Mandarin House, Parnell St, Dublin 1

Mandarin House, 179 Parnell Street, Dublin 1. 01-878 3146.
Three visits, all very good. Situated opposite the end of Moore Street right beside China House (still good but I prefer Mandarin).

white table cloths, patrons almost all chinese, relatively friendly but busy staff - busy but patient enough to explain as best they can what everything is.

Here is a list of dishes we ate when I went with a fellow food writer and another food adventurer friend:

cold:
husband and wife lung slices €8.50
Pickled four seasons €6 - with bean stick (what the waiter called it), cucumber, carrots and peanuts

hot:
Hot Spicy Pocket Wonder Two Ways
Razor Clamp (spicy garlic, fried chilli, black beans sauce) €13
Four Seasons Peas in Quick Wonder €10 (this is what I wrote down. I hope it is correct!)
Bean Curds in Home Made Style €7.50
Lamb Supreme Zian from North East China (zian is cumin) €10 -

Husband and Wife Lung Slices - according to the interweb this is usually a mixed offal plate nicely arranged in uniform slices - not sure what bit this was (not sure it was lung as there were no nodule bits) tasted a little like tender heart or tongue. finely balanced and a nice contrast in flavour to the salad and hot and spicy dishes.

Pickled Four Seasons was a salad with beansprouts, beans, carrot, cucumber all in thin slices and a sweet, savoury, vinegry sauce. very tasty and good for cooling contrast with the spicy elements.

Hot Spicy Pocket Wonder Two Style" - pork stomach and intestine slices in a szechuan sauce. sounds and looks a bit strange but tasted succulent, juicy and very fine - lots of szechuan and chilli pepper, fine light sweet and sour elements, light meaty sauce.

Razor clams (clamp was a mis-print) were piled very high and were also as tender as they should be with salty, hot sauce. Four seasons peas in Quick Wonder consisted of long green beans, chilli and shredded pork - aromatic and warming. Bean curds were chewy squares in a soy, rice vinegar, Chinesey sauce (you know the kind of thing). Lamb reeked of cumin in a very good way, filling the room and mouth with pungent aromatic meaty goodness.

On the other occasions I ate there I had tasty filling dan dan noodle soup - not complex but v. filling and loved by Grellan's friend jake who now pesters his parents to take him to chinese restaurants for noodle soup! Szechuan Prawns was a generous portion of crevettes in their shells cooked to just tender and full of juice with nice mouth numbing szechuan peppers and a light chilli sauce. Shredded pork dish was as you would expect - simple chinese sauce but properly done. even the chips (for the two boys) .were crispy and well cooked (from frozen).

Wine list is very basic so order tsing tao beer and lots of tea (tea blend changes weekly they told us)