founded 1979 founders james chiu george chiu diana chiu and k.c. chang headquarters brampton ontario canada areas served greater toronto area golden horseshoe london ontario ottawa ontario kingston ontario products food and drink website www.mandarinrestaurants.com mandarin restaurant franchise corporation is a chain of all you can eat chinese canadian buffets in ontario canada . mandarin was founded in 1979 by james chiu george chiu diana chiu and k.c. chang . its headquarters is in brampton ontario and the chain consists of licensed restaurants across the province . they each offer a chinese and canadian buffet with over 150 items as well as la carte ordering take out and delivery . contents 1 history 2 35th anniversary 3 community involvement 4 references history edit mandarin restaurant and corporate headquarters in brampton ontario mandarin was founded by james chiu george chiu k. c. chang and diana chiu ; all of whom had many years of restaurant experience in montreal and new york . together they moved to ontario canada in 1979 and purchased a small restaurant with chinese canadian d cor . the restaurant was called mandarin and was then located on queen street in brampton ontario . at the time of purchase mandarin operated only as a small la carte restaurant . however 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 . each restaurant location employs approximately 100 people making mandarin an employer for well over 2 500 people in ontario . 35th anniversary edit in celebration of their 35th anniversary in 2014 mandarin held a year long passport to japan contest where they gave away 35 trips for 2 to japan . also as part of their milestone 35th anniversary on july 1 2014 mandarin invited all canadian citizens to a free buffet meal at any of their locations . over 30 000 canadians took advantage of a free buffet meal on this day . 1 2 3 community involvement edit over the years mandarin has involved itself with various health care organizations and charitable groups in the community . some of these include 2013 mandarin became a major partner of the multiple sclerosis ms society . as a result the ms walk was renamed in ontario as the mandarin ms walk . as of november 2015 there are over 50 mandarin ms walks across ontario . 4 also in 2013 mandarin became a major sponsor of the giant pandas and the giant panda conservation breeding program at the toronto zoo . in addition to sponsoring this for a 5 year term the first ever mandarin express kiosk was opened offering selected mandarin dishes served to zoo guests . 5 2007 the company committed a pledge payment of 1 million in support of the schulich heart centre capital expansion at sunnybrook health science centre . 6 references edit http www.mississauga.com news story 4593814 o canada mandarin celebrates 35 years and july 1st holiday in style http globalnews.ca news 1426160 mandarin celebrates canada day with free buffet in ontario http www.bramptonguardian.com news story 4599868 mandarin to offer free buffet on canada day http www.bramptonguardian.com community story 4500135 brampton ms walk brings heartwarming stories of hope and camaraderie http www.torontozoo.com supportthezoo sponsors.asp http sunnybrook.ca media item.asp c 14 & i 117 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mandarin restaurant & oldid 723105574 categories chinese restaurantsrestaurant chains in canadarestaurants in ontariocompanies based in brampton navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 1 june 2016 at 01 34 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view