The story
Mandarin was founded by James Chiu (1948–2026), George Chiu, K. C. Chang, and Diana Chiu, all of whom had many years of restaurant experience in Montreal and New York City. Together, they moved to Ontario in 1979 and purchased a small restaurant with Chinese-Canadian décor on Queen Street in Brampton, naming it "Mandarin".
At the time of purchase, Mandarin operated only as a small à-la-carte restaurant. The restaurant was later increased to three times its original size.
In 1987, Mandarin began to franchise by allowing its existing employees to become franchise partners. To become a franchisee, a candidate must have worked for at least one year at one of the company's restaurants and graduated from the Management Apprenticeship Program at the corporate headquarters. Franchisees are also asked to retire or move into an alternate role within the company after 20 years to make space for new talent.
As part of their 35th anniversary, Mandarin invited all Canadian citizens to a free buffet meal at any of their locations on Canada Day, July 1, 2014; this was repeated for their 40th anniversary on July 1, 2019.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, reopened Mandarin locations changed to an à la carte approach similar to dim sum.
They are back to buffet as of November 2023.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mandarin Restaurant, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4