I Seafood. Do You Seafood?

Buffet City

Address: 3160 Steeles Avenue East, Markham, Ontario
Phone: (905) 474-9899
Type: Chinese/Japanese/Canadian Buffet

This was not the place we were trying going to go to tonight, we had a little mix up in communication when we were coordinating ourselves and it got confused with another "all you can eat" place down the road. We (Wanda, Chris and myself) hadn't really noticed this until after we were already seated and our drinks had arrived, then my other friend Rich called asking where the hell we're we. I do want to go to the other "all you can eat" place and I'm sure we'll get around to it shortly.

I've been to Buffet City before, but it looks like they have made some minor changes in the layout and the options on the buffet. It's a fairly typical oriental type buffet you see around here, it directly compares to the Mandarin but with a little less decor. When it comes down to it really, wants most important in a buffet is the selection of food.

Food:
Since it's Friday they have all the expensive stuff out and the full range of item to choose from, particularly they have a huge amount of seafood, they had 3 different shrimps, 2 dishes with mussels, 2 items of real crab, salt and pepper lobster tails and sushi bar with 3 types of sashimi, 4 types of sushi, and a half dozen different rolls to choose from. And then there is all the regular items you'd find on a buffet!

I had I good mix of all the Japanese items since that was what I was mostly looking forward to tonight. It was pretty average for an open buffet with Japanese food, okay but it makes you with for the real thing. I really wouldn't recommend going here just for the Japanese food because it's really just average stuff. I also had at least a half-dozen legs of real crab, they were okay and better than the fake stuff but I prefer my crab nice and hot. I also tried the salt and pepper crab as well but found it too messy to deal with. The taste of the food was very average, there was nothing I had that stood out. I really liked their dessert selection, fresh fruit, cakes, tarts chocolate dipped strawberries and just to name a few of the goodies. I was also happy to have 2 non ice cream choices to enjoy in addition to the dozen or so other flavours in the freezer.

My 1 major complaint of this place is they had nothing but plain napkins, no "moist towelette" were visible or offered. There is a lot of food that needs to be eaten by hand, it really kept me from enjoying more of the crab and shrimp.

Service:
The quality of service was about average for a buffet. I doubt you will ever see an impressive rating on this blog for an open buffet since you do the bulk of the service and because of this, you really need to be exceptional earn more than 10% tip. Our waitress was pretty typical for an oriental buffet, english was far from her second language. We had a funny little moment when Chris ordered his drink, he asked for a rye and ginger, she replied "why and ginger?". She also got a little lax as the evening went on checking our drink levels. I was a little annoyed when I was served the wrong tea, I mean I like Chinese tea but I prefer green tea. She also got a little lax at the end of the meal keeping up with drinks.

Value:
For $17 this place is just simply a great deal. None of the food will knock your socks off, but the variety and selection is just simply unparalleled. 
¶    Friday, April 08, 2005