Cuisine:

• Chinese
• Asian
• Korean

Mandarin Restaurant Description:
Owner James Liu is ethnically Chinese but was raised in Korea and it is the Northern Chinese-Korean-inspired dishes that you should eat here. You'll find them listed on the last page of the menu under the rather odd labels of "A. Chinese Food" and "B. Cookery." This is the only place in Honolulu where we recommend ordering sweet-and-sour pork; Mandarin's version of the dish is vastly different from what you'd expect---crisp, juicy pork in a tart-sour brown sauce with nary a pineapple or green pepper in sight. The adventurous will try za jang men, wheat noodles in a thick black bean paste with bits of beef and lots of onion. Desserts are rare in Honolulu's Chinese restaurants but here you'll find hot glazed apples---crisp apples are battered and deep-fried, then coated in a hot glaze of sugar and sesame seeds, and plunged into an ice water bath. One bite of the crunchy candy coating yields way to sweet hot apples.


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