can stand around staring at the ceiling.

My wife and I are Chinese, so we would know if a 'Chinese restaurant' is authentic or not. For this place's authenticity, you would normally expect it to be located in Chinatowns in San Francisco or LA, but it is located here right in downtown Solvang. Traditional Soochow style decor, ran by real Chinese immigrants from mainland China, food was beyond our expectation as we actually walked in here expecting some generic American Chinese food. Also noted that your check would arrive with tip included, which is the minimum amount of 10% of your order. For those like me who usually pay at least 15% for the tip, I like 10% better for sure.