Mandarette Regains Its Magic Touch

The Mandarette, that hip, little Chinese coffee shop on Beverly, was opened years ago by Philip Chang, who also owned the large, more formal Mandarin in Beverly Hills. Over the last eight or nine years, I took to stopping in occasionally for a lunch of green onion pancakes and cold summer noodles.

Four years ago, Chang sold the Mandarette to a chef at the Mandarin; then, through a series of in-the-Mandarin-family transactions, the small restaurant eventually ended up in the hands of one Tony Cheung, who has also spent some time in the kitchen at the Mandarin. During these shifts, the Mandarette experienced some fluctuations in quality. The food would be good, then not so good; I had a terrible meal there a year or so ago, but then people started to tell me it had gotten better again.

Three months ago, Cheung redecorated, radically altering the restaurant’s look and ambience: Gone are the pale green and orange walls, the spare, postmodernist feel. Now, huge framed Chinese costumes hang on the wall, along with odd but pretty woven straw hats and mats. The center of the ceiling has been painted to look like a piece of rumpled gold foil, and there’s a curious structure at the back that resembles a bamboo hut.

It’s all very handsome and stylish and restrained. The biggest change of all, however, is that there are a lot more tables, and new dark wood chairs that are just uncomfortable enough to discourage lingering. The whole energy of the place has been cranked up a few notches: more people, more noise, more bustle and--rumor has it--more movie stars. (I, personally, haven’t seen any.)

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The food seems to have settled back into the Mandarette’s own unique and celebrated blend of familiar, home-style Chinese food and spa cuisine. The dedication to low oil usage and no MSG generally results in clean-tasting, fresh dishes, with only the occasional blunting of flavors. (This is not to say the deep fryer isn’t put to good use, or you can’t get your salt or sugar itches scratched here.) All told, the Mandarette’s food is now about as good as Chinese cooking gets west of San Gabriel and Monterey Park.

Cold, silken cubes of tofu can be topped with crunchy, salt-pickled vegetable and springy thousand-year-old egg in what amounts to a textural free-for-all. For sheer flavor, I prefer the same cold tofu topped with juicy chopped cilantro, scallions and sesame oil.

Crisp, savory onion pancakes are still a pleasure, as are vegetarian steamed dumplings, stuffed with greens and glass noodles. Lion’s head soup, a rich broth with napa cabbage built around a fluffy, delicious meatball, is leaner than most versions.

Cold “crushed” cucumber, scented with ginger and rolled in roasted sesame seed, is a perfect hot-weather food. If, like us, you order bok choy with garlic thinking you’re getting a green, think again: What comes are the denuded, crunchy stems of bok choy--they’re slippery and crunchy and excellent, however.

A sheet of Mandarette specialties is now included on the flip side of the wine list. Flank steak stirred with basil and ginger is not wildly tender, but flavorful. I loved the chicken with wonderful pickled mustard greens and slivered red pepper; the meat is white, tender and naked as if poached, the spice level subtly warming. This dish’s conceptual opposite is the orange peel chicken, deep-fried nuggets stirred in a sweet syrup with candied, bittersweet orange peel.

Pickled mustard greens surface again in the spicy, good curry fried rice, which we ordered topped with generous slices of rich roast duck.

One of my favorite dishes is the spicy garlic fish; orange roughy one night, catfish another, it’s fried crisp and tossed in a chile-heated sauce with sauteed scallions. Salt lovers will gravitate to Chinese pork sausage cut into tiny pink disks and tossed with fresh string beans in a sweet hoisin sauce.

I was disappointed, however, in my old standby, the cold summer noodles with chicken and cucumber, which were gummy. Time to move on, I guess.

The Mandarette may be busier and noisier than ever before, but the service couldn’t be more kindly or thoughtful.

* Mandarette, 8386 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 655-6115. Open for lunch Monday-Friday. Open for dinner seven days. Beer and wine served. Major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $20-$50.