Mandarin Buffet

Yup, I was contemplating standing in line for free Mandarin on Wednesday. I spent some time with my brother discussing the factors in choosing a location that would have the fewest in line:

1) must be one you can drive to - accessbility by walking or mass transit allows the lower income who might be attracted to free good food!

2) must be one that is not in the city close to other things - people with children will likely not want to stand in a barren parking lot for hours

3) if it rains, the line will be reduced by one hour wait maybe more

4) the only time to go is for opening - if you don't get in within the first wave there is not telling how long you will wait

5) we debated whether the fact that it is free and you have to wait would result in longer eating times or shorter. When I'm paying the big bucks I will try to get my money's worth. If its free am I trying to get all that I can because its a rare treat or is the fact that I'm in there eating whatever I want enough? We didn't factor in the wait time- if you have waited for three hours would you be more likely to take longer to make up for the standing around or is the fact that you made it in the door victory enough?

I was prepared to go to the Mandarin at 404 and 7. It has lots of criteria - its in a part of town that is not residential but rather mixed used industry. There is limited bus service and no TTC. Its near a Chinese area which I figured might actually work in my favour - would anyone Chinese stand in line to eat here? I figured I could stand for two hours 10 a.m. for 12 p.m. seating.

However, when I read the blogs of the last free dinner years ago I saw that wait times were upwards of 3 or 4 hours! I'm going to stand for four hours and break my diet just because its free? As my mom pointed out the dieting would probably mean the food would be too rich and I wouldn't be able to fill up anyways.

The Yonge and Eglinton location had a line up of 800 people before it opened. I'm sure my strategy would have worked - but we opted to drive up to the cottage to make sure its still standing and to open it up for the season. July 1st was a great day to go -coming home the highway was pretty smooth!