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Reviewer: Foodnut.com Shan Dong Mandarin Restaurant 328 10th Street #101 (Near Harrison) Oakland, CA 94607 510-839-2299 510-839-8803 (Fax) |
Shan Dong Mandarin Restaurant is a family run Chinese Restaurant in Oakland’s Chinatown focusing on Shan Dong regional Cuisine. The focus is on noodles and dumplings. It was top rated on Yelp and has been mentioned in newspapers, so we decided to try it.
Decor, Vibe – Small generic dining room with about 14 tables. No decor awards here. A mix of Chinese and non Asian folks eating lunch.
Menu Pictures (Click to zoom into any picture)
Picks:
None
OK:
Special Shan Dong Dumplings ($6.95) with pork and lots of vegetables were huge and freshly cooked but pretty bland and had a thick wrapper.
Boiled Pork Dumplings with Leek ($7.25) were huge and freshly cooked but pretty bland and had a thick wrapper.
Ja Jong Mein Noodles ($6.95) +$1 for hand made noodles had thick noodles that tasted fine but the sauce was almost peanut buttery in texture.
Pans:
Onion Pancake ($5.50) was pretty plain with not much in the way of any flavor. It was better as leftovers when we pan fried it.
Special Twisted Bun ($0.95) was deep fried, greasy and tasteless. Could have used some condensed milk.
Shan Dong Mandarin Restaurant had friendly accessible service. Prices are fine but the food was pretty average and bland. It was almost like simple flavor challenged home cooking. San Tung in San Francisco serves similar food and is far better. You are better off eating Cantonese Chinese food in this Chinatown.
Shan Dong Mandarin Restaurant Overall Rating: 
(Average
Come Back? 
| Food Rating: | (Average) |
| Service Rating: | (Average) |
| Atmosphere Rating: | (Below Average) |
| Value Rating: | (Good) |
Guide: 0 = poor, 1 = Below/Average, 2 = Good, 2.5 = Very Good, 3 = Excellent , 4 = Extraordinary
| Alcohol: | Beer, Wine |
| Attire: | Casual |
| Hours: | Sun - Thur 10am - 930pm, Fri - Sat 10am - 10pm |
| Parking: | Street |
| Reservations: | Yes |
| Prices: | $5.95 - $10.95 |
2 Comments
Russ D
June 2, 2010 at 6:30 pmI cannot disagree with you more! I suppose you are not used to homestyle Chinese food. The food is simple, honest and straightforward. The steam buns are great, the dumplings are somewhat bland by themselves, but when eaten “family style” are a great addition to the many other dishes. Perhaps next time try ordering something like the seasonal vegetable and seafood dishes. The braised sprouts are great with the sesame noodles. Or with the twisted bun try some salted (hot) soymilk! the three items you reviewed are the equivalent of walking into Wendys and getting an order of fries, a piece of pie and a potato and saying the food is too bland.
Balzar Aikin
August 2, 2011 at 6:39 pmThe main problem is that Shan Dong food is just not that good. The best Chinese food comes from the south.