Dear reader,
My first all-you-can-eat buffet experience took place across the border at a Sizzler. I vividly remember loading up on spaghetti (in hindsight, a rookie move, but I was 10 years old) and Jello taking up way too much real estate on the dessert table. Later on, I enjoyed many a breakfast buffet at the Golden Griddle, where my dad—who was whatever the opposite of a foodie is—happily ate his fill of beige. And in high school, true teenage gourmets went to Pizza Hut for the lunchtime buffet. (Fun fact: the Hut was once the largest purchaser of kale, before kale was even a thing. It was for decorative purposes only, to act as ersatz foliage between the buffet’s chafing dishes.)
Sometime in the mid-’90s, the GTA suburb I grew up in was blessed with a Mandarin, and it was a game-changer. I can’t tell you how many times I sidled up to those serving stations for wonton soup, lemon chicken, egg rolls and, let’s be honest, probably french fries. But it was only recently that I learned the Ontario-based chain—which now has 30 locations—started as a single restaurant in Brampton with an à la carte menu. In this week’s edition of Table Talk, co-founder James Chiu tells us about Mandarin’s humble beginnings and how it has evolved over the past 45 years.
Also: a Christie Pits laundromat that harbours an Italian snack bar, a new spot for (also Italian) sandwiches and what to drink at a sleek new cocktail bar in the Junction.
