Saturday, 05 May 2007

  • Mandarin Chinese Buffet

    7660 Woodbine Ave.
    Markham, Ontario
    905 479-6000
    http://www.mandarinbuffet.com

    When you're out with friends for dinner and you're looking for a place that you can easily split the cheque and have something for everyone then a buffet usually appears on the list of restaurant choices.

    Welcome to Mandarin Chinese buffet, one of the few large chain buffets that is running fairly strongly in the Toronto area:

    The buffet area:

    If you come here at the peak time, this area is crowded and you'll be waiting in line longer than eating.

    The dining room:

    Fairly clean if you consider the number of people that come and go.

    Start off with some soup:

    The hot and sour soup is fairly tame to appeal to the broader audience.

    The food:

    I tried to grab something from all the different stations.  Going clockwise from the top left you can see some dark thing which is some kind of meat I got from the BBQ area, cold shrimp salad, the usual Americanized Chinese food like the egg roll at the top right, a few sushi rolls from their limited sushi selection (don't expect much selections with raw fish), a strawberry dessert tart, some fried thing, noodles at the bottom right, and roast beef to wrap it up at the bottom left.

    You can't stop at one plate:

    Although there has been a strong emphasis on eating healthy and in moderation, it hasn't stopped Mandarin from having long waits for tables during dinner time and long buffet line ups.  They have a wide variety of dishes available and continually try to diversify with new additions like sushi and pizza.

    Their food might not taste the best and after a while their food might all end up tasting the same, but they have been very successful and you know what to expect when you walk into a Mandarin.  Dinner prices are around $20-25 depending on the day of the week and whether any special promotions are running.  I recommend coming by at least once to see if this is for you.  I don't recommend coming here too often as I support eating in moderation.

    Eric Tummy Points: 2.5 out of 5

    Mandarin on Urbanspoon

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Comments (5)

  • kayipearly
    Mmmmm... buffet.. I want that dish!
  • chunkielove
    The variety at buffets is cool, but yeah, it's definitely conducive of overeating. I just try to avoid them altogether.
  • HugCrtre
    It's been a while since I've been to a buffet. Here in Illinois I've only been to New China Buffet and Old Country Buffet. Both of them have pretty decent food. :)
  • chef_eats
    Yeah... I use to love buffets.. having all those choices and being able to eat right away is a bonus. But quality is sacrificed and eating too much usually kills me! But this buffet doesn't look too bad..
  • Gal_Of_Ur_Dream
    two thumbs down on mandarin buffet... Horrible service i'd say from my personal experience. i went there with about 20 of my friends and they kept an eye on us and count of heads cuz some ppl weren't eating... and then like the waitress implied/told us to tip her as if we're not gonna tip her kinda thing... she basically said something along the lines of "It's about 22$ per person... so you should get people to give about $24 each including tip" i just found that really rude! You don't ask for tips!

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