Vancouver - buffet options

Wait. What?
River Rock is pretty good, especially when you compare the competition (in the casino scene).

If you want disappointment, check out Starlight. Here's a made up scene in my head of what goes on in the kitchen:

Cook: "Hey chef, we're short 2 things on the salad bar!"
Chef: "Fill it with something!"
Cook: "Like what? We don't have anything prepped!"
Chef: "I don't care. Just fill it. "
Cook: "Yes chef"
*looks around fridge, sees nothing*
*looks in pantry*
Cook: "Jackpot!"
Me: "Who TF puts a half insert each of canned black olives and banana peppers?!?!?"

I actually like River Rock. Sometimes anyway. Mostly weekends cause of crab legs.

Anyway... We covered casinos.

There's Uncle Willys. No I'm not joking. That is assuming you're fine with just eating chicken.
Their rotisserie chicken is actually good which is damn high praise coming from me considering I haven't purchased a supermarket rotisserie chicken in 20 years.
Their fried chicken is also pretty good if you like legs.
The rest of the food is a flaming train wreck that was for some reason also hauling a dumpster fire though.

When you say Vancouver, I'm assuming you mean all of GVRD and not Vancouver proper.
Tandoori Flame is one of my new favorite Indian joints.
It's stupidly busy though.

Sundays there's usually brunches at various places, but I haven't been in quite a while so I'm not too up to date.

Do you count AYCE? Or does it have to be a buffet?

Pan Pacific has Sunday brunch buffet and Saturday night opera buffet. Notch 8 in fairmont vancouver has Sunday brunch buffet.

I've been to River Rock a couple times and won't go back for their buffet.

notenoughsleep wrote: ↑

Feb 8th, 2019 5:48 pm

Pan Pacific has Sunday brunch buffet

Speaking of not going back...

For the price you'd think it'd be excellent everything.
It was meh at best, especially since it was like $60?/plate.

death_hawk wrote: ↑

Feb 8th, 2019 5:55 pm

Speaking of not going back...

For the price you'd think it'd be excellent everything.
It was meh at best, especially since it was like $60?/plate.

I was going to suggest a cruise ship. Wouldn't be much more (per sitting) or even less, and you can go to 3 or more buffets a day.

death_hawk wrote: ↑

Feb 8th, 2019 5:55 pm

Speaking of not going back...

For the price you'd think it'd be excellent everything.
It was meh at best, especially since it was like $60?/plate.

Agreed. Not very many hot selections either. For Pan Pacific and their pricing, I would have expected way more in terms of quality AND selection.

thriftshopper wrote: ↑

Feb 8th, 2019 7:07 pm

I was going to suggest a cruise ship. Wouldn't be much more (per sitting) or even less, and you can go to 3 or more buffets a day.

Love the cruise ship and the fact that you can really pick what you want to eat. If something is good, you can have more and if something is gross, you can just skip it. They should have a permanent cruise ship installed somewhere in the City serving buffets three times a day. I would support that!

My buffet story is, I'm sick of them. Quite understandable if you've lived in any place that has an abundance of casino hotels (in my case, near Reno). A friend of mine was also working there so we went to have breakfast at one of the casinos near his lab. Breakfast buffet in ~1994 was ~$3.50 each, and you could find coupons that'd give you two for one. We also went to a casino that was voted best casino buffet by the readers of a free paper akin to The Straight. My friend's remark was, "If this is supposed to be the best, can you imagine what the worse ones are like?"

I have to admit that I ate breakfast in the buffet of a Celebrity cruse ship for ~14 days straight. This was only because the sit-down restaurant was more dismal in selection and quality.

thriftshopper wrote: ↑

Feb 9th, 2019 12:25 pm

My buffet story is, I'm sick of them. Quite understandable if you've lived in any place that has an abundance of casino hotels (in my case, near Reno). A friend of mine was also working there so we went to have breakfast at one of the casinos near his lab. Breakfast buffet in ~1994 was ~$3.50 each, and you could find coupons that'd give you two for one. We also went to a casino that was voted best casino buffet by the readers of a free paper akin to The Straight. My friend's remark was, "If this is supposed to be the best, can you imagine what the worse ones are like?"

I have to admit that I ate breakfast in the buffet of a Celebrity cruse ship for ~14 days straight. This was only because the sit-down restaurant was more dismal in selection and quality.

We enjoy cruises a lot and we find that we prefer the buffet to the sit-down in almost all cases. While the sit down is more like going out to a fancy restaurant, most of the menu items on the cruise ships are the same as in the buffet. It is just served in a classier setting. We just found the buffet easier to pick out what you want from the abundant selection of choices instead of limiting yourself to the menu in the sit-down environment. However, we also found that it was worth paying attention to the menus for the sit down places because every once in a while they would serve something like halibut that wasn't served in the buffet. I have to say the halibut served on the Alaska cruise we went on last Spring was just amazing.

The one time I went on a cruise I realized that sit down was also all you can eat. They just bring you more plates.

I had 23 plates of duck once.
It was damn good duck.
I literally waddled back to the cabin and slept til the next day.

choclover wrote: ↑

Feb 10th, 2019 1:52 pm

While the sit down is more like going out to a fancy restaurant, most of the menu items on the cruise ships are the same as in the buffet.

That seems to depend on the cruiseco. Seems to be true for Holland America where ~80% of the dinner menu does show up on the buffet. However, the Celebrity buffet seems to have no connection with the common people dining room menu; there's more pay-extra restaurants as well as those for exclusive use to suite and spa class pax and I'm sure the buffet food does;t come from there.

I just find the ambiance nicer in the sit down restaurant so when sailing on Holland America, we go to the dining room for all three meals (I've given up on afternoon tea as service is a disorganised circus whether it's HAL or Princess) unless the MDR is closed for lunch (it is on some port days). Celebrity has no sit-down afternoon tea for common people.

death_hawk wrote: ↑

Feb 10th, 2019 4:47 pm

The one time I went on a cruise I realized that sit down was also all you can eat. They just bring you more plates.

I had 23 plates of duck once.

I would have liked to see that. Yes, the MDR is pretty much an all-you-can-eat. My wife and i usually have a two startes/entrées before our main course, and sometimes order another main course to share (we don't like to waste food and eat it all too, unless it is really bad).

thriftshopper wrote: ↑

Feb 10th, 2019 5:23 pm

I would have liked to see that.

I mean... I eat a lot, but even I was uncomfortable.

Time to look for that next cruise....

River Rock buffet is ok if it was $10 cheaper.
$34/$40 for that? no thanks
Being next ocean, I'm surprised there is no seafood buffer around Vancouver, let alone cheap seafood place...