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In All You Can Eat

Shin Ka Gyuu: All You Can Eat Japanese Sukiyaki in Vancouver

January 31, 2020

Shin Ka Gyuu is an all you can eat Japanese sukiyaki restaurant in Vancouver and they are in their soft opening phase. Sukiyaki is a pot of meat and veggies slowly simmered in a broth.

They opened in the old Joey’s near Broadway and Granville. Vancouver doesn’t have a dedicated sukiyaki restaurant since Posh closed down their locations years ago.

They have $78 and $58 menus to choose from. The big difference is the addition of the wagyu beef short plate and prime boneless chuck flap (AAA+).

We were invited to check out the space before their grand opening.

Interior

The space is very nice and large. It can seat small to large groups easily. The decor is very modern, bright and filled with velvet green chairs as well as booths.

$78 Menu

$58 Menu

Drink Menu

Asahi

They have been beer on tap. I personally prefer a nice cold crisp beer like Asahi to go with a meal like this.

Lychee Soda

This has lychee juice, mint, lime, simple syrup and soda. We ordered two rounds of this drink for our table and we found it to be inconsistent. The first round wasn’t very good, but the next one was really good and vibrant.

Appetizers

All the appetizers are the same for the $58 and $78 menu. There are 6 different types of appetizers, 3 types of sashimi, and 4 sushi rolls. Also, unlimited pop.

The six appetizers presented first at the table are tako wasabi, seaweed salad, jellyfish and imitation shark fin salad, tuna avocado gomae salad, tofu salad, and cucumber salad. It’s a nice medley that comes, but they were all very average in taste. I did enjoy the tuna avocado gomae salad a lot.

Sashimi

The sashimi is stunning once it arrives to the table. It is beautifully set up. The quality was decent, but the tuna was a touch frozen, and there was a bone in the salmon sashimi.

Sushi

There are 4 types of sushi – Salmon Aburi Oshi Sushi, Ebi Aburi Oshi Sushi, Ka Gyuu Roll, and Tuna Tuna Tuna Roll.

The sushi rolls are very great value as the oshi is unlimited. The quality is pretty good and where else are you going to get unlimited oshi sushi? These are great to fill up on. It’s not Miku quality, but it still passable.

Sukiyaki

The sukiyaki broth was a tad on the salty side when it came out. As the night progressed, it did get saltier and saltier as it got concentrated. At first, they added more broth to replenish the ones that evaporated, but closer to the end, we asked them to add water into our pot instead.

Meats

For both menus, you get the pork belly, beef chuck eye roll, lamb shoulder, and beef short plate. With the $78 menu, you get the added wagyu beef short plate and prime boneless chuck flap (AAA+).

There was supposed to be 6 meats, but there was only 5 available. Not sure what happened to the lamb shoulder but maybe they were out.

Of all the meats, my favourites were the wagyu beef short plate and prime boneless chuck flap (AAA+), which is only part of the $78 menu. They are nicer cuts, but as the night went on, we did find the quality to start to diminish as there were more and more fatty pieces.

Veggies

There is a bar for veggies for you to grab yourself. There are items like broccoli, carrot, baby cabbage, king oyster mushroom, shiitake mushroom, enoki mushroom, and winter melon. The quality looked and tasted good.

There are items like tofu and yam noodle that you need to order from the staff.

Sauce

As you begin the sukiyaki, they give you ponzu sauce, grated radish, sesame paste, and eggs to mix together.

Dessert

The menu had 6 different desserts available, but when we went, the bingsu wasn’t available. Even with 5 selection of dessert, none of them really stood out. It’s hard to go wrong with ice cream like black sesame and matcha. None of the desserts are house made, so it’s all purchased from other suppliers.

Final Thoughts

There are definitely a lot of kinks they need to work out before their grand opening in a few weeks. Service was definitely a big issue as the staff are still new and trying to figure out the flow of a dinner service. There were gaps in when the food arrived, so if you’re hungry, there might be a delay. When the food does arrive, it is stunning especially the sashimi platter.

As for the food, it’s good but we felt it was inconsistent as the slices of meat that we got became fattier and fattier as the night went on. I did like the variety of appetizers, but there were minor issues with some dishes.

I would wait a little bit before coming here for All You Can Eat Sukiyaki.

Address:
1428 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC

In All You Can Eat

River Rock Buffet: Surf and Turf Night

May 29, 2016

The Buffet at the River Rock Casino in Richmond has Surf and Turf Night on Fridays and Saturdays starting at 5pm. They do not take reservations and can get very busy around 6 and 7pm. Always best to arrive early.

For $39.95 per adult, it’s not a bad price.

They can seat up to 260 people at one time but it is packed during peak times with hungry people wanting all you can eat. Their dishes are inspired by West Coast cuisine.

Since I was leaving on vacation soon, we had to celebrate Mother’s Day earlier. Not a bad thing since it is cheaper.

The line was super long that it flowed out of the lobby.

The staff were pretty good about treating their guests well. They brought lemonade to those who were thirsty.

We got seated about waiting in line for 1.5 hours. We did have a larger group, so it was harder for them to seat us.

Once we sat down, staff came over to take our drink order. Then it was off to scavenge for food in the buffet area.

Crab, clams, prawns and mussels

This should be the first area you go to if you are a seafood lover. The quality is pretty good for a buffet. You gotta get your money’s worth.

The staff are pretty good about making sure that it doesn’t get empty. When I was here, it was always fully stocked.

If you aren’t into cold seafood, they have hot versions near the back. There is cooked salmon, clams, mussel, prawns, and crab legs.

On my first round, I got a little bit of all the seafood. Between the cold and hot crab legs, I enjoyed the cold ones a lot more since it was easier to get the meat out of the shell. With the hot ones, the meat doesn’t slide out very well from the shell and also your hands get more oily.

The other clams, mussels and shrimp were good. I liked the hot and cold ones equally.

On round 2, I went with all cold seafood since it was easier to eat with my hands. I’m a savage when it comes to eating seafood at a buffet.

Roast Carving Station

At the roast carving station, you will find prime rib, ham, and roast chicken,

I grabbed a bit of prime rib and it was pretty good. Nice and fatty with some pink in the centre. Of course, I had to get some fruit and veggies to balance all the seafood and meat I was eating.

You can also get prime rib that is a bit more well done.

Sushi Station

At the sushi station, you will find sushi rolls and sashimi. The items didn’t look that great, so I decided to spend my calories on more crab.

Dessert

The main dessert area has a lot of little cakes. Many kinds, so it might be hard to choose.

Drinks

You can also grab pop and juice. Behind the machines are taps for filtered water and sparkling water.

Ice Cream

Behind the Pepsi and drink machines, there is ICE CREAM and POPSICLES! A lot of people seem to miss seeing these since its a bit hidden.

Double Chocolate Sundae is a good way to end the meal.

Overall, not a bad buffet at all. If you love seafood, you’ll have a good time eating all the crabs, prawns, clams, and mussels. Of course, it still doesn’t compare to the buffets in Vegas, but at least we have something.

We Rate The Buffet:

Address:
8811 River Rd
Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.riverrock.com/dining/the-buffet.aspx

In All You Can Eat

Gaucho Brazilian Barbecue: Dining in Canmore, AB

October 29, 2015

Gaucho Brazilian Barbecue is located in Downtown Canmore and they serve up an all you can eat Rodizio dinner for $42 per person. You get access to their sides and salad bar. The servers will come to your table with racks of meat and serve you at your table.

Rodizio & Plates service included the following types of meat:

Top Sirloin – Alcatra
Rump Steak – Picanha
Pork Loin – Lombinho
Sausage – Linguiça
Chicken Wings – Asa de Frango
Parmesan Beef – Beef Parmegiano
Beef Ribs – Costela de Boi
Chicken Wrapped with Bacon – Frango com Bacon
Chicken Hearts – Coração de Frango
Lamb – Carneiro

Since I’ve never experience a Brazilian meal before, I thought it would be good to try it especially in Alberta since they have amazing quality of beef.

The interior is warm and modern. You can sit inside the dining room or in their enclosed patio.

The patio is much brighter and it is heated, so you won’t get cold.

Tropical Mango Juice ($4) is what M started off with.

We went straight to their salad and side bar where they had a good amount of items to choose from. I tried a bit of everything and nothing disappointed.

All the ingredients tasted fresh and I enjoyed it all. A good start before all the meat started arriving at the table.

Beef Ribs were my favourite meat item of the night. Since they cut it right at your table. It stays hot, tender and juicy.

It looks so good too.

They also give you some hot sauce and a vinaigrette to put on the meats. I went without the sauces since I enjoyed the meat on its own.

Since the servers do come often with meat, you are given a card to show if you want more meat or not. Most of the time ours was ‘Sim Por Favor, since we wanted to try all their meats they had to offer.

It’s best to flip it to ‘Nao, Obrigado’, even if you want to take a break for all the meat. If you want a particular meat item, you can just ask them for it.

At first it was pretty awkward having someone serve you at the table

They keep all their meat warm in their contraption.

They place the meat on your side plate

For our first Brazilian restaurant experience, it was great. Trying all the different varieties was fun and perfect for our honeymoon vacation. The food is pricey, but for an experience its worth it. If I had to go again, I probably wouldn’t return since I already know the cuts of meat I really enjoyed. I would rather want a meal with just beef ribs, pork loin and rump steak.

We Rate Gaucho Brazilian Barbecue:

Address:
629 Main St, Canmore, AB

Website:
http://www.brazilianbbq.ca/

In All You Can Eat

Cockney Kings Fish & Chips: All You Can Eat

August 16, 2015

Cockney Kings Fish & Chips in North Burnaby has been here forever! They also have another location in New Westminster. I remember in High School, everyone would come here for cheap all you can eat from Monday to Wednesday and stuff their faces. It never really appealed to me.

M wanted to give it a try since he heard it was good from his friends, so after 14 years of avoiding this place, I saw what Cockney Kings is all about.

We came on a Tuesday, so this place was packed for dinner.

You can also get take-out to avoid the line up inside. We did see a lot of people ordering take out.

All You Can Eat Pollock Fish and Chips ($9.99) is only available Monday to Wednesday. They use pollock, which is a cheaper variety of fish, thus the great price. You can only order this if you dine in.

My plate came with 3 pieces and I found with all them was that the pollock was quite small and its encrusted with so much batter that all you taste is the batter. The pollock is quite bland and not juicy at all.

The all you can eat also comes with pop. A good way to wash down all that batter and chips.

M on the other hand opted to get the regular fish and chips items off the menu. 1 piece halibut and 1 piece salmon. It comes with coleslaw and a soft bun.

It’s part of the combo dinner and it was $16.25 as M wanted to upgrade a piece to halibut. It comes with a bun and coleslaw on the side.

The bun was quite large and has 2 pieces of butter on the side.

The halibut was flakey and juicy. 1000x better than the pollock! The batter is quite thin so you can really taste the fish.

The salmon is also very nice! Cooked well so its still juicy. The batter is also thin.

Having had both all you can eat and the regular menu, I would stick with the regular menu and pay a bit more.

We Rate Cockney Kings Fish & Chips:

Address:
Kensington Square
6574 Hastings Street, Burnaby

Website:
http://cockneykings.ca/

In All You Can Eat

ORU: Breakfast Buffet with Benny Bar

June 9, 2014

Oru has a benny bar! Seeing that my friends and I have been on the hunt for the best Eggs Benny around Vancouver, we needed to make a stop here. When coming to Oru for breakfast/brunch, you have the option of ordering off the menu or partaking in the breakfast buffet.

Since the crab benny alone is $27 and the breakfast buffet is $33….we thought we might as well go for the buffet to get our moneys worth since drinks are also included.

The buffet includes house-made bacon, sausage, ham, breakfast wraps, sandwiches, build-your-own omelette, benny bar, potato hash, fruit, cheese, charcuterie, fresh pastries, parfait, cereals and a lot more.

It is only available on Saturday & Sunday from 11:30am – 2:00pm. There is no time limit, so you can stay the entire time.

Oru’s dining are is beautiful and it’s perfect for any special occasion or just a nice hangout with friends.

Each table had a beautiful rose and it really was a delight to see them using real flowers.

The benny bar, you can request eggs any way you like, build an omelette and of course choose your own eggs benny.

Crab Benny was a must since we wanted to get our money’s worth at the buffet. The english muffin is toasted and topped with crab meat, poached egg and hollandaise sauce.

You can order any amount of bennies you want. So, if you don’t want 2, you can just go for a singular one.

Crispy pork benny was my favourite. The pork belly was oozing with flavour and its delicious fat. Mmmm so good!

You can fill up on bread, lots of bread.

Many types of bread.

You have a large selection of cooked dishes.

There is french toast and waffles.

Bacon and sausages!

There is also smoked salmon cream cheese bagels. Beside it was also a pile of smoked salmon if you don’t want the carbs.

We grabbed a lot of protein on our plates.

Lots of meat!

Yummy.

Assorted cereals and toppings.

You have a fruit, cheese and meat section.

This was my favourite item from the fruit section, berries with chantilly cream. There’s blueberries. blackberries. strawberries and raspberries.

You can also order tea, coffee and juice. Their juices are freshly squeezed and really delicious. You can choose from apple, orange, grapefruit. and cranberry.

The service is really great and accommodating. They gave us little bottles of tabasco sauce and ketchup.

Many little pastries.

Croissants!

Sugar Buns!

I went for the almond croissant, chocolate croissant and some more smoked salmon.

Overall, we had a great experience at Oru. The food can be a hit or a miss, but you have a good selection. What made it a great experience was the service! Our server made sure we had everything and if there was something we were craving and they didn’t have it in the buffet, we would be able to make special requests to the kitchen. How amazing is that? My friend wanted plain donuts and they only had cinnamon powdered donuts, so the kitchen was able to make her a batch of plain donuts. When we thought only a few pieces would arrive at our table, we got 2 bowls of donuts! They were nice enough to let us pack it to go. I’m sure if you wanted a grilled cheese, you can ask them to make it.

We Rate Oru:

Address:
1038 Canada Pl
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.orucuisine.com/

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In All You Can Eat

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot: New Location on Broadway

May 5, 2014

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot has a new location on Broadway and Burrard. My coworkers and I decided to come here as it was semi close to our office. Plus, I always had a good time at their other locations in Richmond and Burnaby.

This location is a little bit different as they do not offer plum juice. They said it’s because they don’t have room for the equipment to prepare it. it made me sad because I do enjoy plum juice with hot pot. Some people do hate it.

It costs about $20 per person for hot pot plus soup base and any other specialty items.

We came at around 5:45pm on a weekday and it wasn’t packed yet. By the time it was 7pm, almost all the tables were full.

The broth we had was a mix of spicy and original broth. It’s a good option to get if you have a group of friends who can’t decide which broth to get. I generally find that spicy is great for cooking meat and the original is great for vegetables.

Remember to load up on the meat! The only downside of little sheep is that you are limited to 2 orders of each meat per round.

We ordered a lot of beef slices.

Lamb, beef and shrimp balls.

Spam, pork skin and quail eggs.

Cuttlefish and octopus

Sweet potato, bean curds, tofu puffs and frozen tofu.

Udon

More mushrooms and vegetables.

Overall, my coworkers thought it was a great place to go and enjoyed the food. The menu isn’t as vast compared to some other hot pot places, but they still have a decent selection. I just wish they didn’t have meat limits per order.

The service was decent but when it gets busy, it’s harder to flag down a server.

We Rate Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot:

Address:
101-1788 W. Broadway Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.littlesheephotpot.com/

In All You Can Eat

Bacchanal Buffet: Awesome Buffet in Las Vegas

April 23, 2014

Bacchanal Buffet in Caesars Palace is The Strip’s newest buffet. It was named Best Buffet in Las Vegas by USA Today, Las Vegas Review Journal and Las Vegas Weekly. They are heavily advertising all over The Strip and it’s very hard to miss.

They have over 500 items available and once you step inside, you will actually believe it. There’s a long line up, so when we arrived at 5:30pm, we were the last people they let line up. After that, everyone else makes electronic reservations and come back a few hours later. We waited about 45 minutes until we got seated. Even if you have a reservation, you will still be waiting.

If you are a fan of buffets, it’s definitely worth the wait. It costs $50 for the dinner buffet.

The dining is very nice. There’s tons of table inside.

When we got our table, the staff was nice enough to give us a quick tour of where everything was located. We were very amazed by the size of the buffet.

They have a mini juice bar. There’s horchata, grapefruit juice, and some other weird flavours. It was a cool concept but most of the drinks tasted bad.

Included in the buffet price are the usual tea, pop and juice. Orange juice..apple juice…the usual.

The seafood section was the first place where we gravitated towards. It’s where you get your moneys worth! Seafood! These ones are chilled crab legs.

You can alternatively get hot steamed crab legs in the back section of the buffet. They give you a plate full of them.

There are mussels! They were beautifully presented.

Piles of shrimp!

I couldn’t say not to shrimp, so i got some. There are also oyster shooters in a red sauce.

Oyster and mussels. They were ok, but not very fresh, which is expected because they don’t have an ocean nearby.

Ceviche comes in small shot glasses. It didn’t taste very good. Crab gaspacho was the orange item in the shot glass.

Crawfish were there too. It looked spicy, but thats just the colour of their shells. The size of them were a tad small.

All that bread! All those carbs.

A good amount of cheese selection.

Of course, there is also a lot of cured meats. So good.

Feeling like asian food? They have dim sum and a few noodles, rice and soup items.

Even congee with chinese donut. It was pretty decent.

The meat section was beautiful, you can ask for ribs, beef brisket, sausages, ribs, etc. They have a wide variety to order.

There’s also a bunch of sides too. A lot more than this image.

Fried chicken comes in cute little baskets and there are hot dogs and sliders.

There’s scallops, fish, and some veggies.

Beef Brisket, ribs, prime rib and some mac and cheese.

It was so good my other sister got the same thing.

The mains are pretty good, but the dessert has its own selection and boy….there are a lot of choices.

Cake pops look cute.

Panna Cotta and cheese cake.

Macarons, cookies, and some other things.

Lots of cupcakes to choose from too.

Rows of panna cotta and custard. The caramel custard was pretty damn good.

Gelato and ice cream.

There’s so much dessert.

Chocolate covered Long steamed strawberries are a must!!!

There’s a shaved ice station too.

Crepe station and you can top it with whatever you want. Your sweet tooth will love you.

Strawberries, chocolate lava cake and the mochi ice cream.

Macarons, tarts, ice cream and more strawberries.

Shaved ice, strawberry, chocolate, cake and mango pudding.

Overall, it’s a pretty good buffet with LOTS of selection. Pretty decent quality.

Afterwards, we walked to Bellagio to look at the fountain.

We Rate Bacchanal Buffet:

Address:
3570 Las Vegas Boulevard S
Las Vegas, NV

Website:
http://www.caesarspalace.com/restaurants/bacchanal-buffet.html

In All You Can Eat

The Wynn Buffet: Crab Legs, Prime Ribs, and Desserts

April 18, 2014

We went to the Wynn Buffet on a Sunday evening and we were hungry for some food. It is one of the popular buffets in town an costs $38.99 for dinner. It is moderately priced compared to some others out there.

I was excited since I’ve never been to a buffet in the states and I heard they were better than what we have in Vancouver.

We came right at 5:30 on a weekend and there was barely a line. There were people outside checking out prices and what was included.

No one in the queue, which was fantastic!

The seating area that we were put into was very festive with lots of colour and plants. There’s even a glass ceiling so there’s lots of natural light that comes in. Try to get seated in this area if possible.

Drinks come with the price of the buffet and some of us got coke and some of us got green tea.

There were lots of people inside lining up at the different food stations.

The first station that we gravitated towards was the seafood section. We got a few plates of crab legs and shrimp.

After all the seafood, we went into the starters area, where they had lots of cute little dishes.

Of course I had to start with fruits, veggies and mussels. I just wanted a taste of something light.

Beet salad is put in this little cute container. Tasted good but the beet stains easily. Don’t drop it on yourself.

Then we had to get our moneys worth and eat all the meat! Beef, turkey, and chicken!

Prime rib is a must! Try to see if you can get a medium rare piece.

The ribs looked very alluring and smelled great.

Unfortunately, the ribs were SUPER dry. I would try to avoid the ribs if possible. But, perhaps its just our visit.

I love getting the sliced meats. Pretty damn good.

Lots of sausages too. They had 3 different kinds to choose from, but there’s nothing stoping you from trying them all. Thats what all you can eat is all about.

Their pizza’s were ok, but I didn’t get any of this since I didn’t want to fill up on carbs.

A mismatched plate of desserts and savoury food.

Cream puffs looked beautiful but the filling tasted like whipped butter. It would have been so much better with custard.

The Wynn buffet has a good amount of selection, but the quality was just average. There are more items that I took pictures of. The service was good but after a while, we lost our server so it was hard trying to get a refill of our drinks.

I’m still on the hunt for the best buffet.

We Rate Wynn Buffet:

Address:
3131 S Las Vegas Boulevard
Las Vegas, NV 89109

Website:
http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/Restaurants/CasualDining/TheBuffet

In All You Can Eat

Fatty Cow Hot Pot: All You Can Eat Hot Pot in Vancouver

March 26, 2014

Fatty Cow Hot Pot on Victoria Drive is known for their amazing hot pot. Best part is that you don’t need to go to Richmond for some goood all you can eat hot pot. My friends and I come here when we don’t want to travel far. Plus, the interior is nice and the quality of ingredients are pretty good.

We made reservations in the afternoon and they didn’t have many spots left, so we began eating at 6pm. I don’t speak Chinese, so it was very difficult to make a reservation as they couldn’t understand me half of the time. It worked out after a lot of repeating to make sure they didn’t mix up the time with the amount of people in the party. 6pm for 5 people can be a bit confusing.

The prices are reasonable too. $20 for adults with a few additional addons for broth, drinks and whatever else. You will probably end up spending around $30 after tax and tips.

They only accept cash and debt, so make sure you have one or the other.

Double Soup ($8.50) has hot and spicy on one side and the other was a clear vegetable broth. This is my favourite kind since the spicy is great for cooking meat and the clear broth is best for vegetables. Also, its a good way to satisfy the different tastes at the table. Me and my friends would never be able to agree on which broth is better.

To accompany the hot pot, I ordered Sour Plum Juice ($1.50 – glass | $5 a jug). It’s definitely an acquired taste. Only the Chinese people at the table liked it and all the Koreans thought it tasted like BBQ sauce. They couldn’t handle it.

The first order of meat arrived. We ordered a lot, but we had to get our moneys worth. In these huge stacks, there was Beef Rib Eye, Beef Sirloin, Pork Jowl, and Lamb.

You can’t go wrong with any of these.

Marinated Beef and Bean Curd always good stuff to order too. The bean curd does look a bit weird, but it is good.

Beef Cubes had potential, but you have to make sure you don’t over cook them or else they will be chewy and flavourless.

Spam is required. My friends love spam but its not for everyone. Nom Nom Nom Nom spam.

Here comes the healthier items! Vegetables, tofu, mushrooms and the fish balls/meat balls. There needs to be a balance.

Fish Skin is surprisingly AMAZING. It’s crispy and crunchy like chips. You can eat them as is or you can dunk it into the broth. I know it seems weird to eat fish skin, but it’s really good and addictive.

Frozen Tofu is another one of my favourite items to order. It’s so porous, so it has lots of space to absorb the broth. The texture is so different from regular tofu. Get this!!

The oysters are on steroids or something. It’s huge! It was the size of my palms. As they aren’t fresh, it’s good to make sure its cooked all the way through. These were so massive, that it was hard to enjoy.

Mango Pudding was a complimentary at the end of the meal. It was a nice touch since other places won’t have desserts.

Overall, we all had a good time. There’s nothing better than spending a nice dinner with friends eating mass amount of meat and arguing over what side of the broth we should be putting the ingredients into. I’ve never had a disappointing time here yet.

We Rate Fatty Cow Hot Pot Restaurant:

Address:
5108 Victoria Dr.
Vancouver, BC, Canada
(604) 568-6630

Website:
http://www.fattycowhotpot.com/

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In All You Can Eat

Montana’s Cookhouse: Wednesday All You Can Eat Ribs

November 29, 2013

It was M’s Birthday, so he chose to go to Montana’s Cookhouse. As it is a Wednesday, they have all you can eat ribs! I made sure to prepare and wore sweat pants to prepare for this occasion. Trying to figure out what camera to bring to a restaurant is always a pain. As I haven’t used my HTC One yet, I used it instead of my iPhone or my LX7. The last time I went to Montana’s we were able to eat a large amount of ribs. 3.5 racks to be exact, but back then they were much smaller. I was definitely up for the challenge!

If you come here during your birthday, they make you put on a moose hat, sing you happy birthday in front of the restaurant, and bring you a free piece of cake. M of course was too shy, so he didn’t tell anyone it has his birthday.

The interior is very country. It’s family friendly and has tons of seating. There’s some pretty cool things on the ceiling to look at. Like… cars, canoes, antlers, etc.

Water comes in mason jars and you get some crayons to draw all over the table. It’s fun to just doodle as you wait for the food.

For the ribs, you get a bucket for your bones, lots of napkins, cutlery, ketchup, wet naps, and straws for your drinks.

AYCE Back Ribs ($28.99) starts off with the first rack with the flavour sauce of your choice, 2 sides and cornbread. We were surprised to see the ribs were so large and meaty. Each rack has 12 ribs and the meat was moist, plus it had a nice smokey flavour.

As our order arrived, we immediately put in an extra order for half a rack since it took the quite a while to get our first order.

Of all the flavours, our favourite was the Texas Bold.

3 people’s worth of half a rack of ribs. We could only finish 2 more before we had to stop. We were very full after 14 ribs. We asked if we could take it home, but we weren’t able to. I guess that’s a good thing since some people might abuse the AYCE system. We felt bad for over-ordering since we didn’t want it all to go to the trash.

Overall, the ribs were pretty good with the Texas Bold sauce and I would come again for AYCE. It’s a bit expensive, so only go when you have a crazy appetite. Do be warned that the service is very slow. We waited about 40 minutes to get our first order, but we knew it wouldn’t be a quick dinner, so we had our phones with games to keep us company.

We Rate Montana’s:

Address:
1046 – 2929 Barnet Hwy
Coquitlam, BC

Website:
http://www.montanas.ca/

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In All You Can Eat

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot: Hot Pot in Burnaby

September 22, 2013

Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot has several locations around the world in the United States, China, Japan, and Canada. In the Vancouver area, there is one in Richmond and most recently their Burnaby location just opened.

They have all you can eat Hot Pot for $19.95 (Adult) and $14.98 (Children), you then have to add $9.99 for the soup base. The price is pretty decent.

I came here with the ChineseBites crew for dinner to see how it compares to the other hot pot places in town.

The interior is quite large and can fit a lot of people. They even have outdoor patio seating too.

All the sauce for the hot pot is available in the middle of the restaurant. It’s on top of a cart and you’re free to grab as much as your like.

The different sauces are:

Soy sauce
Vinegar
Peanut Sauce
Chili paste
Chili oil
Satay sauce

The peanut sauce and satay sauce are most popular.

Once you have your sauce, you are ready to start cooking!

The broth we had was a mix of spicy and original broth. It’s a good option to get if you have a group of friends who can’t decide which broth to get. I generally find that spicy is great for cooking meat and the original is great for vegetables.

Lamb and Beef Meatballs.

Cuttlefish and shrimp meatballs.

Beef slices

Lamb Slices

Seafood

Garlic Beef

Oyster Mushroom and Enoki Mushroom

Frozen Tofu and Fresh Tofu

Pork Liver, Beef Tendon, Bible Tripe, Honeycomb Tripe and Pork Blood.

Dumplings

Overall the All You Can Eat Hot Pot items are pretty solid and I wasn’t disappointed. Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is still one of my favourite hot pot places in town. The only downside is that the service here is pretty poor. If you want another order, you really gotta track them down.

Additional Items off the Hot Pot Menu

Plum Juice ($2 with free refills) is a must, but for anyone new to this drink, you may not like it.

Chinese Donut wouldn’t be an item I would order at a hot pot restaurant. Perhaps if it was closer to noon.

Seasme Bun was quite dense, so it can fill you up before you you even begin hot pot.

Lamb Skewers has a strong taste of cumin and was quite delicious.

Spicy Beef Skewers were quite good and full of flavour.

Overall, I think I would just stick with the all you can eat menu. It’s pretty good.

We Rate Mongolian Little Sheep Hot Pot:

Address:
#200 – 4755 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.littlesheephotpot.com/

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In All You Can Eat

Toyotomi: All You Can Eat Hot Pot & Sashimi

July 24, 2013

Toyatomi is a Japanese restaurant that features all you can eat hot pot and sashimi in Richmond. When I heard there was all you can eat sashimi, I just had to come here with some friends.

We made reservations ahead of time for 8pm. For those that didn’t make a reservation, they had to wait a while for a seat. Make sure to get a reservation before coming here.

AYCE hotpot is $14 and the addition of the AYCE sashimi is $6. You can’t order the AYCE sashimi on its own.

All the information is on the wall if you are sitting in a booth. You need to add extra for the soup base, plus and sauces. The price tag does add up. At the end of the meal, it’s about $30 per person.

This is the main ordering sheet where you want to choose what you want. On a few of the items, there are quantity restrictions like the tuna toro sashimi, oysters and black cod.

Anything you order and don’t finish, they have a penalty record displayed on their menus to discourage people from over ordering.

Soup base is an additional $8.68. There’s no way of not ordering it or else all your food would just taste boiled and bland. We chose the sukiyaki beef flavour.

Oysters, black cod, tofu puff, mussels, tofu puff, shrimp wonton, and fish tofu.

They are very accurate about their orders, so what you order is what you get. If you complain, the servers are going to give you some attitude.

Tai sashimi, ika sashimi, saba sashimi, tuna sashimi, salmon sashimi, spicy tuna sashimi, spicy salmon sashimi, and tuna toro sashimi.

There’s a good amount of variety, and the $6 extra is definitely worth it.

AAA prime beef, snow beef, pork shoulder, lamb shoulder, and pork cheek.

It’s per piece, so make sure to order lots in the very beginning.

Vegetables!

Deep Fried Chili salmon

It contains a lot of long bones, so not very good for kids…or in our case adults that hate picking at bones.

BBQ Yam and deep fried mochi.

Some people at the table likes it, but some people didn’t. Instead of filling up on carbs, you should definitely order more protein.

Beef sashimi is very good. Order lots of it!!!!

The second time we ordered salmon sashimi, it looked so much better and presentable. When you go during peak times, the cutting of the sashimi gets a bit sloppy. But later in the night, it gets so much better.

Overall, the people who I dined with had mixed reactions. The quality of the food was good, but the service was a bit lacking. The quality also varies depending on how busy the restaurant is. Also, the extra changes for soup base and sauces.

We Rate Toyotomi:

Address:
110 – 8111 Anderson Road
Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.toyotomicanada.com/Maps.html

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In All You Can Eat

Point Zero Four Fusion: Mediocre Hot Pot

January 23, 2013

Flo and I bought a voucher from SocialShopper to use at Point Zero Four Fusion. The voucher would entitle us to all you can eat hot pot for 2 people, plus a soup base of our choice, 2 drinks and 2 sauces. For $25 it wasn’t a bad deal at all.

After we bought it, our friends warned us about this place. We looked online and saw horrid reviews. I know it’s probably not good to read reviews before going to a restaurant. We tried to keep an open mind when we visited.

The interior is very large and has tons of seating!

We both had Sour Plum juice to go with the hot pot. It’s not a drink for everyone, but pairs nicely.

We added a few dollars to upgrade the drink to unlimited. The server wasn’t very keen on refilling our drinks and we ended up only drinking our 2 cups and the jug. We felt kinda ripped off since they said it was unlimited.

Satay Soup + Spicy soup wasn’t included in the voucher, so we added a few dollars to upgrade. There is definitely a few upgrades you need to do on top of the voucher to get a good experience.

Our frog legs, pork collar, sirloin beef, and grade beef.

Siu choy, tong ho, spinach, and baby bok choy.

Mushrooms, bean curd, tofu, fish, chicken, shrimp balls, beef ball, and cuttlefish balls.

black fungus, frozen tofu. pork blood, tofu puffs, and glutenous balls.

An incorrect amount of items arrived at our table. We only ordered 2 pieces of pork blood, but there was 6 pieces. We were not that thrilled about eating that much pork blood. The quality of most of the items on their all you can eat menu were OK, but not very amazing.

A few items we ordered did not arrive. We were missing some meat, oysters, noodles and some cooked items. We didn’t realize till the end but decided not to bother the waitress since she seemed very rude. The experience here was ok, but there are so many other hot pot restaurants around.

We Rate Point Zero Four Fusion:

Address:
8500 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

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In All You Can Eat

Pork Belly Beer House: Korean BBQ without the Grill

November 5, 2012

The Pork Belly Beer House is a Korean restaurant just off of Robson Street close to Safeway. It looks shady on the inside and outside, but it quite popular with Koreans. It gets quite packed in the evening since you can eat all the pork belly and side dishes for under $20.

The last time I was at Pork Belly Beer House, we had a mediocre all you can eat pork belly. We decided to come back to celebrate new jobs with friends and eat meat. For $16, you get pork belly, bulgogi, salad, rice, soup, kimchi, pop and sauces.

One of the biggest changes was that you can’t cook your own meat anymore. 🙁 Due to fire regulations and their inability to provide proper ventilation in the restaurant, the meat comes to you already cooked.

This was very disappointing because the point of Korean BBQ is cooking your own meat to your liking. We were not impressed because I like my Pork Belly crispy. We asked them to bring a few other dishes on the crispier side, but that never happened.

The pork belly is poor in quality and there is more fat than meat. What I hated the most about this pre-cooked option is that when you are half way done the plate of meat, it all goes cold.

The bulgogi was just lightly seasoned beef and grilled. Nothing amazing about it.

The food is just passable, but is only a good place for people who want a lot of food and drink. The meat is quite fatty, so make sure you don’t come here too often! Make sure you have a Korean with you since it’s easier to communicate with the servers to ensure you get what you order.

We rate Pork Belly Beer House:

Address:
Robson Street/West End
841 Bidwell Street
Vancouver, BC V6G

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In All You Can Eat

Mongolian Little Sheep Hot Pot: Good Food, Horrible Service

January 24, 2012

TaiwaneseGirl wanted to come here for Hot Pot since it’s a large popular chain restaurant in Asia. Mongolian Little Sheep Hot Pot is located inside Lansdowne Mall in Richmond.

We made reservations at 7:30pm, but they didn’t honor our reservation. So, we waited…and waited…and waited. 40 minutes later we finally got a table. Clearly, we were not impressed with the service. There was 5 of us, so it was a ridiculous wait.

This place is packed on the weekends even though it is so large inside.

All You Can Eat Hot Pot ($19.99/ person + $9.99 broth) with half spicy and half original broth. It’s good to satisfy people who like spicy and non-spicy. The spicy side is really really really good for cooking meat and the original side is good for vegetables.

I usually avoid spicy, but I found the spicy side addictive for cooking meat and tofu!

For dinner, we chose this all you can eat option since it was too expensive buying ala carte.

The sauce is do-it-yourself. You just need to find the table of this stuff and begin mixing. You can choose from the following sauces:

Soy sauce
Vinegar
Peanut Sauce
Chili paste
Chili oil
Minced garlic
Satay sauce

I usually put in a lot of chili oil, satay sauce, and garlic. It’s really up to you what you want your sauce to taste like.

Vegetables, enoki mushrooms, fish balls, corn, tofu, and crab meat!

Udon noodles and vermicelli noodles.

Chicken and fish.

Raw Beef Slices! We order lots and lots and lots of this!

The food was good and we had a great time, but the largest problem here is the service.

Words of Wisdom:

Make Reservations, but not guaranteed to be held for you
Delicious broth
Decent prices for all you can eat
Ala Carte is very expensive
Very poor service

We Rate Mongolian Little Sheep Hot Pot:

Address:
#405-5300 No.3 Road
Richmond, BC
Website:
http://www.littlesheephotpot.com/

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In All You Can Eat

Fatty Cow Hot Pot: Perfect Winter Food

December 19, 2011

Fatty Cow Hot Pot is located on Victoria and 35th ave for all you can eat hot pot. I like going here since it’s closer than going to the ones near Richmond. All you can eat is around $20 per person. The #YVRBreakfastClub / #604insomnia group headed here in very unique outfits. Some of us had superhero clothes and some had our PJs on.

The interior is surprisingly nice with lots of tables to accomodate large groups and small groups. Always good to make reservations.

Each setting comes with tea, utensils and all the bowls and plates you need.

You get soy sauce, sesame sauce and satay sauce. The first set are free, but if you need more, it costs $0.50 more.

You first choose your soup base, which is an additional $7, which sucks since you are already paying so much for all you can eat.

Nonetheless, there lots of other items to choose from. Best to order lots of meat and seafood.

Theres also a second side to order drinks and other stuff.

We got the hotpot split in half for 2 types of broth. It accommodates the different tastes, but eventually it all starts tasting the same because some soup from one side will move to the other. It’s $8.50 for double broths.

Fried Fish Skin is something you must order! It’s really good! It might sound a bit strange, but its kinda like chips. You can eat it just as is or dip it into the broth.

To get our moneys worth, we got tons of meat and also TONS of oysters. We also tried ordering 10+ oysters on a 2nd order, but they didn’t think we would finish it, so we kept asking for it. Their oysters are pretty good and very large.

We also ordered other items, but I was a bit too busy eating hahaha.

Sour Plum Juice ($5 – Jug) was good! I’ve never had it with hot pot, but it went well with it. If you order a jug, you will have enough for everyone (7 ppl).