Do not eat here!

First off, the place isn't a total turd. The art hanging on the walls is wonderful, the design of the space and its furnishings are great, the atmosphere is nice, the presentation of the food is awesome, the tea is fantastic and the tempeh lettuce wraps were good. But the one key thing we went for -- the food -- at the Mandala Tea Room in Old Town Scottsdale, was horrible. Worst entrees my boyfriend and I ever had in our lives! So I recommend the Mandala Tea Room simply for drinking tea and chillin'. It has a nice website, doesn't it?

I'm vegan and my boyfriend is vegetarian. I had been dying to try this place for a while. So he surprised me by taking us there on our date last night. We ordered pomegrante black iced tea, which was very good, though served to me in a chipped glas. We then had the tempeh lettuce wraps with the spicy peanut sauce. By the end of the night, we learned that sauce is the best thing on the menu. But the lettuce wraps were good. We were really enjoying ourselves at Mandala Tea Room until we began eating our entrees. I ordered the curry vermicelli rice noodle bowl and he ordered the Mediterranean platter. Both plates were cold, when neither had the "living cuisine" (i.e. raw) designation next to it on the menu. The tempeh slices laid on top of my noodles had no flavor, and neither did my noodles which were mixed in with grated veggies. I detest grated veggies. Give me actual chunks of veggies I can savor -- not shavings! His quinoa was so plain and cold. Nothing tastes worse than cold food without flavor. The only aspect of our meals that did have flavor were the sauces that came with our plates. Oh, and the total came to $43.

So skip the Mandala Tea Room, unless you want tea. Just tea.