He had me at herro...

here it is again folks, cfs! we went to mandarin house tonight and had some of the best general tso's chicken ever (at least, that we've ever tasted). we decided near the beginning of our dinner that we need to start rating, or at the very least, reviewing the places we go so that all of you know that if you decide to have your own cfs what to prepare for. the notes from mandarin house went as follows:

• service & food quality - superb
• steamed (aka. white) rice - good, not overcooked, a bit too sticky for the boys, they'd prefer smaller clumps but if you're the chopstick using type it's great
• crab rangoon - one of the few time denise has actually been able to taste the crab, yay!
• pot stickers - a bit on the pricey side, 5.95 for 6, but the meat was very tasty, they were steamed then fried to perfection, the only down side was that the acompanying sauce wasn't as good as the sauce at OG (the chinese takeout we use as the 'constant' for our project, also the only restaurant we've been able to find something that everyone likes and that everyone feels is a good value for the price)
• general tso's chicken - the best we've had, crispy fried outside with delicious tender insides, fantastic sauce (that tasted great on the potstickers) but a small portion for the price, roughly 1/2 the size of OG's portion
• mongolian beef - good sauce, skimpy on the meat that, once separated from the onions and peppers, wasn't really a portion and had a very onion-y after taste
• sizzling rice soup (soup for 2 according to the menu) - not really a 2 person portion but denise did have leftovers, a decent soup but denise will try something different next time
• egg roll - smaller than OG's egg roll but josh thought it tasted better
• shrimp toast - some of the best i've had, it seemed like the shrimp had been made into a paste then put on the toast and fried but it tasted fantastic, not too greasy or fishy, just a good piece of toast
• fortunes - a bit on the lame side, see for yourself:
  
  

overall the service was amazing, never an empty glass or dish lingering, and our waitress was very knowledgeable and friendly but not too chatty and the food was great but left us hungry for more.

because we were still hungry, the discussion of dessert came up and at first we were going to get denise a milk tea (i'll explan in a future blog) but then pat mentioned the chocolate volcano at don pablo's. chocolate cake with ice cream and hot fudge? i'm in! we arrived at don pablos with the plan to sit, eat our chocolate and get out but as the boys were perusing the menu they decided to get some queso and flautas before our volcanos. long story short, our waiter got confused and didn't put in the order for the flautas so we had queso only then got our volcanos, in a word, fab!

pat was sad once his was gone and denise had to get the chocolate out of his beard

and then he couldn't figure out his phoneand thus ends another cfs (renamed for today chexican food sunday, or chex-mex sunday)