Mandarin - Scarborough (Chinese/Canadian)

NOTE: This review was done at the Scarborough (Birchmount/Eglinton) location; it is being used for all locations as "McAndarin" is a chain of 27 nearly identical establishments, and having sampled this and two other locations I've concluded that they are similar enough in their offerings, recipes, prices and operational procedures that one review should be applicable to all of them. So other Mandarins that I have been to will have their own reviews, but ones I haven't will link to this one.

Mandarin is the great-granddaddy of AYCE, the veritable 800-pound gorilla of the industry. It's been around since 1986, and now has 27 locations. It may be surprising that I haven't reviewed it until now, but there are some reasons for this: Firstly, there are the 27 locations. There are enough that it was hard to settle on which one to start with... do I need to go to all 27 to verify consistency? I finally settled on this one simply because it's the closest. Secondly, because Mandarin is so large and popular, most people have already been to it who have an interest in AYCE, and even some that don't. Sometimes when describing AYCE to people, they will reply: "Oh, you mean like the Mandarin?".. yes it's that well-known in the GTA. And finally, although I have been to various Mandarin locations several times already, it's always been with Mishy, friends or family and I haven't had the time or attention to do a write-up.

The location that I settled on is the Scarborough site at 2206 Eglinton Avenue East at Birchmount. It's one of the earlier locations (I asked and found it was the third... Mishy remembers going there in the 1990s) although not the earliest as that was Brampton. I went for a weekday lunch, as weekend lunch and dinner there is rather expensive. Even on a weekday it was packed with a wait... but then again it was Valentine's Day. The the decor is quite elegant, especially with the red Chinese lanterns over the ceiling lights which I see are a recent addition as photos a couple of years old are missing them. There are two aquaria built into the wall in the dining area. Ambiance is not too loud. AYCD pop is available for $2.50.

There were several buffet steam tray tables, a complete salad bar and two dessert tables including a soft-serve dispenser and ice cream freezer... so many options! Enamored by the entrées and main courses, I didn't sample many of the salads. Swiss chicken salad was tasty and is original to Mandarins (I've had it at other locations.) Chickpea salad was also good. Then it was off to the real deal! Grilled sausage was delicious and savory. Grilled chicken was awesomely smokey and seasoned. Unfortunately I did not see grilled steak anymore, which was one of my favourites; I asked and yes, it has been moved to only the dinner hour which I did not appreciate. Roast beef, even though it was in a tray with gravy, was a thing of beauty with mushroom hints and so tender it melted in my mouth; sadly a bit too salty though and did not require that as it had enough flavour. Dim sum shrimp dumplings were quite good with a subtle flavor. Siu mai pork dumplings were very well spiced and the most enjoyable of these I have had yet, probably as they are somewhat westernized in flavor. Pepper beef was delicious, but starting to get a bit chewy. Crispy chicken was excellent and moist, and at so many other places it's dried out so this is another mark of Mandarin's freshness. Beef sugar snap peas were a good combo and very tasty. Xiaolongbao (pork soup dumplings) were very tasty but have not had them before so unsure of any comparison to other places.

Curry chicken was fantastic; the curry sauce was dark and rich and bursting with flavor. Hot and sour soup was excellent, though not as much so as at some of the higher-end sit-down Japanese ACYEs, but very fresh with larger chunkier pieces of tofu and other ingredients. Boston clam chowder was excellent and also very fresh. Golden chicken wings, even though there were only three left in the tray, were still moist and not at all dried out. Breaded fish was pretty much the same flavor as at everywhere else, but was moister and fresher. Even boring old plain vegetable chow mein was savory and tasty on its own. Egg rolls were the only thing so far that I did not like as they had a strange flavor of unripe bananas; not good. Lemon chicken was best-of-breed, the sauce finally not sickly sweet so could actually taste the chicken. garlic broccoli was delicious, a nice improvement on my favorite vegetable. Grilled salmon was very tender and flavorful, but I did not care for the candy-like sweet sauce. Unfortunately there was no AYCE poutine as I attended too close to Chinese New Year and that only happens around Canada Day. Sweet potato ginger soup was too sweet to be naturally this way but was still good; I don't much like sweet foods, but it did have some nice orange hints. Wonton soup was good, but not as good as other places, such as Heart Sushi... as noted it's hard to compete with single-serving sit-down. The wontons were doughy and the broth needed some more spicing, however it was better than other buffets' wonton soups.

Mandarin also has a nominal selection of sushi, but mostly the usual buffet selection of maki and I certainly wouldn't go for the sushi. The sushi soy sauce was quite good, comparable to better Japanese AYCEs in its freshness and not being salty. Avocado and cucumber rolls were good and the avocado was fresh. Lemon chicken roll was good with noticeably flavourful chicken and not oversauced. Vegetable roll tasted of squash or pumpkin, and was quite good. Vegetable spring roll was also good. Cucumber roll had a fishy flavor, and the cucumber tasted a bit off. Teriyaki chicken roll was too sweet. Bean curd sushi was very good.

For dessert, sugar-free cappuccino, salted caramel, spicy chocolate (interesting!), and lime sherbet ice creams were all refreshingly unique and excellent, especially the sherbet and salted caramel. Mandarin also has soft serve strawberry, which is rare (only seen it before at Frankie Tomatto's), and fantastically good... wish it was everywhere. Sugar-free cheesecake was surprisingly good, sugar-free strawberry cake not bad but noticeably lacking in sweetness. Nanaimo bars were just about perfect. Butter tarts had crust over the top which was different, and the filling was doughy instead of syrupy as others are, but they were not bad. Blueberry and cherry cheesecakes were excellent. Caramel custard was eggy and odd and I did not care for it.

Aside from the food, some water was still on one of the plates I chose, and one of the plates out for the diners had a shrimp tail still adhering to it, so I think the dishwasher needs a talking-to. Beware the cutoff sharp at the end of lunchtime; the lights are dimmed in the buffet area to let the diners know. Hot towels are offered after the meal. There was fast service and I was always being offered drink refills which is nice. Price ranges from $18.99 for weekday lunch to $28.99 for weekend dinner, and a recent adjustment raised the former and lowered the latter to equalize them somewhat. Mandarin is quite expensive, but it is just about the best if not the best of the classic steam-tray Chinese buffets, and something has to be said that so many of those have fallen by the wayside while Mandarin continues to grow; perhaps they were undercharging and couldn't keep sufficient quality at their price point. (Sadly Imperial Buffet with its BOGO coupons may have been one of those.) I have no doubt that I definitely enjoyed my lunch there, however.

Rating: 7.5-8/10

Update 2018-Jul-30: Canada Day and Dinner Items

For the entire month of July, Mandarin has Canadian food items available. As I happened to have my birthday dinner at this location, I was able to sample just about all of them, plus the dinner-only items. Grilled steak was nice although almost all of that is from the meat itself; I found myself wishing I had brought some Montreal steak spice to bring it out. Prime rib's meat was quite good, but it was too salty and the excess fat had not been trimmed enough.

For the Canadian items, the salmon itself in maple-glazed salmon was good but the sweet maple didn't work with it. However, this flavour did complement the maple-glazed ribs. Bannock was alright but this traditional native and Scottish flatbread is a bit odd for modern tastes. Poutine was good although the gravy a bit thin as it's the same used for the roast beef; still AYCE poutine is rare and welcome and I ended up having seconds. Split pea with ham soup was excellent and possibly the most enjoyable soup I have had at Mandarin thus far, and yet it needed mo more than simple black pepper to become so.

Cabbage rolls were OK but had an odd flavour as if the cabbage wasn't the freshest or may have been out for a while. The sauce was OK. Loaded potato skins skimped on the cheese so had very little flavour. Canadian pizza was very good, moist and flavourful with savoury toppings. Quinoa cranberry salad was excellent and well-seasoned with a nice flavour, and this says something as I am most certainly not a quinoa fan.

For dessert, moose paws are a simple cinnamon and sugared pastry which were good. Chocolate-covered bacon is bizarre-but-beautiful marriage of the two typified male and female food vices into one delicious offspring; I ended up having several helpings. Algonquin Canoe ice cream and Ontario peach yogurt were both fantastic and I wished they were out all year. Blueberry pie was also excellent and seemed to be prepared in-house rather than by a third-party, but perhaps it's just a third-party who's a better baker than normal. Butter tarts were OK but dry. Mishy also happened to try the bread pudding (which is not a special item but is one of her favourites) and indicated it was by far the best she had ever had. The desserts at Mandarin seem to be the most consistently excellent items, however the chocolate mousse cake was dry and seemed to have been freezer-burned.

All in all, hit-and-miss with some very good to excellent and beyond items but a few that were less so.