The Mandarin

Modern coffee shop, serves nice flat white coffee. I tried the almond croissant, which was warmed up for me. Order brought to my table. Free self-serve water available if you don’t get a drink with your pastry. Rewards card available for multiple purchases.

📍the mandarin—newest cafe on the block. it’s located in the lower east side / chinatown. the area has so much potential. new cafes are popping up and are nailing it ☕️
💻 they have wifi, but no laptop use on the weekend. i do not see any outlets. so prepared accordingly. 
🍵 both coffee and non-coffee drinks are on the menu. i tried oat cappuccino and it’s good. 
🫶🏻 there is a lot of tables, including long table. this is good for wfh during the weekdays. 🫶🏻 have restroom ✨ 
💭 i only went on the weekend. it was calm and cozy. most were there for a date, quick catchup, cafe hopping.

I liked the atmosphere more than the drinks. Very aesthetic and relatively quite inside. Would come here to WFH - Pistachio honey hojicha latte: Wasn’t sweet at all, couldn’t really taste the honey, and kinda grainy. On the pricier side of drinks. Disappointed, wouldn’t get again - Croissant: Super flakey and well made. Would get again

Drinks were pretty good and the decor is really cute, but the service left a bad taste. About five minutes after we got our drinks, a waitress told us the café was turning into an event space for their 1-year anniversary party and that we’d need to leave soon. She did say we could take our time since we had just been served, but only ten minutes later another waiter came over and told us our time was up. It felt rushed and frustrating, and I really wish they had mentioned the party beforehand so we could’ve chosen a different place.

The Mandarin is a cozy and small cafe outside of Chinatown serving up a variety of drinks such as matcha as well as pastries to eat. The staff are friendly and kind, and they make the drinks quite quickly and keep the place tidy. It is a bit confusing to get things such as napkins or utensils as they aren't readily available, but the staff help make sure its all given to you in a timely manner. We got a ham and gruyere croissant and a matcha with oat milk with honey as the sweetener. The Croissant was toasted well and the ham/gruyere went well with it, it was quite tasty. The matcha wasn't too strong, but overall was pretty solid.