Chef Lee's Mandarin House 2 1616 North Main Street, Salinas, CA 93906

"After our last visit a year ago, I must say the food and service has definitely changed for unfortunately the worse. Chef Lee's when you first walk in is very nice and pleasant, a bit dark for my liking but overall okay, if you have difficulty seeing, reading glasses are a must to read the menu. Ordered the sweet-n-sour pork, mongolian beef, chicken chow mein, won-ton soup, white rice and fried prongs & egg rolls. Let's start with won-ton soup, it tasted a little weird and I got zero shrimp, not sure what meat is in the won ton soup but tasted spoiled, sweet-n-sour pork... it was like Chicharrón's, way over cooked and dry, after finding our waiter, I mentioned to him my issue and how dry it was and he said yeah its like that with pork, the white rice was dry like it had been sitting for awhile, can't understand that for the obvious reason, mongolian beef again was dry and over cooked, it did however have decent flavor, chicken chow mein was tasty but lacked anything else, little chicken and zero vegetables, Again I asked waiter who said they make it like that at times, the egg rolls and fried prawns were very good. Restroom had one stall out of order but clean, waiter was not attentive at all and restaurant was not busy for a Saturday night, waiters at front counter just talked and talked and could've filled water glasses, taken dirty dishes off tables etc.. kids. Overall I'm not overly excited about going back and spending $100.00 on 3 people for what I got. It should've been a clue when the restaurant was not busy on a Saturday night. I think the waiter should've made some of the dishes right or at least compensate. Over priced and greed is all I can think of. Dine at your own risk when Panda is right down the street, cheaper and far better than what I got tonight."

"The food was great. The server was really nice. There wasn't a lot of people when we went here. So we didn't have to wait to be seated."

"We were on a road trip to SoCal and stopped by Salinas for dinner. Was pretty cold at night so we decided to eat food meals. Chef Lee’s restaurant caught my eye and I ordered the chicken fried rice and snow pea beef (to-go orders). The food was served fast (5 mins!), hot and VERY delicious! Perhaps I was just hungry? Possibly but I love their authentic, Chinese family style meals. I particularly loved the chicken fried rice, each spoonful was hot and satisfying. The portion was big and enough for two (maybe 3). On our return trip we wanted to go to the restaurant again. This time we ordered the Seafood Fried Hongkong Style Noodles. The portion was big enough for two and was also very yummy! The seafood was abundant and of different varieties, while there was enough veggies. The crispy noodles were just perfect! The price was very inexpensive for such large portion and quality. The staff were also very friendly and thoughtful to give us paper plates to eat the food clean in the car."

"Went for dinner around 6.30pm on a Saturday. Was not very busy and they seated right me away. Immediately was asked if I wanted a drink. A couple minutes later, my waiter came to take my order. I was ready and placed my requests. Chow mein came first, about 5 minutes later the fried rice and mushu pork arrived. Everything was hot when I served my plate and tasted delicious. Veggies were cooked to my liking, not soft but not too hard. Sauces had great flavor as well. The waiter was attentive and checked up on me, boxed up everything when I was done,and had a pleasant sense of humor. Overall a great experience. Usually I order ToGo but decided to dine in for once. I was not disappointed."