Mandarin Ogilvie - Ottawa

Overall

Food

Service

Atmosphere

Cleanliness

Price $$ 15-25 per person     Would I go back : NO!

At a first glance of the name of ths restaurant and after googling it one might take this restaurant part of the chain Mandarin Chinese Buffet. They have used similar font for their sign and using the name Mandarin Ogilvie which the Mandarin Chinese Buffet chain use to differentiate the different locations (ie. Mandarin Burlington). Do NOT be mistaken, this restaurant has no affiliation the Mandarin Chinese Buffet Restaurants, one can say it's far from what the Mandarin Chinese chain is trying to represent.

We came upon this restaurant hoping to look for a place that will accommodate a party of 12 that are not too adventurous but want to try ethnic food for a future event (a favour for a friend). Being new to Ottawa and not knowing many people we decided to test by tasting. The restaurant was large enough to accommodate the amount of people we have in mind but everything else was left to be desired.

The service was awful, not the worst I had but was dreadful enough. It took awhile for them to get our drinks and take our order. We were served by at least 15 different waiters (exaggerated) that cannot answer any of our questions. We ordered a set dinner for 2 (western style Chinese food) as I had tried to ask if they have a set dinners for more traditional Chinese food the waitress just stared at me blankly then told me "no".  It was almost comical when we asked if a dish we had ordered have any peanuts in it (I have a peanut allergy), the waitress said "I don't know" and proceed to stare at us blankly instead of going into the kitchen to check. In the end she did not go and check but asked another waitress who said "I don't know" and proceed to stare at us as well. Seeing that we were not getting anywhere my boyfriend had end up eating all of the dish by himself as they do not allow substitutes.

As an observation I noticed that the whole entire dining room was filled with westerners and all eating the set dinners. The menu did offer a variety of food but it seems that their westernized Chinese food was a hit. Later on a Chinese family walked in and I noticed that beside the standard menu, a white single page menu was given to them as well. Curious as we were leaving I got a glance at the white menu and it's a menu for more traditional Chinese food! Although I'm Chinese, my boyfriend is a westerner and seeing that they had automatically assumed that we would not want the white menu as well.

Now to the food.... what can I say about it.... nothing good.  The set dinner came with hot and sour soup, spring rolls (if you call cabbage, potato, and carrots wrapped together a spring roll, that's right I said potato) imperial chicken (a spicy chicken of some sort that has peanuts), shrimp with vegetables, chicken fried rice, and a dessert (I had lychee in syrup, my boyfriend skipped it as he couldn't take it anymore). The hot and sour soup was not good at all, in fact it borderline stinky because they had used so much vinegar. It had no taste but vinegary and spicy. The shrimp with vegetable dish had baby corns in it and they were sour, it also had snow peas in it and I couldn't even chew them as they were so tough and stringy. The fried rice was very chewy with barely any chicken in it but it had lots of oil (not normal).  The only thing that was good was the tea and the lychee in syrup (which is out of a can so one cannot screw that up unless it's expired or tried to open the can with a knife).

Price was not cheap it came to $46.44 for the two of us. They charged us for tea and since there was the two of us they automatically charge for 2 although my boyfriend had ordered ginger ale. 
It wasn't horribly dirty. The dishes were clean as far as I can see, but the floor the chairs, the bathroom, and the kitchen was dirty. Yes, the kitchen... you can look into the kitchen on your way to the bathroom and it did not too look good.

Aftermath: We're both suffering from gas, stomach pains and really thirsty. My boyfriend said he bit into something that tasted funny from the imperial chicken and his mouth is now numb. That's right I said numb and no he does not have any food allergies.  My boyfriend said it was by far the worst food he's had and I agree.

So why the two star...I've had worse for all the other ratings.

I was told that this restaurant used to be good but not anymore. So beware of the reviews you read and make sure they are really recent.