Mandarin Kitchen

AYCE Hotpot with a generous selection of meats and veggies? I'm in.

I visited Mandarin Kitchen as part of my trip to Chicago and I got the half spicy/regular broth. They were delicious though it blows when the spicy half overflows into the non-spicy part (therefore making both parts of the broth spicy-ish).

The dipping sauces are typical of most hot pot places (I'd like to think) and they go well with the food.

Great hotpot place with a big selection of meats and veggies.

- get half spicy and half regular broth. They're both delicious and it gives you more variety.

- scallion pancake is delicious.

- once you order, the food comes pretty quickly. My favorites are beef meat balls, pork, beef, napa cabbage, baby bokchoy, and cilantro.

- if you don't finish whatever you ordered, they will charge you for it which is perfectly reasonable. So don't over order! You can always get more as you finish your food.

- if you pay cash, they will give you a small discount (I think they pretty much take off the tax)

- 3 different dipping sauces which are all delicious (garlic, peanut, soy sauce based)

Overall, really enjoyed my dining experience here. The only negative was that our server was kind of grouchy the whole time but whatever. Wide selections and all-you-can-eat will keep me coming back for more!

I tried MK for the first time - after going to Lao Sze Chuan for six years now.  This meal tonight, the food at MK is better than LSC. (Note:  I arrived at 5pm)

Food:  
-Both the lamb and the beef is better than LSC.  To me for hot pot it is all about the meat and fat ratio.  The lamb is better than the beef here.  LSC beef tastes like paper towel after I cook it.
-The spicy broth is better than LSC because it is more peppery.
-The prepared food (buns, etc) was all disappointing, but the dumplings - which come to your table frozen - were quite cute and tasty

Table service:
-I like the ordering procedure.  You are given a list of items, you check off the ones you want and you start off with that.  After a while - as you are running low - you wave someone down and order more things.
-The people that delivered the food was fast and receptive - no complaints.
-Non meat portions were smaller - but I liked that because I did't have to worry about wasting food - which is a MAJOR stressor at LSC.  LSC gives you mussels as part of the package - who eats mussels for hot pot?!

Overall service / experience
-The hostess / owner lady is scary.  She's not very nice and gets quite bossy.  When she says wait, you wait.  When she says 'you must order standing up while you wait' you do that too.  When she asks 'what do you want to drink' - don't say 'excuse me?'.  She didn't add very much to our experience - she's more of a bouncer.   --- but seriously, LSC six years ago - every server talked to you like that.
-The restaurant isn't particularly clean, but it is sanitary - it is a bit crowded.  We arrived at 5 there was no wait - but left at 6 and wait was out the door.
-The tea is horrendous.  
-There is something wonky with the bill I thought - but I didn't want to deal with the dragon lady over a couple cents.

It is probably a 3.5 stars overall experience - food is solid; everything else needs a bit of polish.  Next time I go - I'll totally BYOB!