DINING OUT -- Mary Furr

Where once you may have wandered through the Fountain Valley Garden

Nursery selecting plants and flowers, you now enter The Mandarin

restaurant to select authentic Chinese dishes. A blooming red chile

pepper plant at the entrance and a bamboo tree tied with tiny red bows

remind you of the former occupant.

It’s a large place (seats 225) with vaulted ceiling and exposed beams

filled with tables where servers in dark pants and brocade vests are

ready with a pot of hot tea and menus in Chinese and English. All lunches

and dinners (lunch -- $4.95 to $6.50, dinner -- $9.95 to $11.95) include

soup and a choice of entrees with imaginative names like shredded ear

with hot sauce, drunken chicken, dang dang mein.

Soup, a thick dark egg flower, has peas and carrots for color, squares

of tofu and mushrooms with the sneaky punch of spice -- different from

the usual pale egg flower.

From hot appetizers, I chose crisp fat house special egg rolls (four

for $3.95) with very thin won ton wraps and moist shredded cabbage and

carrot filling. No Chinese meal seems complete without them and these are

very good.

A cold appetizer new to me was drunken chicken (lunch $3.95, dinner

$4.95), a small 12-slice loaf of chicken breast with a base of crushed

bones covered with skin which has been soaked in wine. Owner Henry Liu

said this is a popular dish with Chinese patrons. I used a knife to cut

out the bony parts -- the tender meat has the haunting flavor that comes

from overnight marinating.

Like many diners, I chose honey-glazed walnut shrimp (lunch $6.50,

dinner $10.95) served family style for sharing. The glaze gives the

medium-sized shrimp a hard covering like biting into candy with the

tender shrimp for filling. The walnut halves kept the dish from being too

sweet. Experienced chef Hsu Ping Chen has a gentle hand with the spices.

He and owner Liu were friends in Taipei before coming to the United

States in 1984.

Orange peel chicken (lunch $4.95, dinner $7.95) has a great citrus

flavor, inch-sized pieces of peel as well as bits with red peppers and

onions make up the sauce. The peppers look like those really hot ones but

they are mild and blend with the tartness of the peel.

Broccoli beef (lunch $5.50, dinner $7.95) is a beautiful dish with

dark stir-fried slices of beef and bright green al dente broccoli

flowers. Again, chef Chen excels with the sauce. Like most good

restaurants, the formula at The Mandarin is simple-freshness, quality and

good service.

If you want to try seafood and meat in combination, try three shreds

in mandarin sauce (lunch $6.50), stir-fried beef, chicken and shrimp in a

medium sauce. If you want spicy, order the shreds in kung pao sauce. This

dish is a healthy combination of carrots, snow peas and asparagus all al

dente -- crisp in a tasty sauce. All entrees include a covered lacquer

bowl of hot steamed sticky rice to combine with sauces.

Jell-O was served as dessert, but I would have preferred fortune or

almond cookies. Except for this, owner Liu presents an array of exciting

and authentic dishes.

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have comments

or suggestions, she may be reached at (562) 493-5062.

o7 MANDARIN RESTAURANTf7

* ADDRESS: 18420 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley

* HOURS: Open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and 5 to

9:30 p.m. for dinner

* WHAT ELSE: Credit cards accepted

* PHONE: (714) 962-5789

* FAX: (714) 962-6058