I defy you to find a better Chinese buffet within 200 miles of this place. It seems sketchy upon entering, kinda odd table arrangements and it's loud. But who cares? Once you take a stroll down the buffet line to observe the evenings offerings, you will immediately take next available table. Living in Bay Area, I assure you there is no shortage of Asian "Super" Buffets, but most are crap. Not so much here. It has your typical trappings, so/so salad bar, and soft serve ice cream for the kids, pretty good hot/sour soup and others I'm probably forgetting. But as you approach the entrees, you might be surprised at the variety of what's served. Sure, you have standards out there, but you also have large succulent baked oysters, frog-legs, and other items not seen in most buffets. Even a small, but passable sushi section. It can sometimes take a while for more popular hot plates to be refilled. Something to be said when every customer is constantly staring at kitchen door to see what is being brought out next. The prices are outstanding considering the amount of food offered. Timing can also be an issue as its busy for early dinner service, and looks a little picked over after. Gets my thumbs up. Way more hits than misses. read more

We were on a weekend trip for Yosemite and gold county and stumble upon into this place for lunch. We were craving for some chinese buffet and this one was the closest to our location. I must say this place is surprisingly good! It actually surpass many chinese buffets in the bay area in terms of food quality. They do have quite a lot of food choices too. The thing impress me the most is how they make the food according to how many customers are in the restaurants, thus eliminating wastage plus keeping the food fresh. I would definitely come back when I visit the gold county in summer! read more

For Chinese food there's only two places in town really that I care two go to.I always prefer to order of menu vs buffet espic slow day. Dumplings really good Bbq pork fried rice done amazingly soft brown rice Hot and sour was ok could of used a little more vinegar or heat General tso.same Food was extremely hot not cool,good flavor except for mentioned items.overal would be back. Off menu items are expensive but 15 minutes not bad. read more

A lot of good food. We got here early so everything was fresh. Service was prompt and friendly.

I ate here after the new owners took over a few years ago and I wasn't very impressed. Ended up going back last night for buffet and I must say they have improved a lot. I really enjoyed the BBQ chicken kabobs. They have great chow mein noodles and I liked all the different chickens. Sweet and sour pork was good too. Everything looked and tasted fresh. Will be back for buffet. read more

Terrible terrible terrible! I tried the buffet and it was awful. Food smells bad and the taste is like frozen food. Starter, main course and the dessert all were bad. I am not picky about the food but this restaurant was the worst ever. Very rude waitress!! read more

Great value, especially if you are hungry. And I certainly was, after the cave tours etc nearby. I went for the buffet style dinner and for $12.99 it was a great deal. Reasonable selection of standard Chinese food (sweet/sour chicken etc), including steam cod, oysters, crab legs and (dry) sushi. Some desserts. Not crowded when we went on a Saturday evening. Overall great value for good (not great) food. Would recommend. read more

Not sure about the buffet but when we got takeout it was excellent every time we've gotten it.The ladies in there are really polite And the food was fresh and delicious. We used to go to great wall and last time I went in there The sweet-and-sour wouldn't stick to the chicken so I called and the lady got racist with me and said what do white people know about Chinese food.I will be giving the great wall a terrible review and my new favorite place is Mandarin House! read more

I feel like this place used to be a lot better when I was younger. It's still a decent spot to stop for fast Chinese food (hello buffet), but the options and varieties have become quite strange in my opinion. They do still have the classics, which is nice! The service is always friendly too. read more

Love the Mandarin House!! Always good food in the buffett and excellent service. My daughter is obsessed with this place, they make her feel like family and always greet her with a big hug! It's so nice to feel welcome in a restaurant when you have a toddler. Will definitely continue to eat here! read more

This is our family go-to spot for a nice buffet. The food isn't the best Chinese food I've had but it's decent and the staff are super nice. We have 3 young children and the employees are always so nice and welcoming to our family. When we order take out I can wait in the car with my kiddos and they bring it to me with a smile. Great restaurant that we will continue to frequent. read more

Food was good better than some buffets that I've had. But the staff was very welcoming and super sweet and attentive :)

4 stars for value and variety. 3 for flavor and quality. My hubby and I have eaten at the lunch buffett on two seperate occassions and were both impressed with all the different options offered. Veggie dishes like sauteed string beans and a flavorful mushroom bell pepper dish. Chicken dishes like General Tso's and cashew. Beef spareribs, salt and pepper shrimp, snow crab and sushi were also available. Everything I tried was good, fresh and you can add as much spice as you like at your table w/chili garlic sauce. Dessert too, for $7.99! I'm 38 weeks prego and my hubby loves to eat, so we definately get our money's worth! I'm from Oakland so I've had lots of Mandarin food that blows this place outta the water, but you're at a Chinese buffett in Sonora...it's worth the eight bucks just for the salad bar and steamed taro root buns! Service is friendly and attentive as well. read more

It's a tiny bit above average for Sonora. A lot of different fish dishes which were good and everything did NOT taste the same at the buffet. Good when you are in the mood for Chinese and you are very hungry. Too bad they don't have more spice. read more

I must admit that I am addicted to their sesame chicken and hot and sour soup. I eat here a lot because their location is convenient to where I work. (I just have to walk around the corner.) The wait staff is friendly and efficient, and they know my drink choice and order. I never have to wait for a booth, and my food arrives shortly after I sit down. The prices are reasonable, and the only advice I would have for those who want to eat there is to come early or late. I suggest this so that you can avoid the lunch rush. read more

so gross! food is soggy and terrible all the people that work there are nasty and mean and started yelling at us for not eating all our terrible food i would give it 0 stars if i could i do not reccomend!!! read more

Best time to go is probably lunch. The food is fresh, they have a great priced lunch special, the staff it friendly.

Everyone who ate got sick. Found hair in our food. We called and asked for a refund after getting sick and they said we needed a HOSPITAL NOTE to prove it was their food that caused it. $12.99 to get food poisoning and then get denied a refund? No thank you. Hate to be a negative customer because I understand what it's like to work in the food industry but you really expect me to pay a $500 ER bill to prove I got sick . Beyond disappointing. read more

Great service, very clean, friendly atmosphere. Awesome tasting food. If your daring they have frog legs and sea snails on the buffet line.

Excellent, friendly service. Buffet was fresh clean and tasty! Great food for the price. read more

Mandarin House - Chinese Near Me - Sonora, California

i'm not a big fan of buffets, unless it's in vegas. but after a long day in Yosemite, i would have eaten dirt. the 11 dollar buffet had all the standard asian buffet items. crab legs were plentiful but measly. their non meat options were fine and the staff kept the food reasonably stocked. on the plus side, the did have a nice piece of grilled halibut. read more

I would say 4 star for value and variety and 3 star for the quality. I guess Chinese food in sonora is most likely Americanized. Service is great. Place is clean. read more

Do not eat the buffet...order off the menu! The menu is authentic, fresh and well cooked.We have tried the chinese greens, soups(there are soups you don't see in restaurants), tangerine beef, chow fun, and seafood....they use fresh garlic, if you don't eat the buffet and order off the menu, this place is as good as some of the best in Los Angeles.Seriously.And the very best in this county....Just overlook the buffet. read more

I am very impressed with their food and service during my visit. There are lots of food selections for their buffet items at very low price. usually when we visit some buffet restaurant with same quality food in the bay, it causes us around 20dollars per person. The seafood are so nice, especially their crab legs. I was craving for Orange Chicken and asked if they can also add on the buffet even tho they didn't have it, they still made a special dish for me. HOW sweet! I love it!~ read more

The food was great but the service was not! I ordered food to go, I sat there for a bit which was no big deal but when i was waiting the lady at the front was very rude. When I finally got my plate, and arrived back at work, I opened my bag up to find no utensils or napkins...... read more

I like the buffet style because its quick and I can get my favorites. But do you know that they now charge $1.00 for a pot of hot tea? Hot tea is universally free with Chinese food. read more

Nasty food all the way around. We barely touched the food we put on our plates. There was a piece of plastic in my son's chicken, and they only gave us 20% off the bill. Don't eat here. Anywhere is better than here!! read more

Sushi was luck warm. Choses were good looking but had no flavor, just too much sugar. It was not fresh at all. Will find better places here I am sure of that. read more

Hey Anyone who wants excellent sea food and great service, this is the place for you. You can walk in, sit yourself down and like that, they are there to order your drinks. If you want the "all you can eat buffet," you just tell them and then go grab a plate and start choosing from a wide variety of food. They have everything from a fruit and salad bar, to sea food, to desert. they also have all you can eat ice cream. I think my favorite thing to eat there is the potstickers, and there an appitizer! read more

Absolutely horrific. Got incredibly sick from this place and still trying to recover. Their food is atrocious. I brought my girlfriend with me and I regularly feel guilty about taking her there, that's how awful it was. Avoid at all costs. read more

Just ate here tonight and my wife said "I hope we don't end up in the emergency room tonight". So far OK but I can still taste the bad food. Just about everything tasted old,very old,kinda like 5 years in the freezer.. the service was about a C- or D +.. Now I'm going to brush my teeth and get that bad taste out of my mouth. from Dave in Twain Harte read more

Nice buffet very organized !Friendly !Children likes it great food!fresh food!Good price! read more

Mandarin House - Fresh food - Chinese Near Me - Sonora, California

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Today I ate buffet at the Mandarin house & it was the best service in town as well as food .!

Went with a group of 8 and everyone got the buffet except me. I ordered cashew chicken and it was positively the worst cashew chicken I have ever had. The chicken was mushy and the sauce was gelatinous. The only thing truly edible was the rice. The soup was so-so, but I could only stomach a few spoonsfuls. The spring rolls were mushy inside and positively the worst spring rolls I've ever had in my life. It tasted like really bad frozen food that had been poorly heated. I couldn't tell if others were enjoying the buffet or not. They did like the donuts. But I found out after we left, that everyone thought the food was disgusting. Never again.... read more

If I could give 0 stars I would. When you walk in you see tons of items, sushi, seafood, meat dishes, appetizers etc. Then we read a sign that says, will be charged "extra" for wasted food. That should have been a red flag. My family & I proceeded weary through the buffet line as we tried everything that caught our eye. Nothing was worth eatting. The Lobster was beyond disgusting, potstickers were gross, sweet prawns were gross, fried rice & chow mein were not worth the time. the sweat & sour pork was nasty. The only thing that was ok was the spring rolls. Wish we would have taken the time to read reviews saying to ONLY order off menu. Good luck, we were just driving through & made the mistake to stop here.. read more

We are regulars since the change of ownership about a year ago. So far, all we purchase is their lunch special to go so I have no experience with their buffet, which does look delicious. Great value and great flavorful food. read more

Stay away! My hubby and I decided to take the kids out to dinner. We are new to the area and thought we would give it a try. The dinner buffet is $12 per person. This is the worst food we have ever had. Crab legs couldn't be cracked because they were like rubber and the meat inside was liquefied. The egg rolls had a foul odor when opened the scallops were so tough you couldn't chew them the shrimp was deep fried with the shells still on them. Just after a few bites the hubby and I pushed our plates away. The kids ranging in age from 7 10 13 16 decided to leave their dinner plates and try to eat dessert. You know it's just nasty ass food when the kids wouldn't even eat the desserts. Sadly there was not one dish or dessert that was tolerable or fresh. This was the most expensive meal that we have paid for and didn't eat it. I just hope that we get lucky and don't end up with food poisoning from the few bites that we managed to choke down. read more

As a Chinese American I rate this restaurant as the best Chinese restaurant in Sonora. I travel to Sonora on a regular basis and I have tried all Chinese, Japanese, Thai restaurants in town and this is the place I would have my dinners. It has a very good buffet with wide selections including crabs, Sushi, "real" Chinese style chicken or duck. The quality is excellent and the Owner makes an effort to continuously serve fresh food in the buffet. Just like Loma M. noted in her review, the Owner fixed some Sashimi for me as well without charge. It has a regular menu which is more American Chinese. This place is very clean and the waitresses are very friendly. The price is very reasonable. I gave it 5 stars for all the above reasons. The only drawback is that it is hard to find. It is located at the corner of the shopping center facing back side and you won't see it from the entrance of the shopping center. It is directly behind Carl's Jr, which faces Mono Way. read more

Mandarin house is great and I eat here all the time. It is a little pricey, but it is nice since it is a buffet. The food can be really good or really bad depending on the time of day. The staff is pretty friendly, but occasionally will have someone running the store that isn't so nice. Overall I am satisfied though. read more

Went in with my family for the "LUNCH" buffet and I asked when we got in the door if it was still lunch and the lady said yes, so we got our food which most of it was cold and seemed like it had been from the day before and then we went to pay and she charged all of us for the dinner buffet which is almost twice as expensive. When I asked why she told me it was still lunch buffet when we walked in the door her response was it wasn't her that said that....... So I don't plan on ever going back read more