Must admit the crab wonton were not bad. With that being said, unless you are planning to dine on fried cream cheese and Krab wontons and nothing else, skop the Mandarin Pine! We stopped in for lunch, a little later than the lunch rush. The place was nearly empty and the service was fine. However, the food was terrible! We each received a bowl of what the menu called egg flower soup. It foretold what was to come. Overcooked vegetables in a thick flavorless goop. Granddaughter ordered broccoli beef, very little broccoli actually made it into this dish! The dish consisted mostly of thick brown sauce and a few pieces of tough beef. My daughter and I each selected items from the lunch menu. The vegetables were all grossly overcooked, the spicy chicken was flavorless and the chow mein was a gloppy mess of overcooked celery and limp onions. The fried rice had no flavor beyond soy sauce. We will not return.
(2)
Alisha P.
Picked this place because of the picture of the lettuce wraps. Great food. I really loved the lettuce wraps and the vegetable dish we had.
(4)
Daniel K.
Usually when you travel with athletes they want something quick and fast but on this occasion I got to eat with the trainers. Their number one rule is to never eat at a chain so we stumbled onto a random restaurant in Lewiston - the Mandarin Pine. Once you enter the have a strange little shrine of awards that they've won and you continue on into the dimly lit dining room. We got a variety of dinner combos and the lettuce wraps. The lettuce wraps were fine but not memorable, comparable to PF Changs version. The dinner combo started off with the classic egg drop soup. This version was a bit more viscous but not an offensive version of the staple. The combo arrived in a big heaping pile of chow mein, fried rice, and neon red chicken. Normally I like my American Chinese in all its gloppy corn starchy msg glory but this chicken had the weirdest aftertaste that was really off-putting. The chow mein was fine and didn't suffer from that but the fried rice too had a strange aftertaste of must and foilage. OH WELL it wasn't a bad meal... not a good one but not terrible. Maybe they should try to make their aftertastey dishes lean towards a pine taste to match their name ~ nyuk nyuk Ask for the special menu! We sadly didn't order of off it because 2 of my compatriots didn't want to go off menu and order family style. Overall, this place is ok and comparable to a lot of Midwestern Americanized Chinese restaurants but I wouldn't visit this place again if given a choice.
(2)
Yang X.
A really good Chinese restaurant. Cheap but good food.
(3)
A T.
Food is ok. Sometimes its hard to make it clear to some of the servers when you need your order prepared slightly different than the norm. It took us 3 minutes (& 5 different ways to say it) before we could make her understand. Its much more expensive than some of the other chinese places in town. We like bamboo gardens better.
(3)
Kalani F.
Oh yes. I've eaten here for years. For other reviewers who did not grow up in Lewiston and found the food to be "Lewistonized" I can only say: Lemon Chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork. These haven't changed since I was a kid, and I don't want them to change. Yes, I have traveled around now and been here and there and had some mighty fine cuisine. However, lemon chicken with its somewhat gooey yellow sauce that reminds me of jelly roll cake is so good on the chicken- and thumbs up for the sweet and sour sauce. Dinner is never complete without egg drop soup, although my favorite is the won ton. Fried rice- I crave it at other Chinese places. Is it probably authentic? No, but the portions are good, the rice is flavorful. The only drawback is that tea used to be automatic; I think you have to ask now? And they added a bar, so that is somewhat shocking and I think some food from a wok. Those I haven't tried- all the favorites on the regular menu I've eaten everything more than once. It's hearty comfort food for me, bringing back good memories, and a relaxing time. I've never had bad service at Mandarin Pine, and still love to get the fortune cookies. I cannot speak of the toothpicks.
(4)
Kim D.
This place is one of the best Chinese places in Lewiston. I'm only slightly critical since I'm Asian and from California where there's large Chinese population. When I think of chinese I think of home cooking comfort food. Stuff here isn't exactly "authentic" Chinese. It's Americanized Chinese and still done very good and full of flavor but the restaurant doesn't serve what I know and grew up with. That's my major criticism. However, while in town this was one of our go to spots because the food was good, and served in generous portions for plenty of leftovers for lunch or a late snack. It's always busy here so expect service to be a little spotty at times with waiters and waitresses being bombarded with customers. Overall, good place to go to and I'd come here again. But this isn't exactly a place that reminds me of "home" when I go here unfortunately.
(3)
Justin S.
Very good service and food. Ordered the General's Chicken, to go, and it was fantastic. Very spicy, like it should be, and great portion size. Will definitely go back.
(4)
Dalin M.
Decent Chinese place. My only sorta gripe is that they like to put a lot of ingredients in places they don't belong. I had eggflower soup, beef with broccoli, beef lo mein noodles, and rice. Literally everything I ordered was stuffed with celery and onions and mushrooms, and water chestnuts, and all sorts of random "chinese food" vegetables. Including the soup. It wasn't bad, just not what I expected. In fact, broccoli was the least represented vegetable in my beef with broccoli! Also, this is a weird nit-picky little thing, but maybe if the management reads this they can take note. You guys have the worst toothpicks I've ever used. Switch brands or something. They didn't remove any food and just left splinters stuck in my teeth.
(4)
Brendan D.
Well, basically this restaurant is a disappointment. When you walk in the door, you're greeted with many trophies and plaques awarded to the restaurant, most saying things like "Best Chinese of Lewiston" or "Culinary Excellence Honoree." Naturally, the food was quite the opposite of "culinary excellence." I first had the wonton soup, which had no flavor and mostly tasted like watered down chicken stock. Then, the meal came out. There was ribs, pork, chow mein, prawns, and pork fried rice. The ribs were an abomination. They were overcooked, dry, and smothered in the worst sweet and sour sauce I have ever tried. The prawns tasted like frozen popcorn shrimp. The chow mein was so salty it was almost untastable. The pork was dry and covered in a store-bought and almost metallic tasting sauce. Lastly, the pork fried rice was simply mediocre. I won't give this a one star because the service was halfway decent, but I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone. Ever.
(2)
Jacky A.
As I said, I will get to this place again, it is Chinese New Year and me and my friends dont want to stuck in Pullman for silly Chinese food, so we went all the way to Lewiston again for delicious Chinese food. The owner is nice, we made a reservation for 9 and she helped us pick some dishes again. I love it, they love it. I am sure we will come to this place more to celebrate some events or what else. I brought my camera this time, we get to met owner's son, they are all super friendly and the service is excellent. With smiles on our face, we enjoyed every single moment in the restaurant. I only give this place 4 stars because I still believe they can do better, but with the price we paid, I believe they did a very good job, maybe I will say a 4.5stars .... Hm....! Guess it will go up to 5 the next time I go again...
(4)
Mary W.
The first thing you have to understand is that Lewiston stinks, literally. The town is dominated by a huge paper mill that makes the local air smell like the farts people get after they eat a lot of sauerkraut. Sadly, we did not realize this when we scheduled ourselves into a hotel there for one night during a road trip to Seattle. Well, there we were, stuck in Stinkville, and we needed someplace to eat. The Mandarin Pine had a great rating on Yelp, so we went. It turned out to be the first time Yelp totally let us down. If you are -- oh, let's say over 45 -- and/or you grew up in a very small town, you may recognize this food. It's like what passed for Chinese food back in 1965. The food definitely took us back to our youth, and not in a good way. First impressions: the restaurant's exterior is ornate, with lots of pagoda-style roofs and Chinese dragons and stuff. The interior is pretty nice. It is busy. The locals all seem delighted to be here and they are shoveling down huge platefuls of something. We each order a combination meal, so as to try as many different dishes as possible. I mean, this place has rave reviews, right? I do notice almost every combo includes "chow mein," which is a Westernized ersatz "Chinese" dish that has been around since at least the 1920s. That makes me a bit suspicious. So does the egg foo yung (who still makes that??? more to the point, who still eats that???) and pretty much everything else listed on the menu. It is like being in a time warp. Nevertheless, we order. First up: the egg drop soup. The waitress (who is very pleasant, by the way) sets down our bowls. The contents jiggle. I have never seen a clear soup that thick. It is like soup jello. You can almost stand a spoon up in it. We try it. The broth clearly contains a ton of cornstarch and MSG, and very little else. There are some grayish peas, chunks of cabbage and little nuggets of mystery meat in there. The veggies have been cooked "until they can't hurt you none," as they say in the South -- in other words, until they are almost disintegrating. The waitress seems surprised that we haven't finished our delicious soup, but we tell her kindly it is fine to take the rest away. Next we each receive a giant platter of -- I started to say food, but that doesn't seem to be quite the right word. Stuff. Lots of stuff. The stuff ranges from barely acceptable (my fried prawns, my husband's egg roll) to completely inedible (everything else). I was given a choice of "hard" or "soft" noodles for my chow mein and stupidly said "hard." (Not that the "soft" version, which my husband ordered, was any better, but still.) The "hard" chow mein consists of about 60% celery slices, 10% cooked bean sprouts, 10% some kind of meat niblets and 20% hard fried "noodle" nuggets like the kind that come with that old-timey canned La Choy Chow Mein that I hope to God is no longer sold. (If you have never heard of canned chow mein, thank your lucky stars.) The vegetables in the chow mein are seriously cooked. The only thing crunchy is the noodle nuggets. All of this is bound together by more of the jiggly clear cornstarch-and-MSG goo. I would describe the rest of our meal but it's just too depressing. Well, the inhabitants of Lewiston have my sympathy. It's sad that their nasal passages have been burned out by the stench of the paper plant and that they apparently have no sense of taste as a result. This seems to be the only explanation for the rave reviews on Yelp. In any case, if what you want is a plate of mystery meat and cooked-to-death vegetables in a glutinous sauce, and you want the maximum calories per dollar (my platter o' horribleness was economically priced at only $10.50), this is your place. Otherwise, stay far, far away. This was the only time in my life I regretted passing up Red Lobster in favor of a local restaurant.
(1)
Veronica C.
This was hands down the worst Chinese food I have ever eaten. I could borderline claim this was just the worst food I have ever eaten. Our meal started off with appetizers, potstickers and fries wontons: to be fair, these were decent -- edible, if nothing else. We were given a thick, gelatinous, pink sauce, that I would guess was sweet and sour sauce, and a soy sauce to dip in. Both were adequate. Our meal was the combination chow mein dinner with egg flower soup, egg roll, hot & spicy chicken, egg foo yong, pork fried rice, and chow mein. The egg flower soup was fine, though filled with celery and sprouts. The egg roll was large, probably 6-8 inches, and we only ate two bites before discarding it. The hot and spicy chicken was mostly hot and spicy vegetables, minus any kind of "spicy". The chicken was almost nonexistent. Egg foo yong was cooked until it was a thick, brown patty covered in brown gravy and was similar to eating hash browns from McDonalds. Once again, we ate two bites and found it too disgusting to continue. The pork fried rice was fine, had slivers of some kind of meat in it, but we had to dip it in the brown gravy to give it much of a flavor. And finally the chow mein: I ordered crispy noodles which earned me a thick, dense, sodden but stale noodle akin to uncooked ramen. Luckily, I was only given about six noodles to eat, so it wasn't a problem. What most of my chow mein consisted of was finally chopped, overly cooked celery soaked in soy sauce. We discarded everything and hoped we didn't get some kind of food poisoning. And the last, strangest part of the meal is that we were given small containers of ketchup and horseradish mustard. I don't even have an explanation for that. I will never come near this place again.
(1)
Jerry M.
I have to say that this place offers excellent food and plenty of it. We ate here one night for dinner, and I don't think I've ever seen so much take out food going out the door at any other place. You won't go wrong choosing this place for Chinese food!
(5)
Aaron L.
Every time I'm in Lewiston, I make sure to stop my this restaurant for a meal. The food is good and served in generous proportion. You may get 2-3 meals out if it. Classic & what you expect. The dinner combos are the best bet, as you get to sample several dishes in a sitting. The new layout (2+ yrs old as of this writing) also features a decent bar area when you can enjoy libations while munching on Chinese and watching sports. For this activity, it's a unique place to do that in an Idaho town of 30k people. The restaurant is clean and is almost always busy & buzzing with energy. Note, this is Chinese-American, not true "Chinese". Real Chinese is exceedingly difficult to find in the west unless you visit a major city and even then. I've spent a month in China, so I'm familiar with the cuisine. For the other reviewer complaining about the smell of Lewiston - yes, the paper mill can make the air tangy. You're not in New York or San Francisco for food but you'll find the people here MUCH nicer than in either of those cities.
(5)
Vern O.
We tried the Mandarin Pine before the remodel and we've tried it a couple of times after their remodel because we heard they had a new "chef." "Chef" would be a complete overstatement. The food is pretty much overall terrible. We won't be headed back in this lifetime.
(1)
Tom R.
We've been customers since they've opened and were happy with the quality of food and service until yesterday. We arrived around 5 pm and the service and quality of food was way below what we experienced in the past. We ordered the lettuce wrap appetizer and got way more stuffing than the small amount of lettuce would accommodate. The server brought us the soup that came with our meals. She brought two bowls out, one for the table behind us and the other one for us. The second bowl came out about 2 to three minutes later. The main entrees arrived in the same fashion only the wait time between the two meals had increased to 8 to 10 minutes. The server didn't inquire whether we wanted anything but water (hot tea would have been nice). The quality of the food was terrible. The Chow mien was bland and tasteless with broccoli that smelled old and way over done. Both the almond chicken and the sweet and sour chicken were made with meat that had characteristics consistent with processed sandwich meat. My wife's spring role wasn't cut in half as it had been before and appeared to be extremely greasy. Her teriyaki chicken skewer was very dry. We are very disappointed and no longer customers.
(2)
Steve C.
Great food, never had anything bad here. Prices are great for as much food as you get. Staff is always great as well.
(5)
Rhonda R.
I really enjoy the quality and quantity of food here as well as the service. Great egg flower soup, mandarin chow mein, the list goes on and on!
(4)
Nate F.
Great almond chicken and fried rice. We enjoy this gem every time we are in Lewiston.
Sorry, Store hours have not been updated. If you are the owner of this restaurants. Please update the store hours.
Specialities
Takes Reservations : Yes Delivery : No Take-out : Yes Accepts Credit Cards : Yes Good For : Lunch Parking : Private Lot Bike Parking : Yes Wheelchair Accessible : Yes Good for Kids : Yes Good for Groups : Yes Attire : Casual Ambience : Casual Noise Level : Average Alcohol : Full Bar Outdoor Seating : No Wi-Fi : No Has TV : Yes Waiter Service : Yes Caters : No
The popularity of Chinese food in America can be adjudicated by the appearance of China Town in many major cities in the United State of America. The popular trend of ordering or opting for Chinese take away food isn't unknown in America. Chinese take away food comes to rescue when you're too tired from work or too exhausted to cook. No one can resist the temptation of eating spicy noodles, shrimp, chicken, beef or pork cooked in the sweet and spicy sauce. The cooking method of authentic Chinese food is a lot different compared to what is served in America.
Generally, Chinese use dark meat small bones and organs to cook dishes but this changes when you are eating American-Chinese fusion food prepared using white boneless meat cooked with broccoli, carrots and onions. Back in China, the food is less spicy and oily as they favor steaming and braising method for cooking the most popular dishes. So, if you have a taste for authentic Chinese food, then try finding a real Chinese restaurant in the city. You can also try the most popular fusion Chinese food like Pecking Duck, Chicken Feet, Hot Pot, Shrimp Dumpling Soup, Mapo Tofu, Wontons, Chop Suey, Egg Rolls and not to forget Fortune Cookies.
There are not many restaurants in America serving authentic Chinese food. A little research on Restaurant Listings directory can help you locate the best Chinese restaurants in the city. Chinese cuisine is continuously evolving, and you can find a variety of dishes categorized as the food for lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant, vegan, vegetarian, and diabetic friendly. So, if you have a group of friends with different taste patterns, save the hassle and visit the nearest Chinese restaurant in your city.
Laura B.
Must admit the crab wonton were not bad. With that being said, unless you are planning to dine on fried cream cheese and Krab wontons and nothing else, skop the Mandarin Pine! We stopped in for lunch, a little later than the lunch rush. The place was nearly empty and the service was fine. However, the food was terrible! We each received a bowl of what the menu called egg flower soup. It foretold what was to come. Overcooked vegetables in a thick flavorless goop. Granddaughter ordered broccoli beef, very little broccoli actually made it into this dish! The dish consisted mostly of thick brown sauce and a few pieces of tough beef. My daughter and I each selected items from the lunch menu. The vegetables were all grossly overcooked, the spicy chicken was flavorless and the chow mein was a gloppy mess of overcooked celery and limp onions. The fried rice had no flavor beyond soy sauce. We will not return.
(2)Alisha P.
Picked this place because of the picture of the lettuce wraps. Great food. I really loved the lettuce wraps and the vegetable dish we had.
(4)Daniel K.
Usually when you travel with athletes they want something quick and fast but on this occasion I got to eat with the trainers. Their number one rule is to never eat at a chain so we stumbled onto a random restaurant in Lewiston - the Mandarin Pine. Once you enter the have a strange little shrine of awards that they've won and you continue on into the dimly lit dining room. We got a variety of dinner combos and the lettuce wraps. The lettuce wraps were fine but not memorable, comparable to PF Changs version. The dinner combo started off with the classic egg drop soup. This version was a bit more viscous but not an offensive version of the staple. The combo arrived in a big heaping pile of chow mein, fried rice, and neon red chicken. Normally I like my American Chinese in all its gloppy corn starchy msg glory but this chicken had the weirdest aftertaste that was really off-putting. The chow mein was fine and didn't suffer from that but the fried rice too had a strange aftertaste of must and foilage. OH WELL it wasn't a bad meal... not a good one but not terrible. Maybe they should try to make their aftertastey dishes lean towards a pine taste to match their name ~ nyuk nyuk Ask for the special menu! We sadly didn't order of off it because 2 of my compatriots didn't want to go off menu and order family style. Overall, this place is ok and comparable to a lot of Midwestern Americanized Chinese restaurants but I wouldn't visit this place again if given a choice.
(2)Yang X.
A really good Chinese restaurant. Cheap but good food.
(3)A T.
Food is ok. Sometimes its hard to make it clear to some of the servers when you need your order prepared slightly different than the norm. It took us 3 minutes (& 5 different ways to say it) before we could make her understand. Its much more expensive than some of the other chinese places in town. We like bamboo gardens better.
(3)Kalani F.
Oh yes. I've eaten here for years. For other reviewers who did not grow up in Lewiston and found the food to be "Lewistonized" I can only say: Lemon Chicken and Sweet and Sour Pork. These haven't changed since I was a kid, and I don't want them to change. Yes, I have traveled around now and been here and there and had some mighty fine cuisine. However, lemon chicken with its somewhat gooey yellow sauce that reminds me of jelly roll cake is so good on the chicken- and thumbs up for the sweet and sour sauce. Dinner is never complete without egg drop soup, although my favorite is the won ton. Fried rice- I crave it at other Chinese places. Is it probably authentic? No, but the portions are good, the rice is flavorful. The only drawback is that tea used to be automatic; I think you have to ask now? And they added a bar, so that is somewhat shocking and I think some food from a wok. Those I haven't tried- all the favorites on the regular menu I've eaten everything more than once. It's hearty comfort food for me, bringing back good memories, and a relaxing time. I've never had bad service at Mandarin Pine, and still love to get the fortune cookies. I cannot speak of the toothpicks.
(4)Kim D.
This place is one of the best Chinese places in Lewiston. I'm only slightly critical since I'm Asian and from California where there's large Chinese population. When I think of chinese I think of home cooking comfort food. Stuff here isn't exactly "authentic" Chinese. It's Americanized Chinese and still done very good and full of flavor but the restaurant doesn't serve what I know and grew up with. That's my major criticism. However, while in town this was one of our go to spots because the food was good, and served in generous portions for plenty of leftovers for lunch or a late snack. It's always busy here so expect service to be a little spotty at times with waiters and waitresses being bombarded with customers. Overall, good place to go to and I'd come here again. But this isn't exactly a place that reminds me of "home" when I go here unfortunately.
(3)Justin S.
Very good service and food. Ordered the General's Chicken, to go, and it was fantastic. Very spicy, like it should be, and great portion size. Will definitely go back.
(4)Dalin M.
Decent Chinese place. My only sorta gripe is that they like to put a lot of ingredients in places they don't belong. I had eggflower soup, beef with broccoli, beef lo mein noodles, and rice. Literally everything I ordered was stuffed with celery and onions and mushrooms, and water chestnuts, and all sorts of random "chinese food" vegetables. Including the soup. It wasn't bad, just not what I expected. In fact, broccoli was the least represented vegetable in my beef with broccoli! Also, this is a weird nit-picky little thing, but maybe if the management reads this they can take note. You guys have the worst toothpicks I've ever used. Switch brands or something. They didn't remove any food and just left splinters stuck in my teeth.
(4)Brendan D.
Well, basically this restaurant is a disappointment. When you walk in the door, you're greeted with many trophies and plaques awarded to the restaurant, most saying things like "Best Chinese of Lewiston" or "Culinary Excellence Honoree." Naturally, the food was quite the opposite of "culinary excellence." I first had the wonton soup, which had no flavor and mostly tasted like watered down chicken stock. Then, the meal came out. There was ribs, pork, chow mein, prawns, and pork fried rice. The ribs were an abomination. They were overcooked, dry, and smothered in the worst sweet and sour sauce I have ever tried. The prawns tasted like frozen popcorn shrimp. The chow mein was so salty it was almost untastable. The pork was dry and covered in a store-bought and almost metallic tasting sauce. Lastly, the pork fried rice was simply mediocre. I won't give this a one star because the service was halfway decent, but I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone. Ever.
(2)Jacky A.
As I said, I will get to this place again, it is Chinese New Year and me and my friends dont want to stuck in Pullman for silly Chinese food, so we went all the way to Lewiston again for delicious Chinese food. The owner is nice, we made a reservation for 9 and she helped us pick some dishes again. I love it, they love it. I am sure we will come to this place more to celebrate some events or what else. I brought my camera this time, we get to met owner's son, they are all super friendly and the service is excellent. With smiles on our face, we enjoyed every single moment in the restaurant. I only give this place 4 stars because I still believe they can do better, but with the price we paid, I believe they did a very good job, maybe I will say a 4.5stars .... Hm....! Guess it will go up to 5 the next time I go again...
(4)Mary W.
The first thing you have to understand is that Lewiston stinks, literally. The town is dominated by a huge paper mill that makes the local air smell like the farts people get after they eat a lot of sauerkraut. Sadly, we did not realize this when we scheduled ourselves into a hotel there for one night during a road trip to Seattle. Well, there we were, stuck in Stinkville, and we needed someplace to eat. The Mandarin Pine had a great rating on Yelp, so we went. It turned out to be the first time Yelp totally let us down. If you are -- oh, let's say over 45 -- and/or you grew up in a very small town, you may recognize this food. It's like what passed for Chinese food back in 1965. The food definitely took us back to our youth, and not in a good way. First impressions: the restaurant's exterior is ornate, with lots of pagoda-style roofs and Chinese dragons and stuff. The interior is pretty nice. It is busy. The locals all seem delighted to be here and they are shoveling down huge platefuls of something. We each order a combination meal, so as to try as many different dishes as possible. I mean, this place has rave reviews, right? I do notice almost every combo includes "chow mein," which is a Westernized ersatz "Chinese" dish that has been around since at least the 1920s. That makes me a bit suspicious. So does the egg foo yung (who still makes that??? more to the point, who still eats that???) and pretty much everything else listed on the menu. It is like being in a time warp. Nevertheless, we order. First up: the egg drop soup. The waitress (who is very pleasant, by the way) sets down our bowls. The contents jiggle. I have never seen a clear soup that thick. It is like soup jello. You can almost stand a spoon up in it. We try it. The broth clearly contains a ton of cornstarch and MSG, and very little else. There are some grayish peas, chunks of cabbage and little nuggets of mystery meat in there. The veggies have been cooked "until they can't hurt you none," as they say in the South -- in other words, until they are almost disintegrating. The waitress seems surprised that we haven't finished our delicious soup, but we tell her kindly it is fine to take the rest away. Next we each receive a giant platter of -- I started to say food, but that doesn't seem to be quite the right word. Stuff. Lots of stuff. The stuff ranges from barely acceptable (my fried prawns, my husband's egg roll) to completely inedible (everything else). I was given a choice of "hard" or "soft" noodles for my chow mein and stupidly said "hard." (Not that the "soft" version, which my husband ordered, was any better, but still.) The "hard" chow mein consists of about 60% celery slices, 10% cooked bean sprouts, 10% some kind of meat niblets and 20% hard fried "noodle" nuggets like the kind that come with that old-timey canned La Choy Chow Mein that I hope to God is no longer sold. (If you have never heard of canned chow mein, thank your lucky stars.) The vegetables in the chow mein are seriously cooked. The only thing crunchy is the noodle nuggets. All of this is bound together by more of the jiggly clear cornstarch-and-MSG goo. I would describe the rest of our meal but it's just too depressing. Well, the inhabitants of Lewiston have my sympathy. It's sad that their nasal passages have been burned out by the stench of the paper plant and that they apparently have no sense of taste as a result. This seems to be the only explanation for the rave reviews on Yelp. In any case, if what you want is a plate of mystery meat and cooked-to-death vegetables in a glutinous sauce, and you want the maximum calories per dollar (my platter o' horribleness was economically priced at only $10.50), this is your place. Otherwise, stay far, far away. This was the only time in my life I regretted passing up Red Lobster in favor of a local restaurant.
(1)Veronica C.
This was hands down the worst Chinese food I have ever eaten. I could borderline claim this was just the worst food I have ever eaten. Our meal started off with appetizers, potstickers and fries wontons: to be fair, these were decent -- edible, if nothing else. We were given a thick, gelatinous, pink sauce, that I would guess was sweet and sour sauce, and a soy sauce to dip in. Both were adequate. Our meal was the combination chow mein dinner with egg flower soup, egg roll, hot & spicy chicken, egg foo yong, pork fried rice, and chow mein. The egg flower soup was fine, though filled with celery and sprouts. The egg roll was large, probably 6-8 inches, and we only ate two bites before discarding it. The hot and spicy chicken was mostly hot and spicy vegetables, minus any kind of "spicy". The chicken was almost nonexistent. Egg foo yong was cooked until it was a thick, brown patty covered in brown gravy and was similar to eating hash browns from McDonalds. Once again, we ate two bites and found it too disgusting to continue. The pork fried rice was fine, had slivers of some kind of meat in it, but we had to dip it in the brown gravy to give it much of a flavor. And finally the chow mein: I ordered crispy noodles which earned me a thick, dense, sodden but stale noodle akin to uncooked ramen. Luckily, I was only given about six noodles to eat, so it wasn't a problem. What most of my chow mein consisted of was finally chopped, overly cooked celery soaked in soy sauce. We discarded everything and hoped we didn't get some kind of food poisoning. And the last, strangest part of the meal is that we were given small containers of ketchup and horseradish mustard. I don't even have an explanation for that. I will never come near this place again.
(1)Jerry M.
I have to say that this place offers excellent food and plenty of it. We ate here one night for dinner, and I don't think I've ever seen so much take out food going out the door at any other place. You won't go wrong choosing this place for Chinese food!
(5)Aaron L.
Every time I'm in Lewiston, I make sure to stop my this restaurant for a meal. The food is good and served in generous proportion. You may get 2-3 meals out if it. Classic & what you expect. The dinner combos are the best bet, as you get to sample several dishes in a sitting. The new layout (2+ yrs old as of this writing) also features a decent bar area when you can enjoy libations while munching on Chinese and watching sports. For this activity, it's a unique place to do that in an Idaho town of 30k people. The restaurant is clean and is almost always busy & buzzing with energy. Note, this is Chinese-American, not true "Chinese". Real Chinese is exceedingly difficult to find in the west unless you visit a major city and even then. I've spent a month in China, so I'm familiar with the cuisine. For the other reviewer complaining about the smell of Lewiston - yes, the paper mill can make the air tangy. You're not in New York or San Francisco for food but you'll find the people here MUCH nicer than in either of those cities.
(5)Vern O.
We tried the Mandarin Pine before the remodel and we've tried it a couple of times after their remodel because we heard they had a new "chef." "Chef" would be a complete overstatement. The food is pretty much overall terrible. We won't be headed back in this lifetime.
(1)Tom R.
We've been customers since they've opened and were happy with the quality of food and service until yesterday. We arrived around 5 pm and the service and quality of food was way below what we experienced in the past. We ordered the lettuce wrap appetizer and got way more stuffing than the small amount of lettuce would accommodate. The server brought us the soup that came with our meals. She brought two bowls out, one for the table behind us and the other one for us. The second bowl came out about 2 to three minutes later. The main entrees arrived in the same fashion only the wait time between the two meals had increased to 8 to 10 minutes. The server didn't inquire whether we wanted anything but water (hot tea would have been nice). The quality of the food was terrible. The Chow mien was bland and tasteless with broccoli that smelled old and way over done. Both the almond chicken and the sweet and sour chicken were made with meat that had characteristics consistent with processed sandwich meat. My wife's spring role wasn't cut in half as it had been before and appeared to be extremely greasy. Her teriyaki chicken skewer was very dry. We are very disappointed and no longer customers.
(2)Steve C.
Great food, never had anything bad here. Prices are great for as much food as you get. Staff is always great as well.
(5)Rhonda R.
I really enjoy the quality and quantity of food here as well as the service. Great egg flower soup, mandarin chow mein, the list goes on and on!
(4)Nate F.
Great almond chicken and fried rice. We enjoy this gem every time we are in Lewiston.
(4)