The Buffet at Grand Villa

First of all, I will say that we had an Encore voucher that gave us the entire dinner buffet for $ 11.55 for both of us. Not only that, we actually lost the voucher but the casino customer service was able to track down the person who remembered giving it and reprinted it. On that basis, I should be writing a truly excellent review. I did tack on an extra star for good service, but the food still needs to speak for itself, regardless of the price.
I was told that the difference between the food here and Uncle Willy’s was that the chefs who cook the food here cook for nearby restaurant as well, so the food is better. I’ll take their word for it, and there’s lots of regulars here. Still, the food itself left a «meh» impression.
Some of the dishes, such as the soup, rolled potatoes and steamed vegetables, were either too salty or OK depending on the batch they were part of. The roast beef was quite rare — is that the popular choice? Most of the staples were there and the variety was there, but the only interesting things were the perogies (good) and the shepherd’s pie (not so good).
Surprisingly, as a vegetarian, I actually found my choices to be better than a meat eater’s would be. I did leave completely full, but not sure if I’d come back at full price.
The service, as mentioned, was great, aside from the staff appearing in a hurry to take away the used plates. For a buffet, they were quite helpful otherwise.

The worst buffet ever. Only go here if you have a 2-​for-​1 coupon, and lower your expectations.
When they renovated the casino, they introduced this buffet with amazing seafood options (literally KING CRAB LEGS). Then they changed it to generic snow crab legs on their useless Seafood Thursdays.
Today, the buffet is a total waste of time. They’re better off closing it down and rebranding it as a decent sit-​down restaurant. Like everyone says, there’s maybe 8 «entrees», a salad bar, a couple of bad soups, and a lot of dinner rolls.
Their dry and disgusting expired salmon (don’t worry, they cake on a ton of sauce on top of it to mask the stench) and the ‘U-​carve’ roast beef are probably their signature dishes. That’s right — you carve it yourself.
Right next to the beef, in the entrees, is the bread pudding for some reason. Their entrees do in fact include buttered up corn and potatoes, which, when compared to all the other trash, makes you go «oh wow this is good» (when in reality, in nice buffets, no one looks twice at the corn or the damn potatoes — you’re really grasping at straws here when you tell yourself their buttered corn is ‘good’).
After you’ve suffered through dinner (seriously, their salmon tastes expired), you can at least look forward to dessert…
That’s if you look forward to some cheap Costco cream puffs, a coffee flavored cake, and… that’s probably it. Oh wait, there’s that random bread pudding next to the beef. And they have the soft-​serve ice cream, which is basically the only good thing there. Yes, pay $ 20+ to enjoy soft-​serve McDonalds-​like ice cream.
They have a spiffy Coca-​Cola drink machine which allows you to make any kind of flavored drink you want. Knowing these guys, they probably asked Coca Cola to increase the water content in those drinks, so that they can save money on the syrup mixture.
This place absolutely sucks and I hope they close it down for being such an embarrassment to all casino buffets, the city of Burnaby, and Canada itself.

Today i decided to get there 12n for the famous buffet. Good luck if u can get something to eat. it is ohmygosh terrible. so many people line up, can’t get in. it is over packed, Even Delinoodles, Personas & even that Bar is packed. U would think it is free food. but No! Where did everyone come from? Poor us we can’t even get any food. I wish they do something about that. The massive people wanting food, & they are not providing for the customers. we waited 4hrs. we decided to leave the casino and go somewhere to eat.

So my family got here ten minutes before they closed without realizing that they were going to be closing. The girl should have not taken us in. She told us that there was food available but we’d just have to get as much as we can before they close to prepare for dinner. So we got in there… but there was almost nothing to eat. Each of us had half a plate to eat and I won’t even mention how the food tasted.
Then the girl who accepted us comes to us and tell us to eat more when there is NOTHING. The coffee and the hot water wasn’t even hot! it was this really gross lukewarm coffee… never again will I go to this buffet.

For the bad experiences I have read here I can’t say mine was too bad, maybe it was the fact that I read these reviews while lining up to pay, or maybe, just maybe there have been others that have complained and the place has taken notice by actually improving the food. Located right beside Persona’s, facing the #1 highway, this buffet is tucked deep in the casino, I came, not with a 2 for 1 coupon, but the fact they gave a free voucher to my mom cause it was her birthday in the month of March. Because of that, we decided to eat here, and as people have said, it’s about $ 23, but if you have an Encore membership card you get $ 3 off, so you take your paid receipt and sit where you want in this buffet.
This buffet is one of the smaller ones I have ever stepped in, let’s put that out first, it’s like a small restaurant that doesn’t have that much seating, but it’s roomy enough. The staff working here are very curteous, friendly, and cleared the tables everytime you had a plate empty, as there is not that much floor to cover (not bad, never a leftover mess!). On to the food, now the closest you are able to compare to is probably the River Rock, and this is a way lesser buffet than that, but quality wise, as I have heard the name Uncle Willy’s, there is better food here, trust me on this one. From what I remember, they had two soups to choose from (Italian wedding and bacon, potato chowder on this night), to start, many bowls, soup spoons at the station, and a ton of prepackaged Ritz crackers. The next portion is the ‘build your own’ salad, with a choice of romaine or mixed greens as your base, with many additions to your healthy meal of choice, from adding ‘real’ bacon bits, olives, feta, parmesan, raisins, croutons, mixed fruits, and three dressings (ceasar, thosand islands, and Italian on this day). There is more that is offered, I’m just going off memory, but not bad, I ended up going back for salad near the end.
Now you come to the cooked food, not as vast a selection as bigger buffets, as stated, but a good variety, I noticed some Chinese style foods, which I dodged as AYCE food of that ethnicity is already at home for me, so no thank you, I will try the other stuff. Baked baby potatoes, buttered corn, some peas, some fried rice that looked like Uncle Ben’s, some sloppy tomato sauce’d spaghetti, some cut up rack of ribs, lemon dill chicken, turkey sausage patties (not good), honey garlic meat of some kind, baked salmon and a white sauced pasta (looked and tasted like Alfredo sauce to me), and once you reached the end there was a big slab of roast beef with a good hot pot of gravy for your drenching needs. With the roast beef at the end only sometimes was there a guy there, as he was also in charge of changing up the food and watching what was getting empty in the buffet, but if you waited for him to get back you could get him to cut up a pretty good piece.
At the end, off near the front was the smallest dessert station I have ever seen for a buffet, 4 items, not much variety at all, but I ate enough where I was just picking at it a bit with my mom eating most of the sweets. There were cream puffs, chocolate cake, and two other variations of cake, no jello for all those who are wondering, and if your looking for fruits as desserts… go back to the salad area… it wasn’t bad! (much variety in the fruit salad mix, from oranges, honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple and grapes. from what I remembered).
One last thing, they have a drink area, filled with a pop machine that is serve yourself, and on the side of that a hot drink area filled with boiling water, tea bags on the side and coffee, seems like I was with the elder crowd tonight, as there was no coffee cups and everyone was talking a hot drink on this evening.
If you take it for what it is, this buffet offers enough for the size of the place, sure this is a casino, but doesn’t have the foot traffic of the more popular River Rock. I didn’t see much food wastage from the people who were eating here, and also they ration out the food good here where it’s not sitting out too long and they don’t put too much of one thing out, just enough for the people who are eating here. I would not call this a steal of deal but if you are just looking for a buffet to gorge down food, the quality isn’t that bad, and you have to remember you are getting all you can eat, the days of cheap buffet’s are over, but if your comparing this with the River Rock buffet, it does fall short.

I came here with my mom the other day for mother/​daughter day. My mom always comes to this casino and gets coupons and freebies. She had a 2 for 1 at the buffet and invited me along. It was perfect ’cause I had a few concerts that week and my basement is under reno, therefore, cooking wasn’t appealing. I was disappointed in the buffet spread. My mom loved it. Her food preferences and diet are limited and simple whereas I expect more. I am not a buffet diva, however, what was offered was not worth $ 22. Even at the 2 for 1 coupon we split the cost $ 11 each… it was still not worth it. The have basic salad and fixings. The meats were either fried or low end cooked. This was the first time I went to a buffet and ate nothing but salad and a small piece of meat. Sad isn’t it. I actually stared at some dishes for 5 minutes that my mom thought that I was hypnotized ’cause I couldn’t walk back with anything other than mostly salad. Even the buffet at Uncle Willy’s is better and that is not saying much. As for the desserts, they were coffee cakes that look like something that you can buy at Costco. This was the first time I skipped dessert. This shocked my mom.

My wife and I decided to go to the Villa buffet for our 42^nd anniversary, Sept 25^th 2013 as the casino had kindly given me a comp. buffet for my birthday in Sept. The area has had some renos done recently, and were anxious to try it out. I thought they might have made it larger than before, but no, it was still small in size. More tables makes it very confining.
The hostess/​cashier guided us to our postage stamp size table with plastic chairs. The décor here is very much on the cheap side. Not impressed.
We have been to many buffet dinners over the years, and I must say that this is the worst experience we have ever encountered. The food quality is poor at best, and the selection is very limited. The food area did not have a list of what was being served, salad dressings not marked etc. The hot items were labeled with hand written notes and taped to the glass barrier? The vegetables were over cooked, and some even had dark marks on them. Not very appetizing. At the end of the line there was a roast beef that was very much over cooked, and no one there to cut a piece for you. There were a few scraps left on the board, but no cutter. Was this a self serve? Who knows.
The interesting part of this was the non existent service. After I had finished my salad, and my wife had gone to get her main meal, I had a little accident at the table. There appeared to be only one person clearing tables, so I moved my salad plate to the side of the small table and inadvertently tipped over a full glass of coke into my lap and all over the floor and chair. After a few minutes of searching for some help to clean up the mess, I found the one person clearing tables and explained what had happened. She disappeared for about a minute and came back with three paper napkins, looking at me like, you made the mess you clean it up, and then walked off. Being covered in pop I did the best I could to clean up. Obviously not enough napkins to clean up, I again asked her for at least a damp towel. Her response was if you need more napkins, go see the cashier. Really helpful!!! I don’t expect to much service at buffets, but this was total unacceptable.
The desert bar was a joke, very small and little selection. I have to say the coffee was about the only thing I enjoyed.
For a price of $ 24.95 we were extremely disappointed. We will never go back.

Welcome to the saddest place on Earth.
This buffet could put a Michelin Star on Uncle Willy’s. From the moment you walk into the dining room, you know it’s not a good sign with only 2 or 3 other occupied tables. They look up at you and lip the words «I’m sorry».
The buffet table is probably the smallest one I’ve ever seen. Not smallest in a Casino, I mean smallest ever. Each major animal apparently gets one representative dish. I felt especially saddened for the seafood dept though, whose signature dish was aptly named «Seafood Cake» — so sad.
The dessert table was smaller than the Mahjong table my grandma used to kickass on — very sad.
Not sad yet? The regular price for this medley of culinary disappointments is 21.95 $ plus tax.
Dont’ say I didn’t warn ya ;)

I had dinner here tonight with my husband because we received a 2 for 1 coupon and even then it was not worth it.
With the coupon, the total came to $ 23 tax included and I left a little hungry. Yes, a 7 month pregnant woman left a buffet hungry. That’s sad, isn’t it?
Let’s go through the array of options at this «buffet».
** Roasted Potatoes — dry and hard. Unfortunately, I’m guessing it was sitting under the heat lamp for a while.
** Brussel Sprouts — soggy and overcooked.
** Corn — drenched in butter so that tasted OK.
** Pasta with tomato sauce — The corners were dry from sitting under the lamp and it was hard to chew. Tasted bland as well.
** Fried Rice — Average at best, but the only thing I ended up eating a lot of since I was hungry.
** Ginger Chicken — nasty, soggy and sweet
** Shrimp — I forget what type of sauce they used, but again, it felt like a pound of sugar was dumped into the pan.
** Roast Beef — Dry and more dry. I had the medium rare piece and tried to drench it with gravy too.
I can go on, but there’s no point. The Buffet at Grand Villa was the worst buffet I’ve been to and I can’t believe they have the audacity to charge $ 21.95 per person for dinner. Save your money and calories — DO NOT go.

My family and I stumbled upon the Grand Villa Casino and while walking around we noticed signs everywhere advertising a buffet. We noticed that it was Seafood night (Fri & Sat) so we decided to give it a try. The buffet started at 4:30pm and we were pleasantly surprised to find out we got an additional 25% off (as an encore member) so the seafood buffet was just a little over $ 18!
AMBIANCE: The place was a little small but it was modern and clean.
FOOD: The selection wasn’t as big as the buffet at River Rock but the important thing was that the food tasted good! The seafood was fresh and flavorful and the alaskan king crab definitely didn’t disappoint. The selection consisted of: salad bar, alaskan king crab, shrimp, 2 kinds of fish, mussels, smoked salmon, roast beef, veggies, and a few other usual buffet food like fried rice and pasta. The dessert selection was very small with only about 4 options but again, it was delicious.
SERVICE: Since it’s a newly opened restaurant, there were a few kinks… it did take a while for the cashier to process payment which kept the line up long. Though alaskan king crab was served, there were no crab crackers. The servers had to hand them out to each table after realizing this. The service was very friendly and kind though and our plates were promptly cleared each time.
PRICE: Regular price for seafood night is $ 25.99 which is still worth it for the quality of food you get.
We’ll definitely be back!