Hundreds of hungry Canadians were in line Monday at the local Mandarin for a free meal in celebration of Canada Day.
The restaurant chain, including the Guelph location, offered free meals to anyone with proof of Canadian citizenship at all 29 of its locations in Canada.
The restaurant chain is offering the free meals to give back to Canada, said Michael Lee, one of the managing partners for the Guelph Mandarin location.
“They are all fans of Mandarin, which makes me so happy," said Lee. "We just want to make sure everyone here gets some good food.”
Every item in the buffet is available for the free meal and pop, tea or coffee is also included, said Lee.
The buffet includes some special Canada Day items, like maple-glazed salmon and Montreal smoked meat.
“We have a lot of new items for them to try," said Lee.
People started lining up at 6 a.m. on Monday and by the time the doors opened at noon, there was about 700 in line.
“After the first 300, I stopped counting,” said Lee. “Our capacity is about 250 to 300 customers, so we will bring in everyone we can first and everyone else will have to wait and we will be going one by one to let them know the wait time.”
Amanda Hammond and her family of six were first in line at the Guelph location on Monday.
“As soon as we heard about it we couldn’t believe it. We were trying to see if there was a trick," said Hammond.
With a family of six to feed, Hammond said it was very generous of the Mandarin to offer the special Canada Day meal.
She said her four kids had been looking forward to the meal all week.
"They are the ones that got up early and woke me up to get here,” said Hammond.
Friends Gerri Olmstead and Audrey Brown were further back in the line when a woman in the first row asked them to come next to her.
"We were debating whether we were going to leave or not and this lady saw my grey hair and came over and asked us to sit with her — she was right in the front,” said Brown.
Standing in the hot sun for hours, Brown said the lady did a very Canadian thing by letting the elderly women get in sooner.
“She took care of us,” said Brown.
Water and snacks were handed out to the crowd after the first round of 250 to 300 people were let in. Lee said everyone else in line will be given an expectation of when they will get in.
The restaurant will close at 8 p.m. on Monday, but Lee said the line will be cut off at about 6 p.m. to accommodate as many people in line as possible.
Some online comments made after the original story questioned why the free meal was only being offered to Canadian citizens.
“We are trying our best. We just want to thank Canada," said Lee.
“The customers who are waiting here to give us the time and effort of their day, we want to make sure they enjoy everything — that’s our main priority. As far as the negative press, we hope we can earn them to come back," said Lee.
Asked about the Mandarin's choice to only open the buffet to Canadian citizens, Brown said she supports the decision.
“They are doing it for Canada,” she said.
