Mandarin Restaurants is a chain of all-you-can-eat Chinese-Canadian buffets found in the Canadian province of Ontario. Mandarin Restaurants was founded in 1979 by James Chiu, George Chiu, Diana Chiu and K.C. Chang of Taiwan. There are currently 21 locations in Ontario. The restaurants offer à la carte, take-out and delivery items such as chow mein, noodle dishes, stir fry, and prime rib, as well as a salad bar, grill counter, sushi table, and ice cream bar desserts. The first restaurant was a small à-la-carte restaurant in Brampton, Ontario. The buffet concept was introduced in 1987 with the opening of their first franchise location in Missisauga. The headquarters, in Brampton, includes a corporate restaurant, a banquet facility, a warehouse, and the corporate head office.
On July 1, 2009, Mandarin had a day-long free buffet to any Canadian Citizen as part of their 30th anniversary celebration and to commemorate Canada Day. They had done so on several previous Canada Days as well. The requirement is that the patron must have proof of Canadian citizenship. Due to the large turnout in each of the 21 locations, police were hired to control crowds, with some locations having excessively long lineups that some patrons had to be turned away. As many as 30,000 spring rolls were served during the event in all locations. In addition, due to the high costs of offering free meals in one day, Chiu stated that this event would occur once every approximately five years.
See more pics of the Mandarin @ MFS-Snapshots
