Mandarin Express spices up its Chinese dishes with tasty international accents

Located just south of Highway 101 in a compact Kanan Road shopping center, the restaurant was recommended to us by a reader for its fusion cuisine. I checked out the Web site, and my interest was piqued by the menu's range of culinary ingredients and styles.

It's a Chinese restaurant at heart, but also "speaks" French, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, Korean and Indian, with a bit of Cajun dropped in for good measure.

The biggest surprise for us was learning that Mandarin Express has been holding forth for 20 years at its spot "behind I.H.O.P. and Jack in the Box." Chef Dan Chang and his partner and front-of-the-house manager, Kim Truong, briefly co-owned a place in Newbury Park, but left that partnership to establish Mandarin Express on their own.

The ambitious menu has been embraced for takeout: Part of the eatery's charm is that it's a convenient stop-off for those heading up or down the freeway.

But location isn't the only lure. There are more than 380 items on the side of the menu that offers poultry, pork, beef, shrimp, calamari, fish fillet, jumbo scallop and shrimp, noodles and rice. Flip the menu over and there are another 155, with similar preparations but featuring tofu and "mock" versions of chicken, pork, duck, fish, shrimp and beef, plus stir-fried vegetables and vegetarian pastas.

We arrived at lunchtime, when there are plenty of lunch specials in the $10-to-$12 range, including a main dish, rice and beverage. We were so intrigued by the unusual preparations listed on the menu, however, that we ended up with dinner-size entrees, each of which could easily have served two.

While we were still checking out the posted lunch specials, Truong came along and did her best to find out what we liked, offering multiple -- and forceful -- suggestions.

We pointed to one item, and she shook her head.

"Mediocre," she declared, guiding us instead to dishes she knew were popular among her diners. After conferring with my friend, and with Truong, we came up with a good spectrum of what Mandarin Express can produce.

Her suggestion for a starter was the crispy shrimp roll with peanut sauce ($14.95). We decided we also had to try the wor wonton French-style soup ($5.95 for a small bowl, which Truong thoughtfully had divided for us into smaller bowls).

The crispy shrimp arrived in a huge, artfully arranged mound, a forerunner of things to come. We didn't count the rolls of long, pastry-wrapped and deep-fried shrimp, but there were plenty. The peanut sauce was pungent with a sweet-sour base, and the shrimp and their wrappings were remarkably nongreasy.

Our little soup bowls were crammed with wontons, vegetables and other goodies, and the broth reflected the multiple flavors. When we asked why the soup was "French," Truong pointed to the shallot slices in the bowls.