ottawa foodies

Mediocre is the name of the game here. We went for their $9.99 Thursday night buffet (they claim that is a special price, but it has been set at that for months). I like putting tiny amounts of money down on the horses, so it is fun to go out there. But the buffet is truly mediocre. They have a very old fashioned salad bar (hey fake bacon bits!), some pasta and potato salads and a variety of hot items - battered fried shrimp, fries, ribs, chicken strips... Carved ham and roast beef (done to medium well). The ham was decent. The fries were allright. I had a salad. They have a sundae bar with real melted chocolate for sauce. For $10, sure it is fine - beats a big mac and fries. Not that I will ever go back. It is ticked off in the box now, and next time I go to play the ponies, I will eat ahead of time.

Oh, but the service was great - friendly, there when you need it, accommodating. Too bad the food could not match.

Went to the casino in the middle of the week and decided to have dinner there. For $9.99 you get an array of foods, with nothing that stood out beyond mainstream. Most of the choices are of the run-of-the-mill variety but admittedly well prepared for what they were.

A couple of pleasant surprises included "fresh" peel and eat shrimp that had flavour! All too often buffet shrimp usually tastes like watery ice cubes that have sat around for too long. These didn’t. They had another shrimp choice deep fried in some sort of batter…I’d pass on these as I found them to be over-battered and slightly soggy, even though they had just been brought out.

They also had a plainish but rather tasty foccacia that you could dip in a dish of balsamic and olive oil. Yummy.

After trying the ribs here twice, I have decided that I love them enough to try to create them at home. I suspect there is some Jack Daniels or other bourbon type spirit in the sauce and is caramelized to the short ribs quite agreeably. Double yum.

The salads did not make me jump for joy. But they have several choices and you can make your own; the dressings were the standards. I still haven’t figured out if their cole slaw was a creamy or a vinaigrette, maybe a combination of both? It was amusing but could use some celery seed.

Desserts were typical, there was fresh fruit offered and a sunday bar.

All in all, it is definitely worth your 10 dollars.

I have also been to the Seafood & Prime Rib night on Saturdays for $20. Also tasty and worth it, especially since there is a casino and race track right there!

Not a place I'd go out of my way for dinner but since I live close...

The dinner buffet has very slightly greater selection than the massive lunch buffet... maybe 2 more hot dishes and 2 more desserts. That's "spiced duck" at the front left of my pic. The whole plate was delicious. Kind of mind blowing really.