Sweet Mandarin

Reviews

• Parvinder H.

  star star star star star_border 10 June 2026

  We had reserved a table for 7pm on Friday but arrived a little earlier. We were seated straight away. We barely had time to look at the menu before being asked what we wanted to drink. We requested a couple of minutes, which was literally all they gave us before they came around again and then again. They are way too attentive in this place, perhaps to a fault.
  I was ordering off of their gluten free menu, which is refreshingly extensive. In the end I went for the BBQ ribs to start with and the sichuan crispy beef and rice noodles for mains.
  When they bring out the food they are very explicit in telling you which dishes are gf, which is reassuring.
  The ribs were coated in a thick sweet tangy sauce which was full of flavour. The ribs had quite a bit of meat on them. They could have done with being a little less chewy and a bit more tender, but to be honest when you've not had Chinese food in sooo long the flavour was enough to make me think I'd died and gone to heaven. This dish is good for sharing cause after a while the sweetness gets to be a little too much.
  To follow, my beef dish was amazing and you can't really fault it, it was just well cooked.
  The noodles on the other hand, whilst delicious, could have done with being a lot less salty cause these probably contained enough salt to make up my entire weekly allowance.
  Overall a great Chinese meal was had. My friends also enjoyed their meals.

• Aaron S.

  star star_border star_border star_border star_border 6 June 2026

  Sweet Mandarin is a Chinese restauraunt in Manchester's Northern Quarter, which is basically behind the Crowne Plaza of Rochdale Road and close to the Holiday Inn, owned by three sisters it has gained a lot of publicity on television which was the reason I wanted to try it. They were featured on Gordon Ramsay's The F Word and were also on UK business show Dragon's Den twice, advertising their ready meals in 2005 and more recently advertising the sauces they sell in supermarkets and use in restaurants - the story behind their products and the three sisters working together to produce "great quality Chinese food catering for allergies such as gluten-free" was appealing to me, however my high expectations were far from met, infact my experience here was so disappointing, it made me feel sick.
  
  The prices here are a little high, with mains generally between 10 and 20 pounds but the presentation for me is a little poor and sloppy, for example, I ordered a lemon chicken as my main, all it was was slices of chicken, it comes with nothing other than the chicken and sauce - no sides etc which were all extras. The "mains" are more like big sharing boards for groups, rather than mains for one person perhaps.
  
  For my starter, I ordered gluten-free spring rolls, is excited to try them have never tried them before, being quite a newbie to Chinese cuisine, I found out this was basically fried puff pastry containing vegetables and spring onions. For me, they were basically inedible, I found them to first be extremely hot and even after they had cooled, they were hard and the vegetables were too wet and stringy. My friend ordered seaweed as her starter, I found it to be far too salty but she appeared to enjoy it.
  
  For my main, I ordered the lemon chicken which was once again dreadful, the chicken was a little hard and bland but what made it worse was the big thick sauce, it looked like a thick discoloured bodily fluid rather than a nice, enjoyable sauce - the USP of this restauraunt and the brand as a whole is the sauces, and if they can't even get that right, I'm astonished and lost for words. It was basically a sickly and ugly mess.
  
  The rest of my party seemed to order the chow meins, one mixed meat, one just with chicken, a group of four people all complained about the chicken which was amongst the poorest quality of chicken I've had in a long time, the portion sizes again were huge - it is a real shame the waiter seemed more interested in what money they could get out of me, rather than offering ideas and warning us about what to expect with the portion sizes - knowing how big the plates were we could have ordered a variety of things, or less food. Even if the food was remotely pleasant, it still was far too large in size for a portion.
  
  I decided to order an extra side to go with my chicken, the salt and pepper chips which I found to be probably the only edible part of my meal, the chips were decent quality but it just was the vegetables which were not, they once again were thick, and also hard.
  
  The overall decor of this place seems a little cheap, it is slightly small as you walk in through cardboard barriers, and it just doesn't have the overall feel of a restauraunt. It's slightly strange and not the nicest of places that's for sure, it certainly doesn't give the high-end feel, infact the only thing about this place which is high-end are the prices.
  
  With tea being a huge export in China, I was pleased to see a huge and great selection of iced tea for just £4 each, I decided to opt for a pear iced tea but it was incredibly sweet and filled with sugar, it was a watery and sugary mess to the point those awful flavours basically made the tea hard to taste and the drink once again an abysmal mess.
  
  The opening hours are also slightly restrictive and they also appear to open after 5 only, and a lack of an online booking system makes it hard to arrange a table as you have to communicate with email, which I don't like and shows not only is Sweet Mandarin lacking with the competition in terms of pricing and food quality, but it also lacks behind in the technology form too, and the egotistical act of boasting of their own achievements seem to outweigh everything else, including making the experience better for the customer, I can't help but feel a sense of arrogance too, Sweet Mandarin might have won many awards years ago, I can't comment having not visited before today, but I feel these awards have added a sense of arrogance, making the owners slightly arrogant when really they're food was a dreadful, overpriced mess, which meant I'd leave the restauraunt hungry and feeling sick.
  
  When making a reservation via email I was told "We look forward to welcoming you to Sweet Mandarin for some delicious Chinese cuisine" but my experience was an insult to Chinese cuisine and is enough to put anyone off from ordering Chinese food, being a mess from start to finish so I sadly feel Sweet Mandarin is somewhere to Avoid at all costs!

• Mari M.

  star star star star star 2 June 2026

  My new Manchester takeaway obsession! They are really quick when you order takeaway and have a MASSIVE vegan menu. The black bean and sweet pepper tofu is divine and they give you decent sized portions.

• Aiden B.

  star star star star_border star_border 23 May 2026

  I got takeaway so this review is based on takeaway tasting and service. The food was delicious however nothing stood out as amazing. The Cantonese fillet beef was very nice and was the highlight of my order. The spring rolls and seaweed were much better than your average Chinese takeaway from Chinatown.
  
  Staff were lovely and very helpful but although yelp and the resteraunt signage said they deliver they unfortunately said they were unable to.
  
  I'll definitely be back for takeaway and hopefully to eat in sometime soon.

• Katie H.

  star star star star_border star_border 14 May 2026

  Despite having lived round the corner from Sweet Mandarin for nearly 7 years (I cannot believe it's that long since I got a mortgage - eeek), I have never eaten in.  I've been out for a Chinese at many places in Manchester but never booked a table here.  I have, however, been here for takeaway many a time.  Including a very sad New Years Eve (about 5 NYE's ago) where I was really ill and stayed in on my lonesome listening to everyone else partying (cue violins).    My latest was Saturday just gone, when I was still recovering from a late and heavy Friday.
  
  The trouble with me and Chinese takeaways is I always like the idea more than the practice.  Every Chinese takeaway I've had since moving up north never quite lives up to the takeaway we used to get when I was a kid. Maybe that particular takeaway was never that great, but my tastebuds are nostalgic about it (I'm the same with my mum's spaghetti bolognese, but no other food, weirdly).  So my 3* review of this should be taken with this in mind.  
  
  I rang up, they took my order and was told to wait 30 minutes.  The usual wait is between 30-40 minutes, so I would only recommend placing the order if you have something else you can do for 30 minutes (maybe a walk up the road to chill in Ziferblat now?).  I turned up after 33 minutes and my order was waiting for me, which was nice.  In the past I've had a short wait, but never more than a few minutes.  
  
  I got home, after having to walk past loads of glammed up people going out for the night, and as usual just dived straight in.  I don't bother with plates when it's a takeaway for one.
  
  My order of choice was the salt and pepper squid (of F Word fame, though not these particular squid), sweet and sour chicken and egg fried rice.  My childhood Chinese didn't do salt and pepper squid so that was all good, and I really enjoyed it.  As per my comments above, sweet and sour with egg fried rice is the thing that never tastes the same.  I do really like this one, which is why I keep doing back.  
  
  If you see my photo, you will see there was quite a lot of food: I ate all the squid, all the chicken (see, it must be good if I still ate it) and two thirds of the rice.  Quite a lot for a small person like me.  And it was all only £12.50 which is pretty good value.  
  
  I'd recommend the takeaway if you live in town.  Not sure about delivery as I always collect.