Clay Pot Braised Lamb RibsWest Lake Lamb DumplingLa Si NiStir Fried Shredded PancakesTHe pancake 'noodles' were moreish in the truest sense of the word. Paid for the La Si Ji the next day. Dumplings had great flavor and texture. Braised ribs were just O.K.Another avenue classic. Well seasoned food like something your grandma would make...BYOB (at least we did)...decent prices. Like. Will return for beef pancake and some other samplings.

I don't like writing bad reviews about an establishment which has been so well reviewed up till now, but alas it has to be... My son and I came here for lunch after reading all the positive experiences. We walked in during the late afternoon and several tables were open. Right off the bat we got a cold stare from someone who seemed to be the hostess. She looked at us and threw the menu down by the table and were told "sit here". I'm like um...okay! Water came out a few minutes later and then we waited, and waited, and waited, until I told hostess I want to order my food.The waitress walked over and just took our order and walked away....30 minutes later our food came out. BUT the appetizers came out last and entrees came first. What gives here...?1. Cumin Lamb - Overcooked, dry, and too much MSG. FAIL...2. Beef Pancake - Which was dripping in grease. We only had one bite and noticed the beef was still raw. FAIL...3. Lamb Dumplings - Okay, BUT waaay too much salt. FAIL...Overall this place FAILS for me. Rude service, lack of attention to customers needs, and more importantly overrated food which is full of MSG.

The beef pancake was hella good!I love this place because there were over 50 different entrees to choose from and they were all halal. I tried the beef pancake thanks to many comments here on Yelp. I should have gotten the lamb short ribs (which I've seen 3 different tables who had ordered that dish) but it was close to $20. This place was super busy but the good thing was that they close at 9:30p on a Sunday. Also, it was a long drive from the embarcadero to get here (about 40 minutes). This business is located in a residential area. I was soo confused with what to order because they have such a large variety.My only complaint about this restaurant is that they don't bring out all the entrees that you ordered at once. They bring them to your table as soon as the chef finishes cooking it. So with a party of 5, only 3 people had their food in front of them while the other 2 were still waiting for theirs (which took another 10 minutes). So in the meantime, we all shared each others' food since the portions were huge. But then again, you would want to enjoy what you ordered.

Came here just a bit early, so it was pretty empty. They had cute chinese new years decorations up. Within an hour, the whole place was filled, even the big tables.Mandarin Cumin Lamb - Hint of spicy (but not really) from the cumin, lots of flavour, small cuts of green bell peppers. Definitely delicious. The cumin brings out the game-y-ness of the lamb.Tofu with Mushroom - This was super saucy, but the mushroom flavour was very poignant, but in a good way. Also very flavourful, and I picked out a bunch of the mushrooms... hehe, yummy.Beef Pancake - Not as oily as the reviews say. Thick cut, tasted like a dumpling... but they don't have pork... so like a beef fried dumpling. Also very delicious.Lamb Noodle Soup - This is soup is soy sauce braised rather than a clear soup. This over powers the flavour of the lamb. It was okay, the lamb was okay. 3 Stars for this soup.Service is kind of lacking. Had to wave my hand a while to get their attention multiple times.Overall, you can't really go wrong with any of the dishes here. It seems a lot of the spicy dishes are popular here. I want to come back and try those. Minus one star for the Lamb Noodle Soup. Recommended, and will likely be back, but not for the lamb noodle soup, but for all the other stuff on the menu! The prices are not that expensive. Averages out to 10 dollars per plate.Also, the bathroom is through the kitchen, might be kinda awkward, but whatever.

The tofu spinach soup was delicious and so was the nappa cabbage with tiny dry shrimp. The mandarin beef was ok, it has a cumin kick to it which I'm not used to, guess that's the islamic side

I've been there several times and really liked the dishes. Very authentic Beijing food. Highly recommend the dessert!But I am very concerned with the hygiene issues. My husband had diarrhea after eating there several months ago. Yesterday I went there again with my husband and my mom. My mom threw up everything in the middle of the dinner. My husband had diarrhea again. He told me that he saw the owner of the restaurant (actually I like her a lot) washing the plates with a pair of glove, then cleaning the bathroom using the same pair of glove, and coming back to continue washing the plates. It was disgusting. The kitchen was messy and dirty.I really like the flavor of the food, but it would be great if the owner could improve the hygiene issues.

Definitely the best hole-in-the-wall lamp hotpot spot! They pre-mix the sauce for you. And even have pickled cabbage if you like hot pot. Reminds me of Taipei. Yum.The owners are gregarious and can be a little over-whelming...like over egar Asian parents.I love their beef pancakes, but it is a bit oily. The green onion pancakes are good too. I like to dip them in the broth after I've added a whole bunch of .

Seriously, it's hard not to love this place. It's a small hole in the wall, way across San Francisco, which is a bit of hike from just about anywhere, but boy, the food is amazing.I keep forgetting to order the braised lamb ribs, and then kicking myself after I'm too full to order them, but that's okay...Staple go-to's are Mandarin lamb (not to be confused with Mongolian lamb -- totally different), the lamb dumplings and the combination flour balls dish. So that sounds really nasty, but it's really good. You don't really need rice if you order any of the flour ball dishes.Much of the menu is fairly standard and recognizable as the dishes offered ubiquitously in most Chinese restaurants, but the stand outs are the specialty dishes -- and they are well worth the drive.Prices are a bit higher than most Chinese restaurants, and serving portions in some cases are not huge, but for the most part, the food is fresh, delicious and well worth the drive.They accept only cash or debit card. No credit.

Awful experience, awful food. We ordered the hot pot with three vegetables. My friend asked how to use the hot pot, and without asking, the waiter used my chopsticks to demonstrate. He threw some cabbage into the pot, fished it out, dunked it in what was rather gross tasting "dipping sauce", and poured this glop onto my plate. In addition to his unprofessional behavior, the hot pot was bland and a huge disappointment.We also ordered the Beef Pancake which was really disgusting. The meat looked raw and the pancake was soggy and drenched in oil. Nasty!

I've been living in Beijing for the past three years, and let me tell you, Old Mandarin is as authentic as it gets. The beef pancakes are tasty, if not a bit oily, but that's how you get them in China as well. The hot pot is phenomenal -- they have all the (halal) meat fixings, as well as noodles, mushrooms, veggies and most important, the sesame dipping sauce. (Tip: They also bring out mala peppercorn chili sauce if you ask!) I also love the braised lamb, spicy boiled fish and, quite honestly, every other dish I've ever ordered here. You can't go wrong.Service sounds iffy, based on the other reviews I've read. The owner is a friend of my parents, so I've never encountered any of those issues, but I do think bringing in a Chinese speaker would help.

Food was pretty good. Service was okay. The hot bowl was not that great, kinda disappointing, but other items on the menu were fantastic. The place is pretty small and can get crowded. The kitchen is almost in the restaurant, and if you need to go to the restroom, you have to go through the kitchen. Kinda weird.

I'm always loving new Chinese restaurants to try to see if I can find a dish I like or haven't had. We happen to be nearby after a day at Fort Funston and tried it out. I got the beef pancake, lamb dumplings, rice ball with stir fry lamb and chow mein. All was pretty good and not too greasy. I would come back and try the other dishes listed on the menu and I noticed customers getting take out more. I wish we had a good chinese place nearby Emeryville for random chinese to-go dinners!

I really wanted to like this place, however we had some hiccups with the service and getting all the dishes we ordered. There were two dishes that never came out so we decided to cancel them since it took so long and we got full with the dishes we ate. We ordered the beef pancake, lamb dumplings and the spicy chicken. The beef pancake wasn't what I expected, it wasn't crispy and very greasy. The lamb dumplings were good, but my friend didn't like them. The spicy chicken was freaking hot! omg order a glass of milk because you'll need it. Sadly to say that dish had more peppers than chicken. Overall I don't think I will be returning. The service was did not meet my basic standards.

Apparently this tiny restaurant's specialty is the hot pot. Unfortunately we did not have it and ordered a few dishes that were just OK. The service was good.We were there about 5:30 and by the time we left an hour later there was a line out the door.Go for the hotpot and go early.

I don't get all the 4 and 5 star reviews. I've been to various regions in China enough in my life to have a pretty good idea of the real deal, but what I had at Old Mandarin was pretty ho-hum. I read a lot of reviews and decided on the cold tripe, the beef tongue, the lamb ribs, and string beans with fried tofu.The tripe was ok, nothing special. I can think of 5-6 places in the city where similar dishes are much better.The tongue and lamb were covered in different yet similar thick, brown, oily sauces with little flavor. I cut them both with black vinegar to try to put some 'pop' into the dishes. Though I can't complain about how the meats themselves were cooked.The string beans and fried tofu was the best dish there. It was good but not great.The point is I've had way better Chinese, more specifically Mandarin / Szechuan, dishes than I had here. So what am I missing? I think nothing...just a lot over-exuberant reviews making this place seem better on paper than it really is.

I have been here countless times and it never disappoints.Some of my favorite menu items are the Mongolian tofu, Mandarin lamb, braised lamb ribs, three flavor dumplings, spicy bean curd beef, and any of the veggie dishes. I have tried the "extremely hot pepper" and - while it is the spiciest thing I have ever eaten - the heat manages to not mask the flavor, it tastes very good (this dish is NOT for the faint of heart!).This ranks as one of my top 5 favorite restaurants in SF.

I've been wanting to try this place since I read about them on a list of SF restaurants with the spiciest dishes. They serve a dish made almost completely out of jalapenos. While I wasn't brave enough to try that, I did try the beef pancake, lamb dumplings, mongolian tofu, spinach side dish, and one other dish that I can't remember. From reading reviews, it seemed like the pancake and dumplings were the most popular items, but honestly those were my least favoriate. The mongolian tofu was by far the best. The tofu was perfectly crispy. Everything was really flavorful and was plenty of food for four people.The restaurant is fairly small, but wasn't overly crowded when we arrived around 7 pm on a Saturday night. Our group fo four was seated pretty quickly and the food came out in no time. It was cash only, so keep that in mind!

3.5 starsIf you like spicy food, this is the place for you. Szechuan spiciness at its finest.Get the spicy boiled fish, beef onion pancake, fried tofu and string beans, and beef dumplings. All were amazing.I don't eat lamb, but everyone raves about it. It's like lamb heaven here - everything comes with lamb! After 30 minutes of eating here, all you smell is lamb.

The name of this dish literally means the spicyness will kill you.It's fantastic and I highly recommend it! Echo-ing Matthew L.'s review, I thought that their lamb dumplings, peek pancake and "la si ni" dish were all superb! I am very against "fake" chinese restaurants but this is definitely the real deal. Wherever this type of food originated from, I want to one day go there and eat until my stomach explodes with peppers and lamb. And I don't even like lamb!After you eat all of the peppers and conquer the dish, you will feel like Chuck Norris.You will be able to count to infinity... twice. You will be able to slam revolving doors. And you will be so awesome that when you ride into the sunset, the sun will actually be running from you.

A friendly "salaam" and walls adorned with messages written in Arabic calligraphy welcome diners to this clean but no-frills family-run eatery. The menu--entirely void of pork products and alcohol--focuses on dishes made with halal products. ...?

The most authentic northern Chinese style food ever had so far in US. Great Service. Space is quite small but also part of the authenticity of restaurants in China. Also, owner tells many interesting stories about Chinese food and more. ...?

restaurant and very good too. We ordered a dish called sour green sliced fish in warm pot which truly sounds a bit wierd, but turned out to be excellent, if you like sour. We both did and egads the "small" bowl will feed two people easily. ...?

This is a small place in the outer Sunset district. The Hot Pot menu is in English. They do not serve any pork, and instead push the lamb. The green onion pancake is good, but the rest of the food including the Hot Pot menu and dumplings are ...?

I'm one picky SOB when it comes to Chinese food. So it means a lot when I say the food is pretty fantastic. I recommend the beef pancake, any of the lamb dishes and the hot-p ot. It's pretty authentic so if you're from the mainland, ...?

This place serves up authentic Beijing food. Their speciality is the lamb hot-pot or warm-pot. Hot-pot is like Japanese shabu-shabu style where you cook the meat and other food yourself in a big-pot of broth. Afterwards, you dip the food ...?

but I'm lovin' it. Actually, that may be good enough a reason to come check this place out. Not that there is anything wrong with chinese food per se, but it's nice to have something that is familiar (like dumplings), but still different (lamb inside?!?). ...?

of life. Without it, we wouldnt have working joints, supple skin, or Angelina Jolies lips. You find it in shampoos, in skin treatments, and other beauty products because its what makes hair bouncy, your skin elastic, and your lips pouty. ...?

good service