So Chinese New Year was last month, and so was this review. Better late than never right?
I've been wanting to do a review of Mandarin for years. Years. But I've often been to nervous to take public photos, or haven't had a camera, or whatever. But having had a cell camera now for a few years changed the game. Then I just didn't want to because when I went I just wanted to eat, short of a photo here and there. Well back in February, I finally made the effort. It was during Chinese New Year and Mandarin was hosting their Dumpling Festival.
Not familiar with Mandarin? It's a Canadian chain of Chinese Buffets that has only recently expanded into the Ottawa region. When I moved to Ottawa for the first time, I was aghast at how bad not only the buffets were, but how bad the Chinese food in general was. I should also point out that this is Canadian Chinese food, not authentic Chinese food. I have lived in Toronto for many years and had access to Chinatown(s) and great Chinese food all around. Mandarin has always been the best Chinese buffet I have been to; that being said, it's not the best Chinese food. But living in Ottawa, having it here has fulfilled my buffet needs.
What is crappy is that the Mandarin's here are $1 more than all the others (and Brampton?). That's B.S. man, total B.S..
Every Mandarin I have been to all look the same, short of very different floor plans. You enter and there are wishing ponds with goldfish, an army of servers at the front welcoming you to the line-up (there's always a line-up) or passing out after-diner mints to those leaving. The ceiling is painted like the sky, the buffet is in the middle with many different stations, with separate dining rooms all around the buffet.
There's lots of North American Chinese food to choose from; lemon chicken, fried noodles, kung pao chicken, general tao chicken, spicy beef, stir fried vegetables, chicken balls, egg rolls, torpedo shrimp, hot & sour soup, and on and on and on. But you can also get sushi. But then there's a bunch of North American food like fries, onion rings, pizza, salads, roast beef, mashed potatoes etc. Some of it's good, some of it's ok, and some of it is sad. There's one thing though that I can always count on, chicken wings.
It's nothing fancy, but it's an oasis in the chaos.
In many things I am not a creature of habit, but when I go to Mandarin, I almost always start with the above plate. It wasn't until I made the above photo that I realized how half my plate is North American. But dang the onion rings, garlic bread, and dill pickles are so good! The pickle may seem weird, but it adds a zing and a balance to a lot of the fried and sweet food on the plate. Plus it's a vegetable.
Round 2 will be more wings usually, and some mix of some of the same of plate one, or some things that were missed out. On this particular trip since it was the dumpling festival, so I tried one of their special dumplings that is doctored up by a chef on site.
This particular dumpling was pretty blah inside (pork) and was topped with peanuts, green onions and a sauce mixed with soy, sesame, chili oil and a few other things. Even with a request for extra chili oil it was pretty blah. Not bad, but I didn't get another.
Then again, there were lots of wings, why would I?
In general, Mandarin has one kind of chicken wing - crispy fried wings. On some occasions (random as far as I can tell) they have different flavours. I've seen honey garlic a few times, and at one location they had sriracha wings (that was a treat). Mandarin also does take-out too but they don't indicate how many wings come in an order.
Okay, so the wings are small. Sometimes they reach a medium, but generally they are a small wing. Length, width, everything, they are small. They are battered and deep fried, and remind me of every Jar Doo chicken wings on the menu of every Canadian Chinese restaurant I have ever gotten wings.
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The skin is very crispy. The batter is not thick, so it and the skin make for a very nice crispness. The meat is often really tender too. Because they are a popular buffet item, they empty quickly which means they are replenished pretty quick, meaning freshly fried. I have been known to wait around for a fresh batch until I discovered the touch pad on the wall that the buffet attendants use to order more and could see how long a new batch was coming. If only I could use that to send refills to my table.
There's no sauce on these, although you could add various sauces like sriracha or chili sauce or even say red sauce or lemon sauce from other dishes that you want. No these wings are just crispy, salty goodness. These are one of the only wings that I'm down to eat without any sauce. If you like crispy, and you like salty, then these are for you too.
FINAL SCORE:
Every time I go to Mandarin, I start wanting to eat so many plates and 'get my money's worth' but by the end, I don't want to eat Mandarin ever again (although now that I'm older and wiser, I do stop 1-2 plates earlier so as not to feel like puking), and then the next day I'm craving Mandarin again. The highlight for me is always the chicken wings. They aren't big, but they are crispy, hot, tender, and salty good. On the whole, the food is good but it's all about quantity not quality. Except compared to any other Chinese restaurant in the city. I do go mostly for the variety though. And occasionally for desert they have Spicy Chocolate Firecracker ice cream ... 7.5/14
Mandarin Chinese Buffet
290 West Hunt Club Road, Ottawa (Nepean) ON
mandarinrestaurant.com
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