Mandarin is located at 2200 Yonge St., a block or so south of Eglinton subway station so is quite transit-accessible. Mandarin has a nice interior with easy listening music playing. There were not many customers, but enough. As noted on all my other Mandarin pages, there are 27 locations of this Chinese/Canadian old-school steam-tray buffet chain, so I have made the Scarborough location's review suffice for all of them; however I will definitely make separate reviews for any others I happen to go to. It was the Moon Festival so there were special dishes. Beware that the north doorway does not allow entry; one has to go to the south doorway on the west side of Yonge. We went for weekday lunch. AYCD pop is $2.50.
I quickly noticed that, unlike the Scarborough location, this one has the grilled steak available on lunch, and it was very good... kudos for having it and not cheaping out lunchtime! Chicken wonton soup was very good and Mishy and I both loved it. Sausage was excellent, tasting like bratwurst. Mishy loved the lemon chicken. Grilled pineapple was excellent and welcome. Another dish that was not at the other location (and also very welcome!) was bacon. Breakfast sausage was good, the usual. Butternut squash soup is another Moon Festival addition and was very good, with excellent seasoning. Curry chicken was also very good and well seasoned. Korean chicken was good although really it was just roast chicken. Mishy really like the spicy chicken; I enjoyed it as well.
The first piece of roast beef I had was all gristle and I could only finish half of it. (The first was on the side when I picked it though, so that's probably why.) The second was carved for me and was much better, tender, moist and flavorful even without gravy. Hot and sour soup was not particularly hot or sour but was still tasty with plenty of richness. Mashed potatoes were excellent with the beef gravy beside them. Kung pao chicken was very good with not too much heat. Peking style pork was alright but too syrupy sweet for my liking. Breaded shrimp was good and not too dry, however even though there was plenty of golden fried chicken in the tray, it was very dry, almost crunchy, and this is not like the Mandarin. Chicken balls were good as were mostly chicken and less breading, although the sauce again was a bit too sweet for my liking. Unfortunately, I find that with a disproportionate amount of Mandarin food that it is overdone on the sweetness. Dumplings were good fresh, and moist.
For dessert, banana fudge, pina colada, Ube coconut, and blue bubble blast ice cream were all fantastically good and completely unique, although the pina colada could have been a little more coconutty. Mandarin jello, another Moon Festival special, was nice with a mild flavor. Cherry cheesecake was very good and I ended up with two slices of it. Pumpkin pie is another Moon Festival offering and was quite good with plenty of allspice and nutmeg. Weekday lunch was $18.99. This is quite good considering the location and options; mostly due to the grilled steak and bacon, we preferred it to the Scarborough location.
Rating: 8-8.5/10
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