On a sweet and tangy trail

Newly opened, The Mandarin Trail is out to give you a complete restaurant experience in a mall and of course a hearty Chinese meal

Finding the newest Chinese restaurant on the block, The Mandarain Trail might initially be going on quite a ride in itself. Located in a mall The Mandarin Trail is not one to let you down. We stopped by for dinner one evening saddened at the sight of everything around us setting to close down on a weekday.
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The ambience is welcoming and chic with the heavy use of black in the interiors. Do not forget to spot an artificial Mandarin (Orange) tree placed in the small lounge area. We opted for the restaurant side and were quite amazed with the exhaustive and rather exotic menu. For the drinks, we sampled Tequila Mary (Rs 375), a spin on the popular cocktail Bloody Mary, this one was heavily spiked and spiced at the same time. We sampled a Lemon Coriander Chicken Soup (Rs 150) next. The soup tasted of generously used fresh coriander complete with the sour tinge of lemon.
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The starters were an assortment of dimsums and Drunken Prawns with Chili Wine (Rs 525). We recommend the Chicken Kothe (Rs 195) for the non-vegetarians and Veg Kothe (Rs 175) for the vegetarians. They are steamed with a minced melt-in-the mouth filling. The prawns were delightfully large and crunchy cooked in a sweetish sauce spiked with some vodka and rice wine. A hint of lemongrass and bell peppers was another addition.

For the mains, we decided to go by the Chef's recommendations of their in-house specialties. The Full Red Snapper with spicy lemongrass sauce (Rs 525) came our way along with a delightful waft of lemongrass. The fish is served in six different variants cooked in your choice of sauce. The sauce we picked was mildly sweet, tangy and fragrant with lemongrass and sprinkled generously with bell peppers. The fish in turn was well cooked and tender, though high on spice and grease.

We also sampled Crispy Orange Chicken (Rs 350). Cooked in orange juice and stock, the chicken was juicy, tangy and sweet with orange chunks in the gravy. We found the chicken a tad sweet on the palate, but balanced well with the spicy fish. Double Mushroom Fried Rice (Rs 195) and Sapo Chicken in claypot (Rs 350) came next. We liked the rice with bits of spring onions and mushrooms thrown in with mild spices.

The pot chicken was served in a claypot and instantly balanced out the sweetness of the Orange chicken. Cooked in soya, the chicken was slightly tangy and devoid of the hint of sweetness the rest of the meal came with. Dessert was a Chilled Oriental Mango Pudding (Rs 225) that came garnished with Kiwi fruit. It did satiate our sweet tooth after a heavy meal but didn't quite live up to our expectations.

The Mandarin Trail
Food: good
Service: efficient
Ambience: pleasant

At: The Mandarin Trail, Mantri Square Mall, Malleswaram
Call: 22667351
Meal for two: Rs 1, 500