Mandalay Restaurant

not so bad

Most of the menu is marked spicy but all the mild things I tried were great. Also There is a $30 vegetarian appetizer sampler that isn’t on the menu but that you can ask for. Quite good.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Coconut Rice

Food was okay, I thought it was overpriced for what it was. Service was uncomfortable; the waitress was extremely pushy (another reviewer mentioned this as well) and kept trying to push us to order things that we didn’t want to. Will not be returning to this establishment.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 3

Service: 1

Ordered the tea leaf salad, rainbow salad, basil beef, and mandalay noodles. Rainbow salad was incredible and the table’s favorite, although more of a noodle dish than a salad. Mandalay noodles were a letdown after that, like a more boring version of the rainbow salad. The basil beef was too sweet and reminiscent of Americanized Chinese food. Service was good, and the tableside mixing was fun.

The food here has made this my favorite restaurant in San Francisco.

Excellent meal, portions are a bit more conservative than I expected but the flavors and service made up for it. ❤️

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Tea Salad, Coconut Rice

Ginger salad and Mandalay beef are the best!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Salads, Coconut Rice

For Burmese food in SF, this is a top spot. The drinks were on point and overall a good experience.

Food was definitely well seasoned without anything being too salty. The tea salad was quite interesting and reminded me a bit of Indian chaat. Rice is not included so may need to order some on the side to go with the dishes.

Staff was very friendly and bathroom was clean. Reservation is recommended.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Tea Salad

Beef curry was boring. Other dishes were great. Drinks were good as well.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

The food here is unique and amazing in every way. The staff are helpful and well informed. I’ve been dining here since the mid 90’s. I highly recommend this restaurant.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Lemonade, Coconut Rice, Samusa with Chicken, Mango Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Orange Chicken

Very weird experience here with multiple waiters who pressured my group of 4 to make quick decisions on the spot about what to order, added an order of balada that we never received to our check, and charged us 1.4-1.5 x's the base price of the lamb chops and fish chowder respectively that we ordered because they allegedly increased the portion sizes to accommodate what they deemed appropriate for our group, but the portions were still underwhelmingly small, only allowing for a few bites each.

The dishes we ordered were:
• green tea leaf salad (2/5)
• balada (1/5 because never received but got charged)
• fish chowder (1/5)
• spicy basil chicken (4/5)
• lamb chops (3/5)
• coconut rice (5/5)

They’re known for their green tea salad here which has no lettuce yet won an award. I find it absurd they don’t include lettuce because they’re trying to maintain the integrity of the salad. Without the lettuce, it’s not really a salad, and it tastes at best like trail mix. I’ve tried the green tea leaf salad at Burma Love, Teakwood, and Inle Burmese Cuisine, all of which were remarkably better.

My friend, who’s a fan of fish chowder and persuaded us to order it here, said that Mandalay’s version is thin and without chunks of fish. It could use improvement.

The spicy basil chicken was the best dish in terms of flavor, but it was such a small portion, there wasn’t much to go around the table.

The lamb chops were overly sweet and too fatty. Lamb is naturally expensive, but we got ripped off.

The coconut rice was arguably the most authentic dish on the table. They didn’t mess this one up, but at $5.50 per bowl, and our table ordered 2 servings, it’s the most expensive coconut rice I’ve ever had. Not worth it when other places serve the same exact thing for a fraction of the price.

To recap the dine-in experience, the waiters hovered around our table essentially trying to get us to order more and agree to up-charges for larger portions without disclosing that there were associated price increases and did not confirm with us that we approved the additional costs. The staff also got us to order the off menu lamb chops ($44 for 4 small pieces) without disclosing the price in advance. It took us two attempts to get the charge for the balada we ordered but didn't receive refunded after the meal. We had split the check between 2 credit cards, but only one received the total refund. Overall the situation with the helicopter staff was a huge scam, annoying to deal with, and left a bad impression. This is undoubtedly the worst experience I have had dining out, which has led me to update this review 3 times already to add more details in the hope that it will influence other potential guests to avoid giving this restaurant their business. Next time when I’m craving Burmese food, I would just go to Teakwood or either Burma Love restaurant in the City where I've never experienced these issues.

Service: 1

Worth going across town for. The tea leaf and papaya salad were both amazing. Their signature spicy chicken was great too!

Wheelchair accessibility: Appears to be. No stairs.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Curry Dipping Sauce, Tea Salad, Coconut Rice

impatient service, unspecial food

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 2

We have been dining at Mandalay for over 8 years. We live in the North Bay and whenever we're in the City we try and visit this fantastic restaurant. The food is absolutely amazing. We begin every meal there with their tea leaf salad. So delicious! Every dish that we have tried has been wonderful. The food alone would bring us back. The other stellar element at Mandalay is the service. Watching this hard working crew extend service to it's customers is to watch a ballet of efficiency. No matter how packed they place is, people are seated, orders are taken, meals are served promptly, water glasses are refilled and customers are consistently attended to and always cheerfully. I invite you to experience Mandalay for yourselves. You will not be disappointed!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Fantastic staff and the food was even better

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Tea Salad