The Buffet at Grand Villa Casino

I gotta admit - nobody does a buffet better than the US of A.  Even if we take Vegas out of the equation, there are plenty of all-you-can-stuff-your-face joints just South of the border.  Now I'm not talking about quality, I'm merely amazed at the selection and quantity.  That would pretty much describe the places we find in Bellingham.  Further South, we find more higher end buffets in Seattle and yes, the Grand Daddy of them all in Vegas.  But what about in the GVRD?  Nope, nada, zilch.  Other than some AYCE Japanese and Sunday brunch offerings, there are no good buffets (and really, buffets aren't the best place for great food anyways).  The newest to join the fray is The Buffet at Grand Villa Casinos - not to be confused with The Buffet at the River Rock.

Juju really wanted to check out the "seafood buffet" offered from Thur-Sat.  So I joined him  for some gluttony at an early 3:30pm on a Saturday.  Woah, were we going for some senior discount or something?  No, none existed and hey, we're not that old!  Even at that unholy hour, there was a lineup 20 people long.  Once inside, we were shocked at how small the place was in terms of food selection and seating.  Walking back to our table with a plate of food was like walking through an obstacle course with chairs, tables and people packed tightly together.  As for the buffet line, there was Soup, Salads and Salad Toppings occupying the first few sections. Nothing particularly interesting... until the big pile of King Crab Legs.  These were really large and meaty with varying textures of either being fluffy or a bit spongy.  I thought they were on the saltier side as well.  Yet, considering the venue, the crab legs were pretty good.

Moving along, the next section consisted of Veggies and one pasta.  The pasta was mostly al dente with some uncooked portions.  It was really bland.  It was replaced with a tomato sauce version later on.  Then we had a modest array of Asian Food with fried rice, fried noodles, spicy shrimp and butter chicken.  The shrimp was actually decent with some spice and having a great snap.  The butter chicken was a bit strange because it tasted more like curry chicken.  The dark meat was tender and moist, yet the whole dish was luke warm which was off-putting. Next to it, there were 3 Meat choices including roast pork, black bean mussels and baked salmon.  I can confidently say all 3 sucked.  The pork was as hard as Ron Jeremy and the accompanying sauce was well... use your imagination.  The mussels were rubbery while the black bean sauce was goopy and salty.  The salmon was probably either chum or pink which meant it was dry and lacking in flavour.  The buttery Hollandaise-like sauce on top was greasy and didn't really help save the fish.  So the crab legs, shrimp dish, mussels and fish qualified this as a "seafood buffet"?  Me thinks this is a bit misleading...

At the end of the buffet line, there was Roast Beef.  It wasn't prime rib though which meant it wasn't exactly buttery soft.  Although it was prepared a perfect medium-rare (closer to rare), it was hard to chew and wasn't all that flavourful.  The accompanying gravy was starchy and lacked meatiness.  Lastly, the Dessert section had to be the most pathetic one I've ever seen.  It would've made Mijune cry.  4 options, that's it.  At least the red velvet cake was not bad.  Okay, there is not other way to say it - this buffet blows.  If it weren't for the crab legs, this was no better than Uncle Willy's (but for double the price).  Please do yourself a favour and spend your $25.95 at EBO on the same floor.

The Good:
- Crab legs were not bad considering everything
- Bright, modern dining space

The Bad:
- Food selection and quality sucks
- Seating arrangements are tight and hard to maneuver through

Golden Rice Bowl

Normally, I'd rather lose my left testicle (hello Phil Kessel...) than to drive into Richmond during rush hour.  However, with my parent's flight back from Hong Kong arriving later than expected, that was the scenario.  No, I still have my left testicle!  So to make this foray into driving hell worth it, I decided to pick up some take out.  This way, I didn't have to worry about dinner and oh yeah, my parents had something to eat too (I'm such a good son...).  I decided that I'd pick up a few items starting with some Hainanese Chicken from Prata-Man.  Then, I'd hop on over to the Yaohan food court for some Cantonese take out.  Hey, the buy 3, get 1 free deal (which works out to $6.00 per large dish) is pretty good.  Trying to work my way through the many choices, I decided on Golden Rice Bowl this time around.

So I chose my four items starting with the Sweet & Sour Pork.  Almost completely comprised of meat, the pork was quite lean, hence being dry and dense.  I guess sitting around for awhile didn't help either.  Naturally, the batter soaked up all the sauce and became wet, but that was expected.  The flavours were more on the sweet side, although it was not too bad.  The Stir-Fried Fish was quite moist and flaky.  There was no excess liquid as the fish was lightly kissed by corn starch.  The flavours were quite mild which didn't overwhelm the fish.  Also, the celery and carrots in the dish retained some crunch. The Beef Tendon & Bean Curd Skin had a considerable star anise hit.  Some pieces were super tender while the bigger ones were a chewy.  Keep in mind this was beef with tendon in it, not just tendon.

Lastly, we had the Stir-Fried Eggplant with red peppers.  It was soft as expected, but not overly mushy.  We felt there was a general lack of flavour with this dish. "Okay" is probably the best description for this take out food.  As one of my readers (Lotusrapper) suggested, these places are pretty much very similar in terms of food quality.  Does the job for an inexpensive price.

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- The lady was friendly
- Food is okay

The Bad:
- As with any of these joints, some dishes stand up better sitting around than others
- A bit mild with the flavours

Gold Train Express

Once upon a time, I used my Blackberry Curve to take pictures of my food.  I would post them on my Facebook and that was it.  No blog, crappy pictures and certainly no official food adventures.  Yes that was 5 years ago and life was simpler back then.  With the beginning of the blog, I had visited a 24 hour Pho joint called Gold Train Express.  Our visit was not exactly memorable for a number of reasons and as much as I begged Milhouse and Polka King to do a return visit, they flat-out refused.  Something about a neon sign indicating there were "fresh washrooms"...

Well Gordo did not fear, nor was he there for the initial visit, so he was more than game to join me after late night hockey. We started off with an order of Pho Tai and it was pretty standard more or less.  The broth was a touch weak with a hint of aromatics while the amount of noodles and meat were modest.  For myself, I had the Bun Bo Hue and it seemed a bit more fulfilling in size.  The broth was quite light except for the chili oil slick on top.  I didn't catch much lemongrass nor spiciness, but it was decent enough considering the time of day.  And no, there was no pork knuckle nor blood either.

As a side, I decided to try their Banh Mi Dac Biet and it was not that great.  There was an interesting array of ingredients which looked like Dole green salad mix.  The bun wasn't exactly airy nor crusty either.  The conservative smear of pate didn't help things either.  I'd pass on this if I were ever here again. "Meh".  Nothing much to get excited about this revisit.  Does the job for a 24 hour joint, but I'd probably hit up Pho Hoa instead.

The Good:
- Open 24 hours
- Lots of mirrors (if you like that)
- Interesting neon inside

The Bad:
- Food is so-so
- It wasn't like the service was bad, but the owner dude loves to give the death stare

Tangent Cafe

Ah yes, the backup plan.  I had none.  Yes, epic fail once again as I suggested we head to Kishimoto on Commercial for some eats after our league game on Friday.  A few problems though - we had a table of 8 and it was around 8:00pm.  If you are familiar with Kishimoto, the chances of us getting a table were as good as Christy Clark winning her riding.  Wait.  She didn't win her riding...  Okay, that meant we didn't get a table.  Hence we walked across the street to Tangent Cafe because there was no lineup.

One look at the menu and I was utterly confused.  Vancouver Smoked Meat Sandwich and Mee Goreng???  Okay, I wasn't expecting that.  Oh well, we were hungry and really didn't care.  So Gordo and I decided to share a few thing beginning with the Roti Canai with curry chicken dip.  The roti was surprisingly good with a crisp exterior giving way to a chewy and light interior.  It was not greasy or heavy either.  Although the curry chicken dip had some creaminess to it, the flavours were too mild in our opinion.  Next up were the Sambal Green Beans with tofu.  We found the beans to be cooked all-the-way-through, yet still retaining a crunch.  The flavours were not typical, yet was impactful with a nice kick.  We disliked the wild rice though as it was too dry and rubbery.

Continuing with Malay cuisine, we had the Mee Goreng with chicken.  Again, the flavours were not familiar to us as we've had this dish before in a Malay restaurant.  It was more soy than sweet, but it did have a nice heat level.  The noodles were a bit too soggy for our tastes while the chicken leaned towards overcooked.  Onto a North American dish, we had the Tangent Burger consisting of a chargrilled patty with diced bacon cooked into the patty, sautéed mushrooms, lettuce & cheddar. We found the burger patty to be fairly moist and not greasy.  The soft bun had a slight chewiness that held up nicely to the wet ingredients.  We substituted Truffle Fries for $2.00 more and they were really crispy with a good amount of truffle oil and Parmesan.

Polka King and Polka Dot graced us with their company (it's been a loooooong time) and tried the featured item being the Wild Sockeye Salmon with mango salsa, roasted veggies and rice.  As evidenced in the picture, the salmon was pretty much overcooked and dry atop more dryness being the rice.  The veggies were good though as well as the tasty mango salsa.  Polka Dot remarked if they had put more of the salsa on top, it would've helped with the dry salmon. Ginseng went for the Beef Rendang and again, it was not similar to any other version we've had before.  It was more like a coconut curry than a rendang.  Normally, there would be a wealth of spices including ginger, galangal, lemongrass and star anise.  We didn't get any of that.  The beef was tender, but was slightly dry.

Gadget Girl foolishly ordered the Beet Salad, not because it wasn't any good, but what she really wanted was a burger.  Alas, she wanted to play it healthy and longingly eyed our food. In the end, she did like her salad as it was large, fresh and full of ingredients.  She particularly liked the fresh Mandarin orange slices.  Milhouse went for the Caprese Panini and as you can see, they didn't skimp on the ingredients (tomato, bocconcini, basil, salami and balsamic reduction).  He liked it as there was no absence of flavour, but it could've been toasted a bit more.  In the end, everyone was just happy to hang out and grab a bite to eat.  In terms of the strange mix of cuisines, there were some hits and some definite misses.  We didn't expect complete authenticity, hence we let some things go.  With reasonable pricing, we didn't go away displeased either.

The Good:
- The service we got was friendly and as good as it could be on a busy Friday
- Okay pricing will all things considered

The Bad:
- Don't expect authentic Malay
- Proteins (except for the burger) could've been prepared better

Sushi California (North Road)

Sushi California has been on my revisit list for quite some time, partly because I only got takeout previously and that they had renovated as well.  I tried awhile back but it was not meant to be because there was a lineup out the door and the parking lot was jam-packed.  Now that is a common occurrence as there are roughly 20 parking spots for 3 restaurants in the tiny corner mall.  Why is the place so popular?  Well, it follows the same formula as Sushi Town and Sushi Garden - big portions and low prices.  However, much like the aforementioned restaurants, don't expect super authentic nor carefully made eats either.

We started with an order of the Spicy Salmon Sashimi.  It was piled high with a mix of crunchy cucumbers and a relatively mild spicy sweetness.  The salmon itself was decent being buttery, yet still firm.  If I had to do a comparison, the one at Sushi Town is bigger in size and had a more impactful dressing.  And as per usual of late, I got an order of the Deluxe Chirashi Don.  As you can see, there was a substantial amount of sashimi on top including amaebi, tobiko, salmon, tuna, hamachi, hotate and hokkigai. They were all decent while the rice was chewy with a hint of sweetness and vingear.  This was surprisingly good.

Onto a couple of rolls, we tried the Rainbow and the Double Spicy Tuna.  The rainbow was a little different than typical versions since it only had tamago in the middle.  There was very little sashimi on the outside as well.  I guess for $6.00, we weren't expecting a whole lot.  If you can imagine, the roll was pretty "blah" because of the lack of ingredients.  Fortunately, the spicy tuna roll had a double dose of tuna on the inside and out topped with tempura bits.  Tasting similarly to the spicy salmon sashimi, this was a more substantial and tastier roll than the rainbow (cheap too at only $4.00). For the kiddies, we got them the Tempura Udon which was devoid of all the "additions" that many non-Japanese run restaurants employ.  Hence, the udon was simple with a relatively bland broth.

In addition to the side tempura, we got an extra order of Ebi & Yam Tempura. Despite the heavy layer of batter, the tempura was still relatively light and crunchy.  It wasn't overly oily either.  This revisit to Sushi California was pretty much what we had expected - large portions, reasonable prices and okay eats depending what you order.  With those expectations, then our meal was pleasant enough complete with surprisingly good service (despite what others have said).

The Good:
- Large portions
- Cheap
- Okay service (at least what we got)

The Bad:
- Depending what you order, it can be okay or not okay
- Crammed seating
- Stupid parking lot

Rainier Provisions

Once a wasteland of boarded up stores, the edge of Gastown is quickly becoming hip again.  Thanks to Heather Group, we now have Salt, Judas Goat, Irish Heather, Shebeen, Salty Tongue, Bitter, Fetch, Penn and Everything Cafe.  Now, Sean Heather`s expansion in Gastown bordering the Downtown Eastside continues with Rainier Provisions, which is part retail store and part casual restaurant.  Occupying where Prime Time Chicken used to stand, the place employs a spartan decor combined with affordable prices.

Meeting up with Vandelay, Rich Guy and Rich Gal, we wanted to see if this latest offering would leave any lasting impressions. I started off with a bowl of Mushroom Soup served with crusty bread.  It was a thick concoction which was curiously devoid of rich mushroom flavour despite its appearance and thickness.  With that being said, it wasn't bad either where there wasn't a lot of salt dumped in to mask the natural flavours.  For my main, I had the Fresh Sausage consisting of Italian bangers with salsa verde, steamed broccoli with slivered almonds and Lyonaisse potates.  The sausages were meaty and processed until it was tender.  I would've liked them to be cooked with more imagination rather than looking merely boiled.  The salsa verde added the much need tang to the lifeless sausages.

Vandelay had the Porchetta with the same sides and condiments as my plate.  This was hands-down the best item we had.  The pork was moist and gelatinous (from the fat) while the cracklings were crunchy.  The sauce was on the saltier side, but that didn't make or break the dish.  Rich Guy had the other roast of the day being the Roast Beef served with the same sides again in addition to Yorkshire pudding and horseradish.  Sadly, the roast beef was chewy and dry.  Even the flavourful gravy couldn't save it.  Rich Guy was not very happy with the dish.

Rich Gal had the Fish Pie containing local cod and vegetables, bound with fish veloute, under puff pastry cap. She thought it wasn't bad with sufficiently moist fish in a creamy sauce.  I tried it and thought it was fishy and bland.  The puff pastry on top was my favourite part.  As you can ascertain, the food at Rainier Provisions was pretty average at best (with the roast pork being the highlight) - fortunately the prices are quite reasonable.

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Decent portions

The Bad:
- Food is pretty average

Thai New West

Lunch with Big D has become somewhat of a chore lately.  You see, we've done the North Road Korean food thing and it has become increasingly difficult to find good eats nearby.  Well, why not go further West in to New Westminster?  Yes, New West is not exactly a culinary hotspot, but then again, there are quite a few restaurants within its city limits.  There has to be something relatively good right?  And really, I have had decent eats in the past, why not again?  So at his suggestion, we hit up Thai New West on Columbia.

We ended up sharing 3 lunch specials much like the time we visited Go Thai down the street.  Next time, we should just do 4 since we never have a problem finishing the food.  Each special was accompanied by a Spring Roll.  They were crispy while not greasy.  The filling was a bit dry though which made it a little hard to swallow.  We tried the Pad Thai first and it was pretty mild with a pronounced sweetness that at first, we thought was ketchup (however, this is not the case, maybe there was a lot of palm sugar?).  Therefore, it neither had any tang or real depth of flavour. We would've liked to see a bit of spice too (but I guess they are appealing to the lowest common denominator).  The textures were okay though. 

Next up was the Basil Chicken. There was no absence of palm sugar as it was pretty darn sweet, but in then end it did taste good though.  Nice wok heat leading to a full-bodied flavour.  The chicken was sufficiently moist while the veggies crisp and vibrant.  As for the Green Curry, it was also mild (not much coconut milk essence nor shrimp paste, yet did have a pleasant flavour).  It was on the thinner side.  When combined with the rice, the flavours were washed out.  From our meal here, it is pretty apparent that they are appealing to the masses, hence the food is mild bordering on bland.  With that being said, it wasn't bad either.

The Good:
- Modern dining space
- Okay pricing

The Bad:
- Flavours are very mild
- Service is okay, but only one staff member makes it challenging