LITTLE ROCK — Chicken. Lots of chicken. Chicken at least eight different ways.
That's what we found behind the sneeze guards at Mandarin Express, the new fast-Chinese outlet in the food court at Park Plaza.
Mandarin Express, like Manchu Wok, which it replaced a couple of months ago, is a chain/franchise operation. It provides pre-cooked Chinese food, cafeteria-style, to walkup customers who are taking a break from shoe-shopping or whatever people are doing in the mall these days.
Think of it as a close cousin to a Chinese buffet, except that those behind the counter serve it up for you, and you're eating off polystyrene plates with flimsy plasticware.
We guess that's for those for whom real dinnerware at the full-service Forbidden City, nearby in the same food court, is too high-falutin' - or maybe they just don't want the trouble of puzzling out a menu, or can't wait those extra few minutes to have Chinese food prepared to order.
At least while it's still "young," Mandarin Express has a few definite advantages over Manchu Wok.
It's a lot cleaner and brighter, although how it will look once it has been there a few years remains to be seen. The food has more flavor; the spicier stuff is spicier, even to the point that there are actually those makesure-you-avoid-'em red peppers floating around in the Kung Pao Chicken (although we didn't find any peanuts, which is the chief attraction of ordering Kung Pao anything). Portions are pretty large.
And generally the kitchen staff turns stuff over more often. At Manchu Wok, you could see that some of the food had been sitting in those pans for, well, quite some time, long enough to look dried out and greasy. This stuff looks, and tastes, reasonably fresh.
Still, as is also true of most Chinese buffets, the majority of what's on display is made with relatively inexpensive chicken. On a recent visit, the choice was between Orange Chicken, Honey Chicken, Sesame Chicken, Mandarin Chicken, Kung Pao Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken, Bourbon Chicken and Mongolian Chicken. Of course, nonfowlfans weren't completely up the creek: They could opt for Beef Broccoli, mixed vegetables and/ or sauteed green beans.
You order by the combo at Mandarin Express - two-item combo ($5.69), two-item combo with egg roll ($6.29), three-item combo ($6.49), or three-itemplus-large-drink Emperor's Meal ($7.69). There's no menu per se, just pictorial price posters behind the servers and signs on the sneeze guard indicating which dish is what.
Combos come with a choice of fried rice or spaghetti-like lo mein noodles gussied up with green onions, regular onions and bits of carrot and cabbage.
For an additional 99 cents you can get two spring rolls or three crab Rangoon, the latter slightly stale and somewhere between tepid and cold.
Most of the chicken options, with the exception of the Kung Pao, are in sweet or sweet-ish sauces. Of those, Bourbon, Teriyaki and Orange chickenswere the most pleasant (and no, there's no alcohol flavor to the Bourbon Chicken). Mongolian Chicken is sweet and a little spicy, but it consists of smaller chicken chunks coated and cooked to be somewhat crisp and crunchy. The Honey Chicken is actually a brighter orange than the Orange Chicken.
You don't have to guess what stuff will taste like - employees aggressively solicit passers-by with free samples on toothpicks.
Mandarin Express Address: Park Plaza, 6000 W.
Markham St. at University Avenue, Little Rock Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday Cuisine: Over-the-counter Chinese Credit cards: V, MC Alcoholic beverages: No Reservations: No Wheelchair accessible: Yes Carryout: Yes (501) 660-6622 www.mandarinexpress.us
Weekend, Pages 40 on 05/21/2009