July 4, 2010, I had the worst experience ever in a restaurant anywhere. My wife and I were hungry and saw the Mandarin Palace among a few other restaurants all on the same side of the street. We looked at the menus posted on their doors and decide to try the Mandarin. The restaurant was nearly empty when we walked in, and I immediately second guessed myself about our choice. The waitress seemed friendly and, when we ordered the asparagus chicken soup, she nodded and said: ""That is good, I like it myself"". We wanted to order the crispy duck, but wondered if it would take a very long time for the chef to prepare the dish. She assured us that it would not take very long. So we order the duck along with kung pao chicken.
The soup was soon served. We discovered shortly that it was not the asparagus chick soup we ordered, but the chicken corn soup. We did not bother to complain, the chicken corn suited us fine too. A few minute later, the waitress brought the king pao chicken. The portion was large and it tasted well. The crispy duck was still nowhere to be seen after we had already finished the kung pao chicken. We thought it was going to take some time after all, she told us otherwise only because she wanted us to order the relatively more expensive dish. So we waited. Finally, she approached us again and handed us the CHECK with two fortune cookies. I was flabbergasted and, after a few seconds of hesitation, asked her highness where the duck was. She said: ""oh, I forgot, I am sorry"" and began to take the check off the table. I told her to leave the check there, we were leaving. We paid for whatever we ate and, believe it or not, even left some tip. I did not want to leave any tip at all, but just could not bring myself to do it.
With only two tables of customers to serve, she still could not do her job.
The positive side of this is that I now have an interesting story to share with my friends for a few laughs.
Pros: Location is good
Cons: Bad service
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