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| - My friends and I decided to try this place last night as a result of a bit of research on buffets around the area. It turns out they offered $25 per adult on Tuesday nights which we thought was a good enough deal for the value. It was suggested and luckily no one veto'd the choice. It was actually my second time coming to this place but not much changed from when I initially went (which was a couple months ago).
First off, if you're going on a busy night, don't expect any parking spots. The parking lot is tiny and fills up quickly on busy nights. Do not be surprised to be relegated to parking on the streets (and you'll probably find most other restaurant patrons give up and follow suit, rather than wait for a spot to open up). I'm not sure if it is due to the layout or just due inadequate parking but just giving fair warning.
As you've probably read from other reviews, this is a Chinese themed buffet, and upon entering the restaurant, you'll be surrounded by Chinese figurines and wall pieces that are worth a second or two of admiration, but as you look around, you'll notice that they try to create the impression of a more upscale ambiance in comparison to your standard Chinese buffet. Due to the price premium, I guess you could say that attention to the improved décor and environment is warranted, but can be lost on the people who only care about the real reason for going to the restaurant in the first place, which is the food!
Speaking of the food, let's get down to the brass tacks of this review. I'd have the say the overall selection of the food was decent but with a caveat. It definitely had more unique offerings compared to the standard buffet, like Chinese shrimp dumplings (Har Gow), Peking Duck and even Sashimi/Butter fish, freshly cut noodles for their noodle soup, and Chinese ginseng soup. However because of this, the actual main staples of the buffet were kind of lacking. They didn't have much in terms of what you would normally find in a buffet.
And to their defense I can't blame them; the novelty of some of the more niche items would persuade you to choose those foods over more of the standard foods. But what I guess I felt was missing was that the novelty does wear off eventually and you kind of get tired of having the same niche things over and over again. It kind of sounds contradictory and counter-intuitive but my friends and I basically had the same opinion after the first few plates - that there was a variety, but not much selection if that makes sense.
The actual food quality was what you would expect from a Chinese restaurant. However I believe they used too much MSG in a lot of the plates as I found myself extremely thirsty after each plate. It was good for a buffet, but don't expect any miracles in terms of quality.
I'll briefly go over each of the "stations" that were available from what I remember:
Salad/Fruit station: I usually skip this part as it is relatively low value, but my friends got a couple fruits and it was just okay from their perspective
The sushi station: They offered a few new "rolls" that I've never seen before but most of the sushi rolls looked pretty standard. Nothing special or noteworthy
The hot soup/noodle station: They had a machine cutting the noodles and it was dressed up as a chef doing it which I thought was kind of funny. I didn't try it because the line was too long, however my friend tried it and said it was just okay.
The Peking Duck station: You were limited to 4 pieces, and I thought it was good. Can get busy during the dinner rush, but worth it. You can also ask for it without the wrapping skin if you don't want to fill up on that haha
Grilled food station: The roast beef was quite good, they had a rare/medium-rare side and a well done side so you could choose which one you wanted which I thought was considerate. Also they make all the little deep friend pancakes/dumplings/grilled vegetables in front of you which is kind of cool. The grilled lemongrass chicken was quite good. The dumplings were chicken and not so good unfortunately.
Ice cream/dessert - They had unique flavours, green tea, cappuccino and black sesame along with the standard vanilla, chocolate. They didn't have much in the option of sprinkles/marshmallows, but they did have a cone which I ended up getting. No soft serve ice cream machine. Their cakes/pastries were not that visually appealing, and I don't usually end up eating those so I cannot comment on their taste
Overall I'd give it 3 stars. The quality of the food was acceptable (albeit a bit over seasoned), but as mentioned earlier I felt that there was a variety of foods but you'd find yourself only eating the same foods over and over again. At regular price, I don't think I would recommend it, but at $25 I'd say it's worth a shot. Just be prepared for a long wait and busy parking lot.
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