Mandarin Restaurant — Restaurant in Pickering

Parking was great due to its location in one of the plaza! Once I arrived it was easy for me to find a parking spot for my vehicle. Once entered I was greeted will a big warm welcome by a few beautiful girls which made my dinner experience great right away and made me felt special like a big boss walking in to a company. I was hoping to see one of the manager Ken because I know him but unfortunately he was no there that night but the other lady manger was there instead a beautiful tall female name Gloria who was also very friendly and beautiful. It felt very festive with many Christmas decorations like if I went to Santa’s workshop. While walking by the buffet table , it made my mouth drop and my tummy growling seeing so many delicious and beautiful scent food waiting for me to enjoy. Once entered the dinning room I was greeted with a female short server which I believed was named PAULA a Chinese looking lady that looked very sweet and elegant, spiking with a deep soft voice . She said welcome to Mandarin and said it with a genuine attitude which made me tingling through my pores and felt so touching. On that night I went with my new girlfriend which I met for a year and it was our one year knowing each other celebrating and which I wanted it to be a special night to remembered during the holidays season It was a great decision I made to have it at at Mandarin Pickering location. PAULA came to our table and said the usual speech that I here millions of time before at all the other locations of Mandarin’s I been to. But PAULA made it different. She first asked how I and my new Gf was doing and asking if we did all our Christmas shopping and and complimented me and my GF of how good looking and how beautiful we look as a couple. Which was a smart and sweet move to make . When she complimented my gf gave me a wink . PAULA asked if she could start us off to begin with some drinks and asked if we would like any wine to celebrate. She recommended us of different red and white wine and explained the difference between sweet and dry wine differences. I could tell the genuine and the strong effort she put in order to made us happy with the right choice. Great job . I ended getting the most expensive red wine there because I wanted my gf to feel special and happy. During our dinner another male server and another female came by to fill the water and collected our plates.Paula stranded out from the other 2 servers. I could tell that PAULA was more experienced and more professional by the way she worked and interacted with the customer's. When we were having soup she brought over Salt and pepper. When we were having steak and prime rib she came and offered us 2 steak knives. Replace our napkins when we needed it and replace it by taking our napkins giving us new ones. During dinner she always came by and asked us how we are doing and if we were enjoying our meal. She came a few time to chat with us and joked with us which made my gf constantly laughing at her jokes. Seeing my gf laughing and enjoying the night I was very happy also and felt my heart beating faster and touched. During dessert time PAULA came by with a mini cake with one candle lit and sang for us both a beautiful anniversary song because I mended to her that I met my new gf for a year and it happened to be our 1st anniversary knowing each other on that night we were there. I could see that she was very touched and after the song that PAULA sang we kissed . It was a bonus dessert which was very sweet besides the dessert there at Mandarin. It was the greatest evening thanks to Paula and everyone at Mandarin Picking for make us the happiest couple for 2024. Paula should be promoted and be the Manager there, give her a rise please . Definitely would go back and would definitely recommend this location and PAULA to all my friends and family members. Thanks PAULA you are BEST of...

This buffet was almost empty, and for good reason. Our evening start off with the hostess that didn't escort us to our table, they pouted to the room we would be sitting in and gave us instructions on how to get to our table. It took forever and a day to have someone show up to order drinks, it would have been faster for me to go to the convenience store buy our drinks come back and drink it before our wait staff came to the table. But it's not their fault, it appear they were managing more than one entire room. This is poor management, your guest service was terrible on on all level, my party had to wait for long periods to get refills. The food also was not good, I had shrimp, which tasted like it was left over from lunch service, and was soggy, I had the lemon chicken, which I don't think was touched throughout the meal service so it was also soggy. The warmers weren't warm, so the food was just above room temp. Most items weren't refilled, until there was one in the bin or zero, and some items they would replace the food with a tray, to say they weren't refilled. The grilled items however were filled. The dessert items were not. They only Had oranges from fruit. They ran out of chocolate covered strawberries, melons, and only had one flavour of jello. Salad was running low, there was more displays of ice on their tables of the buffet for salad and dessert than the actual bowls of food. My guests and I were so disappointed in the quality of food as well. We tried the honey crunchy sticks (basically fried wonton rappers coated in browned melted sugar), this was hard and stale, and soaked on one side with sugar. The sushi rolls were mostly rice, and quite bland, the vegetarian cucumber rolls are standard. But the dynamite rolls were tempura shrimp wrapped in rice and nori. The other rolls were lacking creativity as well, and were mostly rice. Also the sushi table was next to empty when we got there as well at about 730 pm on a Friday night. I was wondering why the place was empty when I walked in, but soon found out what terrible quality of food, lack of refills when food ran out, and slow service was all Contributing this. I brought 7 people and a birthday coupon, and they still charged us for 7 people, and didn't use the birthday coupon they took from us at the door and charged us at $39.99 per person. I have not been so disappointed in the service, quality of food or overall experience. I have never said this before of any restaurant, but I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS RESTAURANT! IF THERE WAS A ZERO STAR THIS...

This is the first time we came to this pickering location, and we came across the senior day, it's really busy there. Atmosphere and the service is great, many kinds of different food for everyone, like any other experiences we had at Mandarin. And surprisingly they have sashimi and roasted beef for lunch! However, for the food part, I have some honest thoughts comparing with other Mandarin locations 🤔 The fried chicken wings and shrimp is kind of grease, not crispy at all, by the look its kind of a bit brownish instead of golden. I had good chicken wings in other Mandarin locations. The mashed potato is very cloudy, really needs to work on the texture! The Shanghai noodles is over cooked, I'm thinking the cooking method was not right, it's definitely needs more oil to coat the noodles to prevent it getting very soft and less presentable from being in the buffet tray. Maybe is a new cook today, definitely needs more training. The sour and spicy soup, a bit disappointed, this is one of my favorite at Mandarin. The taste is more to the sour part, needs to balance with the spicy part. Also, the carrots is cut in Big pieces and very hard insteadof soft and small piece for presentation, same as the tofu curd is cut in big pieces, which is not practical for the soup. As well as the consistency of the soup is too thick, seems too much corn starch. I'm comparing this soup with other Mandarin restaurants, it could be they twist the tast to fit in the community. Other Mandarin locations they have the garlic green beans and some sort of eggplant dishe. At this Pickering location they have none of the two! Very disappointed! My family loves those vegetable dishes! Overall, my family is a big Mandarin fans for many years! I give honest reviews to help Mandarin maintain excellent quality and looking forward to come back again. It was very touched too see Mandarin having this Senior appreciation day! I like the way Mandarin is giving back and support to each customers with their age range! Way too go,...