Mandarin Gourmet

Place

Mandarin Gourmet
420 Ramona Avenue
Palo Alto

Description

Mandarin Gourmet is a fairly upscale Mandarin Chinese restaurant in downtown Palo Alto which serves a fairly wide variety of traditional Chinese restaurant dishes in a very flavourful way. The service is generally pretty good, although they aren't as friendly as I'd like (this is why they're only my second favourite restaurant in Palo Alto). The ambience is upscale - certainly more upscale than the prices.

There is plenty of food to choose from for Carnivores and Herbivores alike - the Hot and Sour soup is to die for, and can be made fresh for vegetarians. I've heard effusive comments from carnivores about various beef and chicken dishes. Unfortunately, there aren't any veggie appetizers, but the food is otherwise so good that this is an easily forgiven omission.

Like all Mandarin restaurants, the food is not hot, even if it says that it is on the menu, and if you ask for it extra hot, it still won't be hot. If one approaches this fact with a Zen-like state of calm and acceptance of the world as it is, one can truly enjoy the rich pageant of flavours present in the food rather than dwelling on this one lack.

Dinner should be around $13-$15, plus drinks. Kabuki-West has never been to Mandarin Gourmet.

Directions

BART/Public Transportation

This is the Penninsula. Get real. If you're desperate, you can probably take BART into the city, walk down to the municipal bus terminal, and take the SamTrans 7F down to the Stanford Shopping Centre. Once you get there, cross over El Camino (the bus dumps you on El Camino), and walk south and east down a path through the park to the Palo Alto train station, then down the tunnel that you'll find there to University Avenue. Continue to the third light that you encounter on University, which is Ramona, then hang a left on Ramona and look for Mandarin Gourmet on your left towards the end of the block. Check out the map below for clarification.

If you're feeling *really* adventurous, you can take CalTrain instead of the 7F. Unfortunately, Caltrain runs on a two-hour schedule after 5:00 PM, so I'm not convinced that you'd be able to connect reliably with BART on the way back. You can contact CALtrain at 800-558-8661 for more information. They can also probably tell you how to get to the CalTrain station in San Francisco; alas, I don't personally know how. The directions from calTrain are pretty much the same as from the 7F, except that you get to skip the path through the park.

This is provided for your amusement and horror - I don't suggest it as a serious undertaking. You'd spend about three hours on the bus and the BART train, and you might get mugged at the San Francisco municipal bus terminal or in the underpass on University Avenue. Sigh. Thank the San Mateo County board of Supervisors for refusing to fork over the bux for BART, and thereby bring about this tragedy.

By road (short)

Mandarin Gourmet is in downtown Palo Alto on Ramona between University Avenue and Lytton Avenue; on the left more than halfway down the block coming from University, on the right fairly early in the block coming from Lytton. It's a big, yuppie-looking glass thing, but it's a bit recessed from the buildings on either side of it, so look closely.

By road (long):

From the East Bay: Get on 880 South. If you're coming from north of the Maze, you'll have to get on to 580 briefly, then take 980 south to where 880 picks up again. Follow 880 south until you get to the Dumbarton Bridge (Highway 84 west). Pay your $1, and cross the bridge. Coming off of the bridge, go left at the first light you come to. This is University Avenue. Follow University Avenue through East Palo Alto until you cross 101, then follow the 101 directions, below. You can also cross at the Bay Bridge or the San Mateo Bridge and take 101 south, as described below.

From the North or South, on 101: Take 101 to the University Avenue Exit. You want University Avenue West (away from East Palo Alto). Coming from the south, this is somewhat complicated - you'll get dumped on to a side street, and you'll want to make a left at the first light, and another left at the next light, which will put you on University. Coming from the north, you'll also get dumped on a side street (one of the main drags in East Palo Alto, actually). Just follow this straight ahead, and it'll dump you on to University.

Now, follow University through a wealthy residential neighborhood (quite a contrast!) for about a mile to downtown Palo Alto. Look for Ramona Avenue, which is the third light before the end of downtown, and hang a right there. Mandarin Gourmet will be on your left toward the end of the block.

From the South on 280: follow 280 north to the Alpine Road exit. Go right at the bottom of the exit ramp, and follow Alpine through some curves and the first light, and then go right at the second light, which is Sand Hill Road. Pick up with the directions below.

From the North on 280: follow 280 south to the Sand Hill Road exit. Take Sand Hill Road east (away from the mountains). This will eventually intersect with Alpine Road/Joachim Miller Road, as mentioned above. Follow Sand Hill until it threatens to dump you into a mall; hang a right there onto Arboretum. Follow Arboretum through two lights, and then go left at the third light, which is Palm Drive (yes, Mike, I looked at a map this time :'). Follow Palm Drive under an underpass, after which it will magically become University Avenue. (If you miss Palm and find yourself on El Camino, go left and take the University Avenue exit; go right on University.) Ramona is the third light after the underpass; go left there and look for Mandarin Gourmet, as described above.

Parking

Parking in Palo Alto is a joy and a wonder. Sort of like parking in Cambridge or downtown Berkeley, only worse than Berkeley. There is a lot directly across from Mandarin Gourmet. You probably won't find any spaces in it. You may be able to find parking on the street on Ramona or on Lytton (the next street on Ramona after University). You're more likely to find parking on Lytton if you go left there, and park on the right side of the road.

If you wander around, you'll find a few other lots, but they're often quite full at 7:30. Your best close bet is the parking garage on Ramona under DEC WRL - the bottom floor has had spaces whenever I've tried it. This is on the block directly on the other side of University; there's a garage entrance almost directly across the street from Double Rainbow. The lot between Alma and High just across University always seems to have some parking available, and is reasonably close (2.5 blocks). High Street is two blocks west of Ramona, and is one-way going in the direction (from Lytton or University) of the lot I'm referring to.

The above directions may sound discouraging, but in reality, you shouldn't have trouble parking; it may just take a bit longer than you'd prefer.

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