Mandarin Restaurant – Brampton

I’ve been to many a Chinese buffet. but the one that usually remember the most is the Mandarin Chinese buffet in Canada. This was the first buffet restaurant that I had ever gone to (when I was a child) and this is the brand that I usually associate most Chinese buffet to. The Mandarin chain of restaurants has been around since 1979 so it the first of its kind in Canada The this location in Brampton, is supposedly the largest and the corporate headquarters to all the Mandarin locations.
My wife and I decided to go to the Mandarin for my birthday dinner, this was because of the free dinner promotion on your birthday that it had become known for. Since I hadn’t been here in a couple of years, I thought it would be a good location to rediscover. The complex is located in the industrial district along Steeles and 410 and can be a little difficult to find if you don’t pay attention to the signs. This location is different that other locations as it houses the corporate HQ and a conference center along with the restaurant. You get the impression that the restaurant is the size of the building (which is quite large), but it only occupies ¹⁄₃ of the building (a little disappointing). We were greeted quickly and I told them it was my birthday and asked if I get my complementary dinner. the host smiled blankly and wrote on our bill B-​Day in red pen along the top of our bill and said the host will show us to our table. The hostess was quite nice as she mentioned all the buffet tables and stations along with her choices of top dishes to be had. We were seated in Room C along with what we found out was almost all the tables were celebrating birthdays (more on that later). We were greeted by our server duo who was tending to the tables in Room C very quickly and took our drink orders. After our greeting and order taking we were on our way to the buffet. The selection was extensive and diverse, food ranged from Prime Rib, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Pizza, etc…
The quality of the food was not spectacular or bad. it was just buffet quality. Most food that sits under a heat lamp for a number of minutes tends to lose a lot of quality. My wife and I went back a couple of times for different items and it was alright. Our servers kept the table bussed and our waters full. At the end of our meal, our servers brought out a Chinese hat and sang the Mandarin «Happy Birthday» song along with a cake and a free picture. This practice was fun when it was your turn. but in our area there must have been 15 birthday dinners, during our meal and by the time they came to my table I sang along wit the servers. It was a little annoying during our dinner as we were trying to have a conversation. We asked for the bill and it was quickly given. The surprise was that the «complementary» birthday buffet was not complementary at all and 2 full price dinner buffets were charged. I asked our server about this and she smiled blankly and said «You need a coupon»… «A coupon?» I asked. She walked away and I had to look it up online. As I searched on the Mandarin website, I found that Mandarin does give a free birthday buffet… if you sign up for the email club. It was my mistake for not looking up this online before, but from previous experiences at the Mandarin. you show up… show your id on your birthday… get a free buffet. There are other Chinese buffets in the area that offer this promotion and you just show your id… and voila. In retrospect, I wish the hostess at the front would have informed us of the new policy of signing up for the email club to get the complementary buffet before we sat and our servers in our section would have asked if we had our coupon (which they didn’t).All in all the Mandarin experience was like a remember and not like I remembered… it was good… and not so good…3 stars

An institution in Brampton as one of the best buffet places anywhere. I have eaten there dozens of times and never been disappointed. When my relatives from the States come to visit, they all make it a must to go for dinner at least once at Mandarin.

Can I just say… WOW
This place is unbelievable! It’s an experience in itself! My mouth was open most of the time (until I was eating of course ;)) because of the décor, the cleanliness, the staff friendliness and attentiveness, the presentation of the food and the whole ambience was just unreal!
It is a Chinese restaurant but has a section down the end with beef and mashed potato etc, they have sushi bars and desert sections, salad sections and ice cream bars. I don’t even need to explain, the pictures will speak for themselves! I could have taken pictures all day but people were looking and it was too busy :) it’s a self service, so you’ll be shown to your table and asked what drink you would like to order, and they constantly refill free of charge, there is always someone cleaning plates away and refilling Drinks, they don’t stop for a minute! So attentive!
So once you’re shown your table you go up and help yourself to whatever food you like, and you can go up numerous times! I had 2 plates (lowering head in shame) as I got greedy at all the delicious food and then a desert plate!
AND the bathrooms were immaculate! You could have eaten your Chinese from the toilet bowl (if anyone fancies that option)
All in all, just an epic experience! Went home stuffed and happy. I need to be rolled into bed #foodcoma
I will be back MANY more times! Fantastic place

Ive been going to mandarin since I can remember, although I’ve heard many a horrible story about food poisoning, I personally have never really had one. This particular mandarin I have been visiting since I was a child and I will say it hasn’t changed much in all the years I’ve been visiting. I believe this is their flagship location, and head office as well… They also have a private event area as well as decorations from roof to ceiling with a ton of decorative Christmas lights.
This is the location with a large water feature and several large aquariums situated in large rooms. A huge private parking lot makes parking pretty easy but finding the place can be a tad tricky. It’s clearly visible from the highway but to find the place you need to take the odd side street.
Once you find the place you will see the service is like most mandarins you encounter, the façade of customer service I find a tad annoying… Once I am inside the restaurant and have been greeted I find it a tad awkward to interact with every single staff member on my way to my table. Once you get past that you’ll notice the tables are fairly spacious but like most restaurants jammed together to add more seating.
Now this particular visit was for a bday party for my bestie and although it had all been meticulously planned and organized the staff found the entire concept slightly confusing, giving away the surprise to any guest including the bday girl in the end.
Service is the usual as I’ve said however it may be due to the large location but I found the maintenance of tables a little slacking however staff seems polite and eager to help.
The food is again nothing exceptional, I find that once you’ve frequented mandarin you not only know what to expect but nothing exceeds those expectations. They have the usual spread of food available and although the rest of my table seemed to love the crab legs I wasn’t thrilled; the cold crab had a murky, watery taste while the hot crab was prob overcooked making it pretty hard to get out of the shell, especially in one piece. The drinks are where they really hit your pocket though, a simple watered down mixed drink is over $ 7 here and the little table adds they have to advertise the drinks doesn’t specify price either which is a tactic I’m not fond of.
They also close fairly early (9pm) considering they only really start accepting at 6pm so because the bday girl was a few minutes late the event was actually quite rushed as her cake was dumped at the table with bills mere minutes after she had her first plate on the table.
Which leads me to my last point and among the most vital ones… maybe it’s the head office location but I could have sworn the price was around $ 26-​$ 30 a person however when my boyfriend and I received our bill it was well over $ 80 and all we had was the buffet, one mixed drink and an orange juice. I used to be a reg at a few other locations and I don’t ever remember it being that expensive, at that rate you can go to a decent restaurant and eat well.
Personally I would rather go to red lobster for delicious crab and lobster for a similar price if not even less. In closing I feel like mandarin needs to step up a bit if they intend on charging that amount and considering how dated they are I think it’s about time

The best Mandarin I’ve been too! Love the decorations. Wish they had better description on food though I got candy covered tomatoes last time I went that was a gross surprise! Wish they had plain Egg Drop Soup

This is my first time at this restaurant and they did not disappoint. Everything I tried either met or exceeded my expectations. Recognizing this is a Chinese buffet style it is the best I have been to. None of my Beijing friends will say it is authentic but that is not my expectation. The offering of non-​Chinese foods was a surprise but I did not sample them, especially the featured Mexican offering, coming from Colorado I am not sure about it.
The ice cream bar had black cherry. That was sufficient to sell me but the rest was also very good.

We have been to 4 Mandarin’s till now… This is the best Mandarin we’ve been in GTA!
The overall look is very impressive, nice place to give treats to friends or family.
The staffs are very courteous and polite, with great service.
The food selection is great… almost everyone will find a good range of appetizing foods suitable to their taste buds.
The place is quite big (actually huge)… but very busy and almost full most of times.
I have been there few times, and looking forward to go there many more times again :-D

Mandarin is THE premier buffet in Southern Ontario. With several locations, their consistency is very good but some ARE better than others. Their signature location at Steeles and Hwy. 410 is something to behold.
The must-​haves are the crab legs (available weekend and holiday dinners) and the beef ribs. The sushi is surprisingly good for buffet sushi. The Chinese fare is above average. Food-​wise you really can’t go wrong.
You can save money and have much of the same buffet less premium items (like the crab legs and beef ribs I like so much) but visiting at lunch instead of dinner, particularly during the week, where prices are much more reasonable, as weekend dinner is about $ 29.95 per person.
Customer service is apparently a high priority at Mandarin, and you’ll hear «Welcome to Mandarin» from every single employee within line of sight — something I think is tiresome, unnecessary, and a little creepy. I’ve only ever stated a concern once in many years of countless satisfied visits and wasn’t impressed with the lack of response from management. Fortunately, they don’t give you much to complain about overall.
Very highly recommended.

Great place to eat. Fun atmosphere, very friendly and the food is good to. Lots of selection and they have a sushi table too.

I’ve been here a few times already while visiting since my family lives just up the street. I went last Wednesday (⁹²⁄₁₅) and was just as pleased as previously.
The food was fresh and cooked to perfection. Clean and presentable. Lots of options. Our serve was nice although he never came back and asked if we wanted refills. We only saw him when we initially seated and then when it was time for the checks. I had my 1yr old nephew with me and they were extremely accommodating. They did charge us $ 2 for feeding him food off of our plates (he had like 3 French fries)
Overall I think it was well worth the price. Next time we will go on the weekend so we can get some crab legs.

This was my first time visiting Mandarin, so naturally besides commercials I’ve seen I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ll break this review down into categories to potentially make it easier for those of haven’t gone before either.
First Impressions:
When I walked in I was greeting by a massive entrance with extremely high ceilings and a little pond filled with fish. In summary a very nice entrance and probably one of the better ones (buffet exclusive) I’ve seen. I should add that all Buffets generally have the same type of open concept entrance opposed to traditional restaurants. Therefore my impressions are based on me comparing other Buffets to this place.
Service:
Since we went on a Saturday naturally we had to wait (20 minutes). The hostess took our name and we took a seat and had some free popcorn while we waited; this can prove to be dangerous as it can fill you up. Anyways when our turn came, we had a server come and introduce himself, he asked who put there name down and gave that person an «extra special» greeting which was very very odd to me. As this was my first time the server showed us around and told us where the various food stations were. As we walked to our table we must have been passed over to several severs (5 to be exact). They each walked us to a certain distance while another one then took over, this is very cool but also once again very very odd; to me at least. Once we were finally seated we were given water and we made our way to get food.
The food:
The reason why the review is very poor is due to the very bad food I had during my visit. Most of the food is extremely tasteless or is so salty you think your Cholesterol will spike if you take another bite. The only thing I could stand to eat was the dumplings as they had a certain amount of tastelessness that I could handle. When it was time to grab dessert the majority of my calories came from there as I couldn’t stand the food at all. Even though the majority of my dessert was okay they still managed to put an unthawed cake out, I subconsciously took it and was greeted by chunks of ice in my mouth.
Final thoughts:
Now this may seem a little far fetched but as I sat there I noticed how «stereotypical» this restaurant is. Whatever you perceive to be related to Asian/​Chinese culture is here (Décor, Pandas, Colourful Umbrellas, Music, and Dragons), it was so apparent that is was offensive. Even though I’m not Chinese I felt insulted for them.
Asides from that the service is top-​notch but the food isn’t.

This place is f***ing huge. There is an endless variety of chinese/​asian food. I am a huge shrimps fan so I was never disappointed here. They have a pizza bar, sushi bar, etc. and all the food is made in real-​time so you know you are getting fresh food.
It can become very pricey during the weekends. Over the years, I feel the quality of the food has come down.
Overall a good choice for Chinese buffet.

Honestly, Mandarin is not on the top of my list for buffets anymore, as well as restaurants in general, but being in Brampton at dinner time with 2 little ones, this is probably the best place for it. The décor is very nice and the fishes are always a favorite. Service here has always been good here. Plenty of people greeting you and opening the doors for you. Very friendly here. A Manager usually walks around, check in with the tables and leave a business card.
Food choices have generally been the same as far as I can remember. Other places might have more selections, but I will say their prime rib is terrific! Totally exceeds my expectation for a buffet. I don’t find the sushi selections that great, but at least they do not pack on the rice. If anything, I would prefer coming here for lunch as I find price is fair, not so much dinner. 2 adults and 2 under 2 came to over $ 70 + tips.
Got here early and it was fairly quiet, but then it started getting busy around 6. Including a group of 30+ kids, so they slowed things down quite a bit. Should come here earlier or at least make a recommendation as it does get busy.

I took some family who were visiting from out of town here and they loved it. Service here is always good, servers very friendly and always around when you need them.
In terms of selection, they have a wide variety of things but I’ve been to other buffet places with more selection. The quality here is better than what you would find at most buffet places however.
Good selection of ice cream too if you like having dessert. I would try this place if you are looking for a decent buffet place with consistent service.

This Mandarin is by far my favorite. Its good to come here roughly 2−3/yr and still see the same staff. It shows that they must treat their employees good.
With that said… moving on to the review.
Plenty of parking… and the decorations outside and inside is always tastefully done according to season or special events.
If you did not make a reservation, expect to wait a bit during 6−7pm. I have noticed walk ins during this time are yold wait times to be 1.5 to 2hrs. I dont know why they say this as most would leave. Lost business!!!
Those that do stay… usually get seated within 30mins for up to a party of 4.
The food is always replenished when tray is low… so diners never go without an option.
NOTE to diners… move over while the employee is filling a tray up and cleaning the area up. They are just doing their job!
RELAX!!! the food is going nowhere!
Their sushi bar is ok… if you request for a specialty roll (due to allergic/​health reasons) request for a roll to be made for you.
NOTE: if you want smoke salmon only… ask for it… they will get some to put on your plate.
I am not a big dessert person. i do think they could change up their desserts. I have seen the same assortments for over 10yrs now with very minimal updates.
If you are not seated in the BIG fish room… make sure you take a look. Beautiful ocean life captured.
I do feel sorry for the diners that are seated right by the observation tank… as there can be lots of diners and kids running around.
In all the years there celebrating with family and friends… I have only had one bad dining experience due to a very unprofessional waiter. The manager on duty did address the issue right away.

I have to say that the chinese buffets in states do not compare to our neighbors up in canada, at least the ones that I have been to.
The décor inside and outside is very nice. They take pride in their décor and also in how they present the food. Very neat and clean. There are different rooms to be seated in, one with an aquarium and another with birds. We were seated in the bird room and it was cute to see the birds playing with one another.
Before and after your meal, they give you hot towels to wipe your hands which i thought was a nice touch! The food is your typical chinese food, american/​asian offerings and plenty of dessert. The staff is attentive and polite as well. Be sure to sign up with their website because you can get a free coupon for your birthday. They also take a picture of you with a canadian cowboy hat if you are celebrating, the picture is put on a magnet holder for you to keep at no charge. Very cute!
Good prices and if you come senior citizens, its 20% for them!

It’s Mandarin, what can I say.
Here it is in point form
— MAKE REZIES. the wait is long. Came here on a Friday night for dinner, on our way back from London. Waited about 30 min — not too bad but still, shoulda made a reservation when we were passing Waterloo…
— Crab legs! Yas.
— Very clean.
— Fresh food being brought out every 5 – 10 minutes, even 1 hour before closing.
— Desert selection is superb.
— Expensive — $ 30 bucks for friday night buffet but hey… it’s worth it!
— Service is excellent — like 2 waiters for each eater.
— Don’t fill up on sh*t like potatoes — eat that stuff at home! GO BIG!
I hate the tiny ribs… I don’t know what they’re called, they are covered in red sauce. Just disgusting, not this place only — all the Mandarins I have been to. Look promising and exciting but do not deliver. The Justin Biebers of buffet world.
I have to note that this is probably the most exciting Mandarin I have ever been to. You can literally see the flashing lights from the highway. It’s like being in Vegas — everything blinks and shines and flashes, it’s like Christmas!!! Very cool.

Two important points to understand about this review: 1-​I am not a fan of buffets. I rarely eat more than one average-​sized plate of food, which makes them rather a waste. 2-​I did not pay for this meal. I was with a group from work, so I can’t really speak to the value for the money. That being said…
We had about a 20-​minute wait at about 7 pm on a Tuesday for our party of 8. They had predicted it would be a bit more, so it was a nice surprise to be seated early. Our table staff took care of drink orders, warm hand towels, refilling water and clearing plates. He was pleasant and efficient, and able to answer all our questions. We peeked into the famous Fish Room, which did look cool with its giant tank. We were seated in another room.
As for the food: There is a good selection of Asian and other favorites. The food is all presented nicely, and for the number of people in there, traffic is handled well. Everything seemed to be clean and well maintained. The sushi section is fairly small, but the pieces I tried were fine for a buffet. If there are rolls, I’d stick to those, as they are harder to mess up and you don’t have to rely on having the absolute best cut of fish. I had mostly vegetarian selections, like sauteed beans, veggies in garlic sauce, salads and some noodles. All were good. My favorite dish was a spicy Thai eggplant. The flavor was delicious. I didn’t have one, but the «wrap» cart looked interesting. Others in the group really liked the Chinese style chicken, something like a General Tso’s.
The dessert area was expansive, with a little bit of everything. The toasted marshmallows were a big hit, as was the mini crème brûlée and the flan. The ice cream bar, of course, had to be visited as well.

This place is amazing! The outside building is incredibly impressive. When we went inside, we were happily even more impressed. I have been to all sorts of Chinese buffets, but nothing like this. The presentation of food is exquisite. This is not the normal food slapped into a steam tray. Here each station is a beautiful presentation. The serving areas were spotless, but even so there were people constantly polishing and cleaning the food areas.
Then to the food itself. Each item I selected would stand on its own as being excellent if ordered from a menu. Plus the variety is amazing. Then there is the staff. Each one we encountered was very friendly and had a smile for us.
The only negative things I can say is that we don’t live anywhere in the area, and unfortunately won’t be able to return for a long time. If we did live there, we would certainly be regulars. The other negative is that my stomach would not expand to accept all the other dishes I wanted to try.
Before going here we read the various Unilocal reviews of other competing «similar» restaurants. I really don’t understand how they even can be mentioned. This place is fantastic and I am so glad we did not succumb to the reviews for the other restaurants.

Best location and food! I haven’t came here in awhile, maybe I should go here today? Just leaving a review

Tatsächlich einen Besuch Wert, sauber, zahlbar, vielseitiges Buffet — Achtung, Dessertbuffet beansprucht auch noch Platz im Magen. Freundliche Bedienung, unter den Chinarestaurant top!