Mediocre Mantra

R was gracious enough to take T out and show him around our fair city. You'd think his boss would have taken him out, or someone in his department, but no. Somehow, it fell upon R's shoulders, and being the extremely nice and hospitable person that she is, we all agreed to show this Brit around. R wanted to go to Mantra, so we stopped by fairly late for drinks. We ended up eating a little bit too. I've been there a couple of times before and had nice experiences both times. Unfortunately, we didn't have as much luck this time round.
H/A got the pu-pu platter. Some ribs, chicken wings, calimari, pot stickers, and spring roll. The ribs were really blah. They look like they'd be flavorful but they weren't. I enjoyed the pot stickers and the calimari. The spring roll had duck in it but ended up getting too soggy and couldn't be picked up. I didn't try the chicken wings.
T is a vegetarian and he got the buddha's feast veggie lo mein. He said it was alright. It looked alright, but not exciting.
R got a full entree of the ribs. As I said, they were blah and didn't have enough flavor. She enjoyed the sweet potato fries the best. The sweet potato mash was ok too. I will say that the asian red head cocktail still kicks ass, although it was quite sweet that night. The burnt peach was good too, but so strong that it kicked my ass something fierce.

For it being so not crowded, the food came out way too slow. The servers were nice enough, and they were having fun doing shots with H/A, but that really doesn't excuse how long it took for the food. Seriously, we had no idea why anything would take so long. Unless they were still growing the sweet potatoes. All in all, it was quite a mediocre meal. I think Mantra is much better for happy hours with strong cocktails. As for the food, you can do without.