Vegas
Vegas
Mavens
China Grill at Mandalay Bay
Just The Facts, Please.
Location
Mandalay Bay
Dining Hours
5pm-11pm Sun-Thurs
5pm-12am Fri & Sat
Chef
No Celebrity Chef
Cuisine
Chinese fusion
Price Range
$40+
Suggested Attire
Dressy
Notes
The same people also bring you: Mix; Red Square; Re, Whit and Blue; plus rumjungle all at Mandalay Bay
Sample Menu Items
Grilled Szechuan Beef
Shangri Lobster
Sake Marinated "Drunken" Chicken
Edamame and Vegetable Risotto
Mavens Overview: China Grill
China Grill's original restaurant opened in New York City in 1987, by owner Jeffrey Chodorow. Chodorow's somewhat novel idea was to expand the traditional Chinese menu, why not have mashed potatoes on the menu, better yet, make them wasabi mashed potatoes, never mind that wasabi is closely identified with Japanese cuisine.
China Grill Management, the parent company, also owns: Mix; Red Square; Re, White and Blue; plus rumjungle, which are all located at Mandalay Bay.
China Grill's marketing team describes the restaurant decor and food as follows:
Stunning design. Legendary Asian-inspired cuisine. Electrifying atmosphere. China Grill’s southwest outpost upholds the restaurant’s tradition of providing an unparalleled dining adventure...Jeffrey Beers' neo-Asian design features a multilevel dining room with a planetarium-style illuminating ceiling, a signature open kitchen and a swank sunken front lounge/dining room, best for a drink before or after your meal.
Needless to say, the internet buzz is bit more objective, and less glowing in its assessment of China Grill. The internet buzz is mixed, partly due to the relatively high prices for Chinese food, many felt the food was over-priced. There are also many the feel the whole experience is worth the high price, good, if not great food, in a sleekly modern restaurant.
Internet Buzz: China Grill
- I can sum up my China Grill experience in two words: "Yum! Yum!" China Grill is a beautiful, elegant restaurant with an incredible menu. We took the advice of our waiter and ordered several different items in the "half-order" size. (Most all items come as a half-order or a full-order).
- We started with the Curry Chicken Satay and the Beef and Scallion Dumplings. Delicious! We then had the Crackling Calamari Salad. Probably the best calamari dish we've ever had. Our main course consisted of Grilled Garlic Shrimp (incredible!), Glazed Skirt Steak (Tasty!), and the Crispy Spinach. The Crispy Spinach was unlike anything I've ever had. It was good, but I'm not sure I need to try it again.
- Nothing special and way over-priced. There was nothing wrong with China Grill but there was nothing right about it either. For the quality of food, I found it quite over-priced. For example, we have a quite small pepper-encrusted ahi plate for $42. The night before we ate at Delmonico and for the exact same price I had three times the fish and more importantly, it was significantly better. The service was pretty poor at China Grill also.
- Service was inconsistent. We had managers coming by our table every minute to ask how things were, but we had to ask THREE people for freaking soy sauce, and it ended up being a 15 minute ordeal. Then they accidentally took it away between courses.. another 3 people and 15 minutes were required to return it. Soy sauce shouldn't be this difficult people!
- Ordered the duck two ways, lobster mashed potatoes and lychee martini...OMG...flavor explosion in my mouth. AMAZING!
- Beautiful decor, very trendy and modern. I definitely couldn't tell I was in a sushi place. The service was alright, but it was really the food that was over the top. I ordered the Volcano Roll and the Red Dragon roll. The presentation of the food is gorgeous, more like art. Not to mention yummy!
- The dishes were hit or miss, the ones that were good were really tasty, the ones that were bad I can't even remember. The beef dumplings were incredibly tasty - usually they are just doughy globs. The caesar salad, although an odd choice for a chinese restaurant, was good - I liked the addition of the wontons and cashews which gave it a nice crunch. Obviously not traditional but a nice spin, as always too much dressing but...... There was a beef dish with asian slaw - the slaw was fried to make it crunchy which was nice accompanying the beef. The chicken dish was forgettable - really I don't remember except there were hunks of chicken.
- The leeche martini was so over the top sweet and then the glass rimmed with sugar - I think I went into diabetic shock on this alone.
- It's difficult to impress a Chinese person with "fancy" but, China Grill was fantastic Spicy Beef & Scallion Dumplings - the beef was dry for dumpling standard, boohoo, skip it Crispy Spinach - so incredibly tasty and very fun to eat! Lobster Mashed Potato - how often can you find this dish on a menu? its all so velvety, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth like, yum yum yum =) Sweet Soy Marinated Skirt Steak - flavorful and tender, highly recommended Pan Seared Spicy Tuna - cooked and seasoned to perfection, impressive! and the sweet finish.
- $40 for 6 spicy beef dumplings and two Sapporo's! During Happy Hour! Insane.
- First off, this restaurant isn't bad. The service we got was excellent. The food quality to me though is a little worse than expected. the chef didn't let the food speak for itself and just was a little heavy on the sauces. The salads - one of them was chicken, one was just some sort of veggie and another was calamari. I felt the chicken tasted too much like sesame oil and the veggie one just tasted too much like soy sauce. I didn't really taste too much else. Beef dumplings were quite good. They were unique and tasty. The fried spinach was interesting - they were almost like spinach chips.
- Over priced to say the very least. The service was super slow and the over lighting in the place was awful. It was so dark in there I had to get my cell phone out to see my menu. I ordered Sake Marinated "Drunken" Chicken. It was supposed to be garnished with sautéed onions instead I got a whole greasy chicken (with the skin still on) COVERED in onion rings. This dish was about $45. Totally disgusting!
- I think China Grill is suppose to be exotic dining destination for the Panda Express crowd, but that in itself is another problem. The first clue should have been when I spied sushi on the menu of a restaurant named "China Grill", um, China, not Japan, however since the food is categorized as "Asian fusion" Overall, it was a very uneventful and boring meal, which consisted of beef dumplings starters, a green salad, which had no hints of Asian spice or flavor and an entree of sliced beef, which tasted no more than grilled beef with soy sauce.
- Love love love this place. It is a little pricey, but well worth it. This place is family style, so everything is made to be shared. We had the Crackling Calamari Salad, the lime miso sauce went great with it. We also had their Grilled Szechwan Beef and Korean Kalbi Rib-eye. Both came out great and the potato sides that came with it were yummy too.