3132 Vicente St, San Francisco CA 94166
(415) 564-3481
Parking: street parking
Hours: 11:30am to 9:30am, Tues/Thurs: 5:30 pm to 9:30pm
Last Visited: May 14, 2006
Food: 3 to 4 stars
Atmosphere: 2 to 3 stars
Service: 2 stars
Price: $ to $$$$
Old Mandarin Islamic Restaurant is located in the Sunset district. It’s a small store front with a sign that stands out, but otherwise, might be passed by without a second look. Enter the restaurant and notice the many many decorations all around the room. The top half of the walls is painted light blue, and the bottom half is painted golden. From the ceiling hang glass chandeliers and colorful, shiny paper decorations. The wall displays include both paper and wood decorations.
The top half of the left wall has multiple mirrors to enlarge the room. The left side of the restaurant houses three large round tables while the right side contains typical rectangular tables for parties of four or less. It’s a small family owned restaurant with three people working in the dining room and at least three or four more working in the kitchen in the rear.
Old Mandarin was recently featured on a local public television show discussing restaurants in the area, as well as the local newspaper. Their specialties include Mandarin cuisine and hot pot. Hot pot is available with a per person charge for the broth, and a per plate charge for items including raw meat and vegetables that are cooked in the hot pot. Since we visited for lunch, we tried the regular dishes.
- Stirred Flour Ball with Beef – Dough (flour ball) is cut into dice and stir fried with beef and vegetables. This dish contained a lot of vegetables including diced carrots, zucchini, celery, water chestnuts, peas, young corn, straw mushrooms, beans, bean sprouts, peanuts, and garlic. It’s all stir fried with soy sauce and takes on a brown color. This was my first time trying flour ball, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. It’s basically dough that has been cut into small squares, so the consistency of each bite is that of meat and diced dough and vegetables. The meat is cut into thin slices and cooked just the right amount of time leaving it juicy and tender. Overall, I would say that flour ball is just okay for me. I prefer the texture of noodles or Chinese rice cake which contains larger pieces of dough. Perhaps that’s just what I’m accustomed to. Most of the items in this dish take a lot of preparation to cut to such a small size, and they do a great job of keeping the dough pieces from sticking together. It also had great wok-air. However, this dish is just okay for me because of the mixture of textures and flavors. $7.50
- Three Flavor Dumpling (12) – Twelve dumplings are served on a white oval dish. The three flavors are chicken, beef, and shrimp. There are also some chives mixed in with the meat. The dumpling filling is a little on the dense side, but the overall flavor is okay. Not the best dumplings I’ve tried, but unique for the three flavor mix. $6.95
- Onion Pancake (1) – A large pancake is cut into wedges. The pancake is cooked until golden brown and crispy on the outside. Inside, the dough is evenly layered into multiple thin layers with green onion scattered about. Very good. A dash more of salt into the dough would have made it perfect. Excellent color and texture. $5.95
- Lamb Noodle Soup – Noodles are cooked with tender chunks of lamb in a rich broth. The hot and steaming bowl of noodles is topped with spinach and the temperature of the broth is hot enough to cook the spinach through. This broth has a wonderful flavor. It’s dark brown in color, and the lamb is cooked until very tender – the meat fibers break away from each other with ease and it melts in your mouth, without the flavor of game often associated with lamb. Excellent. The portion is also large and great for the price. $6.95
The first two dishes fall into the three star range and the last two dishes put Old Mandarin Islamic closer to the four star range. Other specials include beef tongue, braised eel, fish, and other three flavor dishes. The lamb, in any form, is a must try. A new place to check out for some dishes with excellent wok-air and lamb cooked to perfection. Great.
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