Mandarin Chef

All You Can Eat (AYCE) hot pot for $ 18.99. The price is a dollar or two more than other AYCE places that you can find in the SGV, but Mandarin Chef’s a pretty good option when you’re in the Temple City/​El Monte/​Arcadia region. The portions served are very generous and you can always just ask for more.
Their selection is pretty respectable for an AYCE place. Quite a variety of vegetables [napa cabbage, spinach, lettuce], seafood [fishballs, shrimp], the essential proteins [beef, fish, tofu tofu tofu!], and fish paste goods [fishballs, Chinese tempura] at your request. There are 3 base sauces they give you: the satay sauce [Chinese-​BBQ sauce], the sesame sauce [Brown pasty sauce], and the fermented tofu sauce [’Dou Fu Ru’ in Mandarin]. They also give you minced garlic, chopped cilantro and green onions.
The service is really nice, albeit somewhat slow at times. They’re very attentive and very friendly, but the preparation of the raw foods could take a while, depending on what you ordered. Unless you specify that you just want the food as it is ready, they won’t bring you your items until everything is ready to go. It’s good to have a Mandarin speaker go with you, as Mandarin is the dominantly spoken language here.
You can ask for plain broth or spicy broth. I’ve read that there are more selection, but I usually don’t order the broth base [parental decrees]. You can also ask for the yin-​yang style, which means there is a metal border in between, separating the broths.
There is a parking lot in the back, but it seems to fill up. Luckily, street parking suffices for the overflow there may be.
Although the ‘C’ rating may readily ward people off, this place seems clean and no health issues are at risk. I wouldn’t readily come here when I want hot pot, as I’m a big fan of Boiling Point and Jazz Cat, but this place is a solid option for AYCE hot pot [better than Amrose and A&J in San Gabriel in my opinion]

This place is my favorite spot when I want AYCE hot pot. They provide you with basically all the sauces, meats, seafood, noodles and veggies. Their selection is pretty good. Where else can you get three different types of mushroom and a variety of noodles. They are so nice, they even threw in fried tofu which is really tasty. For dinner it’s about $ 20 a person including tip. Now that’s awesome!

You can’t miss the all you can eat hot pot. The food is so fresh and especially love the lamb here. The price is very fare too… Although they don’t have fancy soup for choice, it’s still worth to come again and again. This is a very traditional hot pot store to share with friends and families.

Worst service I have ever recieve, nobody to sit you down, took half an hour to get a menu, and another half hour before I left, because nobody came to take my order.

Of all the AYC hot pot places, this one has the most fresh and clean veggies, fish filets, large shrimps, beef balls, fish balls, squid balls, fish balls with fillings inside (yummy), beef, udon, glass noodles, and the list goes on. They also provide you the sauces for you to mix it yourself. Only $ 17.99/person Adult and kids under 3 is free. 4yrs and above is $ 1/​yr. Very reasonable price and good food.

i mean, its not THE best. but on a rainy, blustery winter’s night, its good. i mean, its 16 bucks (or maybe 17), for all you can eat meat, seafood, veggies, tofu, etc! and dipping sauce too!
there have been a few occasions where water was scarcer than the sahara during a drought, but in general, service is not too bad. the restaurant is also a tad dingy, but HEY! if that means we can bring our own beers in, then hell, dinge away!
beware though, and know that you WILL emerge back into the blustery night smelling of chinese shabu shabu!

All you can eat shabu for $ 15.99, can’t beat it…
We come here all the time especially during the winter time. They have wide range of on soup base and food selections. Karaōke is also available if you feel like sing along song but we haven’t done that yet. It’s a bit of a drive from where we live but it is well worth it.

All you can eat shabu style is a deal. Decent quality of assorted shrooms, beef, seafood. But just bc you can, doesn’t mean you should :-)

I LIKE THIS PLACE BECAUSE IT MESSED UP THE BILL AND ONLY CHARGED ONE OF US FOR THE ALL-​YOU-​CAN-​EAT.
Take-​Aways:
— The vegetable selection is superb here.
— Dumplings are available here!
— It’s indigenous Asians here, no white people. So this hole-​in-​the-​wall is serious.
I don’t understand why people are whaling on this joint with two-​stars. It’s a hole-in-a-wall…just how true 1^st Generation Asians love it.

I didn’t have a good feeling about this place when I saw the «B» health grade in the window and the empty parking lot. It was a family get-​together and somebody else picked the spot. Eh, they can’t all be winners.
Actually, the food wasn’t completely horrible, but there are a ton of other Chinese restaurants in the SGV that are much better. Also, nothing grosses me out more than a dirty restroom. The door to the men’s room looks like it’s been in need of a few squirts of Fantastic for a long, long time. Ack! I recommend spending your hard-​earned cash elsewhere.

For an ALL YOU CAN EAT hot pot place, this place is not bad. There’s two soup bases: regular and spicy. The variety of items is not bad. For meat, they only have lamb and beef. There’s also a variety of seafood and veggies. The quality is not amazing, but decent for the price.
Everytime I come with my friends, we order a ton of food and leave full, warm and happy. Last time when we went for lunch, we stayed to use the karaōke entertainment system they had in the room. So we got all you can eat hot pot AND 3 hours of karaōke for just $ 15.99! What a great deal. Since we were the only people left in the restaurant, it was like a private party!
For $ 3 more, you can order «dry pot lamb», where they bring out a pot of lamb that is cooked on the hot pot stove with a lot of leeks and garlic. The lamb is tender and juicy.
NOTE: You can’t compare this to Little Fat Sheep or other hot pot places where you pay by the plate. Just the soup bases at those places is at least $ 5 per person.

Came here with a group who comes on a pretty frequent basis so I didn’t bother to look up the Unilocal reviews. But even if I’d seen all the negative reviews it wouldn’t have stopped me from meeting up with my friends. So yeah, it’s not a very fancy place but overall I didn’t think it was that bad. Sure the quality of the meat could’ve been better but it IS an all you can eat place. The veggies and seafood were fresh and we got decent service so for me it was an OK visit. We got a bunch of different stuff in addition to the meat and veggies, like the tofu skins, mushrooms, taro, various meat and seafood balls, and glass noodles. The sauces they provide were yummy and we had a good time eating all communal-​style. Would I ever come here by myself? No, considering the distance, mediocre quality and the less-​than-​inspring ambiance, but should my friends want to meet up here again, I’m down.

**ATTENTION ALL UnilocalERS**
Steer away from this place if you’re in it for the $ 15.99 all you can eat shabu-​shabu. It’s Horrible with a capital H.
Mandarin Chef has violated the golden rules of shabu-​shabu, bad soup base and bad meat. Beef slices are thick and taste like beef jerky. Spicy soup base is not spicy and bland.
Don’t let $ 15.99 all you can eat lure you to this shabu-​shabu hell. Spend a bit more and go to «Little Fat Sheep». Your taste buds and tummy will thank you.

The pictures posted on Unilocal made this place look somewhat decent. In reality, this place looks like a pretty run-​down mom and pop shop. We ordered the regular soup base which had no herbal ingredients — just few strands of green onion and tasted rather bland. I felt like we were just boiling food in water and dipping in sauce.
Only the barbecue sauce was decent. The bean curd and sesame sauce was «meh» at best.
Not the freshest ingredients around and not a lot of variety to choose from. I am a no lamb person, but I am pretty sure there was a few slices of lamb in our beef plate.
Everything was mediocre at best. Our dinning experience was further dragged down by the annoying group of loud «Mainland China-​type» people sitting next to us. With no regards to other people they speak as if they are miles away from each other. Not a single silent moment during the entire meal.
Suggestions: take some pointers from the «Little Fat Sheep» menu. You lack even the basics. Your soup base sucks! Also, presentation and service matters. Not worth $ 15.99/person.

I’ve eaten her a number of times and I’m happy to say that I’ve never received poor service here. I always get my hotpot ingredients in a timely fashion and they’re always fresh and tasty! The broth is on point and although this isn’t the highest quality hotpot I’ve ever had, it’s certainly worth the price for an AYCE joint!
I’ve yet to try their regular Chinese food, but I really don’t see myself doing that any time soon. Seriously, hotpot fix + this place = satisfied appetite.
Recommendations: Order everything on the AYCE menu!
Warnings: Parking is on the small size and people have complained about poor service in the past, although I’ve never had that experience.

Their hot pot is very good, not quite up to the par with Little Fat Sheep or Mon Land, but it’s all you can eat! It’s also very cheap. The service is generally bad because they have like 2 people running the place, but the ingredients are fresh. It’s definitely the best hot pot choice in Arcadia!