Grand Mandarin in Lisle

After watching the Bears defeat yesterday, a couple of friends and I decided to venture down to this rather large, pagodaesque structure, located on Ogden Avenue about 1 mile east of Naperville Road.

Having not been there in about 10 years, and remembering the last visit to be completely forgettable. We placed our fate in the hands of the only member of our party who could both read and speak Mandarin.(This helped greatly when we asked for the chinese menu) (insert dumbfounded waitress emoticon)

Unfortunately, with only 3 people in our party we were not able to order the hot pot, which thoughts of started our brains into chinese mode. Also 3:30 on a Sunday is not one of the times that you can order the crispy skin duck. (24 hrs notice is required for the Peking Duck)

We did find a few memorable items to forage from the menu. Our order was as follows.

Sauteed sugar snap pea shoots
Lobster in Spicy Garlic Sauce
Shredded pork with salty snow cabbage
rabbit in chile sauce

After placing our order the waitress returned with 3 small relish plates. On on there were par cooked white carrots in chile oil. The second was chunks of cucumber dressed in what tasted like a mixture of fish sauce and sesame oil. Third was a plate of plain salted peanuts. The flavor combinations of these three items was truly intriguing.

The sauteed pea shoots were remenicent of the vegetable shared at the recent Fabulous Noodles outing. Not much to talk about, but delicous in there simplicity, especially when doused with Chili oil.

The Lobster, from the Ameri-Chinese menu, was your basic preparation in a slightly sweet, mildly spiced garlic sauce.

The shredded pork dish had many subtle tones from salty to bitter, sweet to bland all in one bite. Overall, not a bad dish, but I once again doused with chili-oil.

Finally the rabbit, which we opted for instead of the duck, was the only dish not enhanced by the chilli oil. Small, boney bits of rabbit fried with peppers and onions with chili oil. This dish was very tasty, but the presence of all the small bones made a hassle while eating.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised, that a restaurant where I held so much contempt for can supply a very decent meal. My friend did say that the brunch on Sundays is terrible. I must also admit that I wanted to stop at Fabulous Noodles for their soup noodles with BBQ pork on my way home.

Flip

Went once, probably 10 years ago, too, was terribly unimpressed. Flip, you have not convinced me to go back, though I suppose I should, just to be fair. Still, too many other places to go.