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Sakura Mandarin
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
13 reviews for Sakura Mandarin
After a long day of work and grad school, I often crave for food that can help relieve some of the stress I go through. Dim sum is one of those food. Sakura may not have a huge dim sum selection, but their Xiao Long Bao (shanghai soup dumplings) meets my demands. Their staff are extremely friendly and attentive. The bright green restaurant is really clean -- it's almost as if I have forgotten that I was still in Chinatown. Co-owner, Jay, still served me even past their 10pm closing time on a Monday.
I grew up in Philly and have seen many restaurants fade away at this location. I hope to see Sakura stay much longer!
Sakura serves authentic Chinese and Japanese cuisine. Aside from the Chinese dishes, don't forget to try out their sushi.
A must visit if you're in Chinatown for some grub. When I'm really hungry, I would order two Xiao Long Bao dishes, and a Pork Shoulder dish. Affordable pricing, good food, and friendly staff -- it's a no-brainer.
This was the first restaurant I went to in Chinatown, and I think for the most part isn't characteristic or what you would go to when you think of Chinatown. This restaurant has a little section for sushi, which right off the bat means not authentic, to me at least.
The place is very clean though, and the dishes weren't that bad. I tried the clams, medallion noodles with beef and xiao long bao.
The xiao long bao was ok, nothing to write home about, partly because I've tried some legit xiao long bao, but that option isn't available here in Philly, so this will have to do.
This one was a bit hard to rate. I'd give it more of a 3.5. While the place serves both Chinese and Japanese food, we chose to just go Chinese. Recently noticed that they started serving soup dumplings so of course, I had to try it. With that said, we ordered the soup dumplings, scallion pancakes, and the fish in garlic sauce lunch special.
In comparison to the soup dumplings at DimSum Garden, these had thicker skin and were much more inconsistent. The order also came with 6, instead of 8, and was priced at $4.95. We had a few that were completely soupless (BOO!) and some that had so much soup that it overfilled my spoon and spilled. The meat tasted better than at DimSum garden but overall, I'd go with DimSum Garden.
The scallion pancakes were delicious, though a bit greasy.
As for the lunch special, it also comes with your choice of soup. We went for the hot & sour soup and hmm... it just wasn't sour. The color and everything looked right but it tasted much more like water and pepper LOL. We added some vinegar to it to sour it up a bit and then it tasted good. As for the fish in garlic sauce, it was delicious! The sauce was yummy and the fish was melt in your mouth soft. I'd definitely recommend that and for $6, it is quite a cheap lunch.
This venue is quite clean and the mint green walls is actually appealing. I can't comment on the Japanese food but I love the selection they have there. From what I saw, there were about 15-20 different dishes you can get for the lunch special and it's all under 6 dollars. I might come back again but probably not for soup dumplings.
They also accept CC.
My first Philly review:
Though I am generally skeptical of restaurants that do the whole "we serve both Chinese and Japanese food", this BYO seems to have its act together. I have never had soup dumplings with shrimp before! The shrimp and pork had an amazing flavor, thought less soupy then I have had. The lunch specials are generous and service was spot on.
This one is a little bit of hard for me to rate the stars, Igave the really clean green dine room a 4 star,$4 dollar yummy soupy dumpling 4star,but another thing I need to mention is their attentive SERVICE and a lot of smiling faces,I gave 5 star. It's a lot better than a lot of other restaurants in China town area,
I've been craving Sakura Mandarin since my last visit to Philly...
And this time, I was with family, and they knew the "secret" of coming to the location in ChinaTown, for better parking...
YUM!
The Yummy dishes:
- Pork soup Dumplings (xiao long bao) - the bestest!
- Crab soupDumplings - great! still not sure how they pour the soup inside.
(6 pcs of dumplings is 4 bucks! nothing beats that! and this is better than any of the places i've tried in The bay area (CA), and NY area. Clams with baiil brow Sauce. Yum! (Finally clams without the sandy grit from uncleaned seafood) tasty, even just the sauce with white rice was a plus.$4.95,wat a good deal,even my bf likes here better than Joe Shanghai in Flushing better.
I was surprised that they have Sushi,my bf tried is Paul is big fan of Sushi,he had Angry Dragon roll it was a little bit different than we expected ,with fried shrimp tempura,spicy tuna and soy wrapped but it was so good with the sweet miso sauce.
GOOD DISHES WE HAD :
XIAOLONGBAO(soupy dumpling)
EGGPLANT WITH GARLIC SAUCE (a little bit too sweet)
SNOW PEA LEAVES
PORK SHOULDER(daddy's favor)
ANGRY DRAGON ROLL(very different)
At the end the server Ben brought up some sweet dessert soup on the house at the end,it was a thick soup with little tapioca stuffed sesame inside it was so gooooooood
This place just opened up on the corner where Ong's used to be.
We read on Yelp that it was actually a good place to go for soup dumplings, so we stopped by. Before that, we would've never gone in because by the name, it sounded like a Japanese-food place. Boyfriend said the soup dumplings were good! So that's a plus.. we only know of 1 other place in Philadelphia Chinatown that has em. So, all in all, a nice place. I also got a cold tofu appetizer and it was alright.
Both Chinese and Japanese---and both delicious. I wanted a vegetarian udon soup, and poof! --they whipped one up just for me. And the host came up several times (maybe he went a little overboard) just to make sure I liked it.
It isn't a lovely restaurant--the lighting is a little harsh and the chairs are not that comfortable, but I would rather have good food over flattering lighting any time.
After reading a pretty in depth review of this restaurant online. I decided give it a try myself and see where I would rank it.
As you first step into the store, you get smacked in the face with the colors green and white. Everything just looks so refreshing, new, and clean that you need a couple of seconds to let your senses absorb all the detail..... Done absorbing?? Now onto the food...
I came into this restaurant intending on ordering exactly two dishes. The shanghai style fried rice cakes and the Xiaolongbao AKA soup dumplings AKA steamed pork dumplings.
(For those interested in ordering the rice cakes, its not on the menu yet, just say fried rice cakes and they should understand)
Since I am a huge fan of Chinese styled fried rice cakes, I decided to put Sakura up to the taste test. The two styles I'm used to having are the shanghai style and the foochow style. There are places in Chinatown that sells each style of fried rice cakes and I wanted to see where this new place would rank in comparison. While their fried rice cakes was not bad, it wasn't as good as the shanghai rice cakes I have eaten at Empress Garden on 10th. The flavors tasted plain and less sophisticated in comparison and the portion size was disappointingly small.
However where this place earns its 4 star ranking is their soup dumplings. I have eaten the Xiaolongbao at Dim Sum Garden and Joe's Shanghai in NYC and I think Sakura garden's dumplings beats both hands down. While the flavor inside the dumplings tastes similar (Owners of Sakura and Dim Sum Garden used to be partners) Where the Sakura dumplings earns its ranking is the skin of the dumplings. Their dumpling skin is thin and at the perfect thickness it doesn't taste as stiff as the other places I've mentioned. The grounded pork inside the dumpling also crumbles as you chew making the flavor spreading process so much more efficient and enjoyable. I guess it better be good to charge 5 bucks for 6 small dumplings.
Out of the three places in Chinatown and probably the entire city of Philadelphia that sells Xiaolongbao, I've eaten at two, the only place I have yet to try is Zhi Wei Guan - The Magic Kingdom of Dough, but since it's been closed for a LONG while and still closed as of this writing, I will declare that Sakura Mandarin has the best Xiaolongbao in Philadelphia. IMO of course ;)
-may edit once Zhi Wei Guan - The Magic Kingdom of Dough gets their shit together and finally opens again.
-looks like Zhi Wei Guan has opened today, (5/23/2009) didnt have time to grab some soup dumplings... maybe next time.
so when i eat with the parental units, we usually settle on a place in chinatown. we were on our way to vietnam when we saw the sign for soup dumplings at this place....
much cleaner and prettier than most restaurants in chinatown, and the air doesn't feel greasy...so it's already a good start.
it always gets confusing when there's too many things on the menu.
a big no for the sushi.
a huge thumbs up for their soup dumplings.
amazing pork belly fatty goodness.
not too comfy seats and tables are too close.
soup dumplings to go. yes m'am.
I was excited to try this place - but also bummed when I found out that Ong's Noodle House (the former restaruant in this sapce) had closed.
But the gorgeous fresh coat of green paint and renovated bathrroms and dining area - along with a Half Chinese/Half Sushi Bar menu had me! So last Friday me, my husband and our active 4 year old daughter dropped in for a quick dinner.
DD's gyoza were the best part of the meal - freshly cooked and perfect. (Even if frozen.) DH had a greasy, heavy chicken lo mein, and a spicy tuna roll that he enjoyed. I tried a specialty roll - at $11.95 I expected better. It was stuffed with Shrimp Tempura and Cucumber and coated with spicy tuna (not the best I've had but OK). What killed it was they literally DUMPED a load of Tempura Flakes all over it.
Now don't get me wrong - I like tempura "crunch" but this was over kill.
I also ordered a green salad. I should have known better and ordered the ultra-sweet orangey-ginger dressing (again - I've had better) on the side. The iceberg lettuce and sigle slice of tomato were fresh and crisp. Not gourmet - but good.
It's a solid 3 star joint.
I'm giving it 4 stars because they serve soup dumplings! YES i said soup dumplings the kind you get at joe shanghai in nyc!! i believe they are called juicy buns here and they are not on the menu but they have it advertised on the windows!! the sushi was yummy and CHEAP!! so much sushi for little bucks!! LOVE IT!! and its BYOB!
The soup dumplings were great, definitely on par with the popular places in NYC. I'm also always in search of a great scallion pancake, and the ones at Sakura are definitely tasty. A good little place in Philly that I'll be back to.
My friends and I love eating at this newly opened restaurant. It is so clean and nice while sitting in the restaurant. The Chinese food is always hot and excellent. The waitstaff is so nice and remembers us and what we order. The restaurant offers some of the best chinese food we ever ate. In addition, it also has delicious Japanese cuisine. We agree that it is the best in Chinatown. This is absolutely a great restaurant to go for great food and pay less money.