Mandarin House Chinese Buffet

If you are planning on going to the MANDARIN HOUSE on Servern in Metairie with the hopes of eating local Louisiana crawfish you may want to rethink going.
We went there yesterday after we called to see if they had local crawfish and guess what. They ran out and put nasty Chinese crawfish out. When we complained to the manager he was a complete asshole. He said he reserves the right to not serve local crawfish. He still left the sign on the door that said were serving Louisiana crawfish.
Needless to say we were really pissed off.

Ok sized place with the right selection of food. The food is ok at best

Used to love coming here as a kid. Now, its just horrible food and service. Chicken wings are fried with feathers still on them. Nothing is ever fresh even during the dinner rush. After my last visit I will never be back

This is the Best Chinese Buffet in the New Orleans area. Over a hundred items to choose from. Chinese and American foods are available. For lunch (except Sundays) the price is $ 9.99. Night Price is different due to the addition of snow crab legs, Roast, Raw Oysters and LA. Blue Crabs. The night price being $ 13.99. The Sunday price is the same as the night price. Well worth the addition. Remember, this is all you can eat. Crawfish are on both day and night. Also Sashimi, Sushi and Rolls are on day and night. There’s no place in the city that offers this selection and quality of food. From soups, salads and fresh fruit to the desserts, one can not get any better. Drinks are extra and the service is the best anywhere. The restaurant is always clean with attentive smiling waiters and waitress. If you have questions, make sure you speak with the owner or managers as some of the personal do not speak English fluently. The bathrooms are also attended and clean. If you have a birthday person with you, advise the management and you will get a birthday surprise!

The food is pretty good. Has flavor in it but not too salty. Everything seems to be pretty good. I especially like the fried/​sautéed crab. So good !! The only thing is it takes them awhile to refill the food.

I’ve frequented this place for years since my mother loved dining here but in recent years the quality of the food has become very disappointing. Dinner service usually have crab legs which was why we decided to go pay them a visit but they weren’t serving them. What was served was poorly prepared and cold. Very unappetizing. That was my last time eating at Mandarin House!!!

My experience and review: The meal is $ 9.99 per person (reasonable) and obviously extra for your drink. The Mandarin House is an all-​you-​can-​eat Chinese buffet restaurant located in a shopping center on Severn just south of West Esplanade. The restaurant is clean and pleasant and there’s plenty of parking.
There’s so much to choose as you walk around their many buffet bars and there’s no way that you can sample everything offered. There’s just too much to choose from. I arrived around noon on a Saturday for lunch and the place was already fairly packed. The floor staff was attentive and friendly and I noticed that they were there immediately to clear off tables and empty plates while you went back for more. They offer the typical Chinese fried, fried, fried entrees, but if you’re not into fried foods there’s plenty more to choose from. The salad bar had a large selection of salad items as well as the dessert bar. For the kids there’s all the pizza they can eat. Again, too much to choose from. I’ll definitely be back…
UPDATE: I stopped in this past Sunday after church expecting another great experience. It was a time and day when most restaurants are usually packed with after-​church folks. I was surprised to see the place nearly empty when I entered. When I walked up to the register to pay I was told that the meal was $ 15.00 on Sundays. Huh??? $ 15.00??? I asked why it was so high and I was told that it was because it was Sunday. I said no thanks and turned around and walked out. I’m sure the food was just as good as my $ 9.99 previous visit, but there’s no way that it’s worth $ 15.00 a meal. Not for a Chinese buffet and maybe that’s why the place had so few customers on what should have been a busy Sunday. Why do they think their food (the same as a weekday) is worth an extra five bucks just because it was Sunday? Greed aimed towards what’s normally a large after-​church crowd? I’d like to hear why from someone in management.

I am writing this on behalf on my father (who doesn’t do social media or Unilocal). He went in on a weeknight. Paid $ 13.99 which is more than East Buffet yet does not have hibachi. That’s only the start of it.
There were signs saying that if they saw seafood on your plate during the lunch buffet hours (which apparently is cheaper than the dinner price), they would charge you an extra five dollars. Why put the seafood out there then? So they can find a way to add to your bill? That sounds like bad business ethics. But it gets WORSE.
The $ 13.99 dinner price was supposed to include seafood and snow crab legs. He went up to get crab legs, the bin was empty. He asked a server to refill the crab leg bin, she said ok, started walking towards the kitchen but turned around and never went to tell the kitchen. He had to ask her a second time and she did the exact same thing. Finally, he asked a third time and she went into the kitchen and came out with crab legs.
This restaurant is trying to scam customers. They’re hoping that when you ask for crab legs, when the server pretends to go into the kitchen, you’ll see the other food and forget about the crab legs and then they won’t have to get them. My father said that the server watched him to see if he would be distracted by the cheaper food options and forget about the crab legs. But he paid the premium price for crab legs, so darnit he wanted crab legs.
In summary, they put the seafood out at lunch as a sneaky way of adding five bucks to your bill, but at dinner time, they don’t put out as much seafood when you actually are paying the higher price. Sounds like bait and switch here. Skip this place. I may consider reporting them to the Better Business Bureau.

Well it is 10:30 at night and I just received a prank call from the Mandarin House on Severn. At 10 pm they decided to call and wake up my sleeping baby, telling me that I am «a shitty customer. And you eat too much.» First of all I would never go to, or bring my family to such a hole in the wall with… ok well just now in the middle of writing this they called back screaming. It is 10:33, how unprofessional. by the way if I want Chinese food, I go to five happiness, not somewhere where I can be sure my food was spit in or fallen on the ground. Just know mr. Owner since I have just informed you on the phone of this Unilocal review, if you call again I will call the police because you are harassing us. Not only is this unprofessional, I’m not even a customer. You are a business and there is something called phone etiquette and I suggest you learn it. This disgusting behavior is almost as bad as your food (so I hear because from what I’ve heard, your food isn’t even worthy of rats) have a nice night and DO NOT CALL ME AGAIN! Negative stars if I could! How dare you all call my house up like this. I am calling the better business Bureau in the morning, you’ve messed with the wrong one. How dare a crappy restaurant such as yourselves wake up my baby in the middle of the night. Brennan’s I’d be okay with, but not with your cheap rudeness and lack of respect. And they just called… again. what us wrong with you people? seriously though if you are looking for Chinese food in NOLA, go to Five Happiness, these people at Mandarin House make me sick.

OK people. Rate food, service, cleanliness, etc. All was above par for me. Don’t expect to go to a buffet and see prime rib and caviar. Most buffets are fast food restaurants with a bigger variety and a step up on quality. This restaurant has great service and good food. My tea never goes dry, and that’s all I ask for. It’s fairly clean for a buffet. For the gentleman that said he seen a roach, it is nasty, but «A» roach, come on. If you ask for your money back because you see «A» roach. Pal, you were looking for a free meal when you went there. All in all, a good experience every time I go and that is at least twice a week.

Mandarin House is an awesome buffet. I asked the server if they have MSG in the food and they would not respond. I told them if they did, I would die right there in the restaurant. They got about 5 employees that were arguing back and forth in Chinese and would not answer me. My friend told them that I was joking with them, and they seemed relieved.
My dad always complained that after he went there, he would have to run home because of the «expansion of food» in his stomach. He could pinpoint it to there because it happened to him every time he ate there.
I thought that the food was ok, but nothing was labeled. Someone should make up a label that says «General Tso’s Feline» and stick it above some of the «unidentified dishes»
Personally for me, I like the fried shrimp, but it is like eating rock salt. Try them out for yourself. And enjoy the majority of cheap foods that they try and get you to eat by not filling any of the entrees in any decent amount of time.

The food here is mostly pretty good but I’ve had some bad experience with the fruit not being ripe before. Most days the crawfish and shrimp are cooked well and a good size. On Sunday they charge the dinner price all day. Drink refills are often slow. They do offer a lot of choices and everyone should be able to find something they like to eat.

This was the most expensive buffet I have been to in the NOLA area. $ 15 not including a drink. The food was fine. Pretty good. The staff stood around glaring at customers. Just stood there with the nastiest look on their fasces. I ran out of napkins and had to get my own.
Skip it. There is better value out there.

We go there strictly for the seafood, period. I am not a fan of chinese food but I am a BIG fan of hot boiled Louisiana seafood .and this place has huge boiled shrimp that are usually easy to peel, the crabs and crawfish are nice too, but I am a shrimp lover. For those who like chinese food there are plenty of dishes with shrimp served in all different ways, and some are quite tasty even to a non Cantonese fan.
Bottom line … if you want a great deal on all you can eat jumbo boiled shrimp, this is about the best deal in town.

Lots of choices, but I enjoy having their seafood: boiled crabs, crawfish, garlic fried shrimp, garlic fried crabs and baked mussels.

This is probably the all around best Asian buffet when it comes to quality and selection. They have some pretty decent boiled shrimp and they also do the right thing and pay a bit more to use Louisiana crawfish instead of nasty imported ones (which sadly enough probably can’t be said about a lot of other places around). This isn’t really the place to come if you’re looking for a hibachi or sushi buffet even though they do have a decent selection of sushi. Any dish they have here is almost always better quality than any similar dish at any of the other buffets. They have one of the largest selections of entrees and always seem to have a nice assortment of fresh fruits. Even when Oki Nago was at its peak and super awesome this buffet was always good and had its place for things you don’t find on most of the other buffets (like their large boiled shrimp) and they also have good roast chicken along with some other surprises not usually found on a typical Chinese buffet.

I am not from the area but this is by far the best Chinese buffet I’ve been to.
As a visitor to new orleans, a friend suggested going here for dinner. The food was amazing! The selections of seafood, meat, salad, desserts and fruits were overwhelming. Too much to list. Loved their crabs, crayfish, sushi, and huge shrimps!!!
Unlike many buffets, You have to pay before getting seated. The servers will bring you drinks that you ordered. no complaints here!
Would Definitely come back!!!

I’ve religiously been eating here since I was a little girl. It is by far my favorite!
I love the selection of seafood that Mandarin has to offer. From crawfish to boiled shrimp, and not to mention the snow crab legs. Such an extensive variety of popular Chinese food. I never feel jipped as opposed to some other Chinese restaurants I’ve been to in the past. Need I say more?
Weeknights are best when going.

Ehh, I thought everyone said this place was suppose to be good! Walked in, didn’t mind how run down the placed looked… but you would think the food would make up for it… NOPE.
It also made it really uncomfortable that they take your money at the door. Is this a buffet or a night club? I’m confused as to why there is a cover charge… it felt like that!
There’s no hibachi, barely anything. Don’t waste your money! Go down the road to East Buffet.

The food here is genuinely good, with a good selection of seafood that’s always fresh and of good quality. However, on some days there is crab available, and on some days there isn’t. Not sure if their supply is not consistent, or if the owners are cheap, but it’s does piss off customers who go there just for the crab.
Also on the negative side, I heard that the owners of this restaurant treat their employees quite badly, which makes me feel bad for the waiters and waitresses here that make like 2 dollars an hour. Makes me not want to go. I hear all the tips go to the mean owners too… so don’t tip too much because your money is NOT going to the wait staff!