By Clyde Noel

Mandarin Gourmet is located at the crossroads of Cupertino and visitors can’t find a better introduction to the city. While restaurants are closing in many Silicon Valley cities, Mandarin Gourmet flourishes.

Owners Jim Sievers and Fanny King believe in service and that necessary ingredient for a fine restaurant starts in the kitchen. Five chefs are cooking constantly and on busy Friday and Saturday nights, another chef is added to the line to get out the food.

Like most Mandarin restaurants, the food is not spicy hot. Sievers said the food is typically more lamb and beef than other Chinese venues and served with noodles instead of rice.

We asked King what two dishes listed on the menu were the most requested and then ordered them to see whether other peoples’ tastes coincided with ours.

Phoenix seafood delight was scrumptious. It’s a choice selection of saut/ed prawns, scallops, lobster and vegetables presented in a sculptured nest at $15.55.

The other dish was prawns crisply saut/ed in a tangy-white cream sauce and topped with honeyed walnuts for $14.25. Average entr/e price is $12 to $15 and lunch is $7 to $10.

The specialty of the house is Peking duck, which is a little pricey at $32, but looking at it being served at a close by table made my mouth water.

Sievers told me it is a young duckling prepared in the same style and served for ancient emperors in Peking. It’s crispy, tender duck meat served with Chinese pao-ping thin pancakes.

“The trick is getting rid of the fat layer between the skin and the meat,” Sievers said.

The Cupertino Mandarin Gourmet opened in 1993. King and Sievers have known each other for more than 20 years and met when they were working at a Silicon Valley software company.

On King’s urging, they went to Mandarin Gourmet in San Jose, owned by her brother Scott. Sievers was so impressed that he wanted to open his Mandarin Gourmet. Scott King opened another Mandarin Gourmet in Palo Alto in 1990, and Sievers had his chance with a new building in Cupertino.

“They are all family oriented with the same menu, but each chef presents a different perspective on preparing food. Chef Tang has been the same head chef since our restaurant opened,” Sievers said. “His individual specialty cooking becomes obvious when you visit the other Mandarins.”

Food is served family style. The secret is each person can sample more of a variety.

For two people, a soup and two or three dishes and rice are enough.

For a large group, King recommends ordering as many dishes as there are people in the party, plus “one for the table.”

Mandarin Gourmet is located at 10145 N. De Anza Blvd. in Cupertino. For more information, call 408-725-8168.