Mandarin’s Moon Festival offerings in 2024

Our family has been a big fan of the Mandarin Restaurants buffets for lunch or dinner in the past year.  They’ve upped their game since the pandemic and consistently deliver quality food with lots of variety (over 100 dishes offered), impeccable and kind service, and fair prices.  Best of all, kids under 5 eat free!  There aren’t many AYCE restaurants that offer free meals to kids anymore and even if they do, the cut-off age is usually 2 or 3 years old.

Buffet dinner pricing at Mandarin Restaurants

After our recent zoo outing, we visited the Markham East branch (88 Copper Creek Drive) of Mandarin for all-you-can-eat dinner.  I liked that we were able to just walk in and get a table easily on a Sunday night just before 6 p.m.  The service was wonderful and attentive as usual (comparable to the Markham location).  I liked the layout of their restaurant here more as their restrooms are closer to the main dining rooms.

As Mid-Autumn Festival was on September 17th this year, Mandarin allocated September 9 to October 20 as their “Moon Festival” in 2024 to celebrate the end of the summer harvest season and feature dishes that are “moon festival” inspired.  Granted, most of these items are created for the Western palate but still really fun to see what they came up with and try some of them out.

The placemat which shows the Moon Festival inspired drinks too

They even crafted unique Moon Festival drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) for the festivities.  We liked the creativity of the drinks.  The prices are fair too.

Here were the special items featured under the Moon Festival celebration at the Markham East location.  Each item has a special note signifying its connection to the Moon Festival and the ingredients.  I had a fun time going around to the buffet tables to search for all of the Moon Festival dishes.

Apple Salad
-apples, greens, goat cheese, pecans, dried cranberries, homemade dressing

This Apple Salad was so delicious.  They must know it is a fan favourite because they didn’t stock much of this in the serving dish.  I had two helpings of this.

Butternut Squash Soup

Ginger Beef
-tender beef sauteed with ginger
Salt & Pepper Pork
-golden fried pork sauteed with chili peppers, salt, pepper

Salt & Pepper Pork is one of my comfort foods and I was really excited to see this as part of their limited-time only menu.  Unfortunately, they don’t prepare it the same way as usual Chinese restaurants do.  They used solid pork pieces instead of pork chop to make it.  Thus, I found it meaty but with a lack of flavour.

Sweet & Sour Fish
-crispy battered and topped with housemade sweet and sour sauce

I tried a piece of the Sweet & Sour Fish and it was really soft covered with a typical sweet and sour sauce.

Peep my first plate which had the Salt & Pepper Pork, Sweet & Sour Fish, and Apple Salad

Chicken with Eggplant
-chicken sauteed with eggplant and red peppers

Seafood Casserole
-a medley of fish, shrimp and scallops wrapped in a crisp shell and topped with melted cheese

They usually serve this same seafood casserole at the regular buffet but served inside of a tin foil container.  Here, it is in a crispy shell.

Moon Sushi
-tamago (egg) sushi made with black and white rice and topped with mango sauce

This Moon Sushi is so unique and looks great!

Lotus Moon Cakes
-delicious and flaky layer of golden pastry with a sweet and rich lotus seed taste filling

We were very surprised and impressed that they served actual slices of moon cakes at the buffet.  Moon cakes are not cheap.  Both my 4 year old and toddler ate a slice each.  Yummy moon cakes!

Mandarin Moon Jello
-sweet jelly dessert with mandarin oranges

Mini Donuts
-“a new, special Moon Festival treat”

Pumpkin Pie
-flaky pie crust with a sweet and creamy pumpkin filling

Pumpkin Pie (just like the butternut squash soup) adheres more to the “autumn” side of the Western culture.  It’s easier for people dining at Mandarin to “tolerate” these items.

Ube Vanilla Ice Cream
-ice cream made with fresh ube (a tropical purple root vegetable also known as purple yam) combined with sweet vanilla

Mandarin Moon Jello and Ube Vanilla Ice Cream

Here are the Mandarin Moon Jello and Ube Vanilla Ice Cream.  I got both to try.  The Mandarin Moon Jello was a sweet and dense jello in a small cup — I haven’t eaten jello in years.  A slice of mandarin orange was embedded into the jello.

The Ube Vanilla Ice Cream was really good — a hint of purple yam flavour with sweet milky vanilla ice cream.

Peep the starfruit!

It was really impressive to see starfruit served in the fruits section.  Starfruit is definitely a fruit you eat during the Mid-Autumn Festival and rarely seen in Canada because it’s a tropical fruit grown in Asia.  It’s an expensive fruit to buy in Canada too.

Once again, it was a wonderful and satisfying meal at Mandarin Restaurants.  The Moon Festival celebration is here until October 20, so if you want to try any of their limited edition items, go before the end of the new month.  There are 30 Mandarin locations across Canada.