Graze Restaurant & Grill

awesome selection of brunch… even their regular buffet is good as well as the price. i recommend sunday brunch… need reservations.

I was in a carnivorous mood last night so decided to have dinner at Graze. They offer a prime rib buffet with yorkshire pudding, a basic salad buffet consisting of greens, a bean salad, a asian noodle salad and pasta salad. The sides accompanying the primerib was a pasta with pesto sauce and steam rice and vegetables as well as shepherd’s pie. The asian noodle salad was sadly clumpy and the noodles tasted like paste, I didn’t try the bean salad which didn’t look much better than the noodle salad. The prime rib was tough and dry and the gravy which was desperately needed was somewhat flavourless. The shepherd’s pie wasnot quite what I expected. I didn’t care for the predominance of cumin as the spice; the mash potato had obviously been fluffed up with liquid and tasted «watery». The best part of the buffet was sadly the fruit selection. The watermelon, cantelope and cherries were fresh and sweet, gratefully cleansing my palate of a disappointing meal. If it’s quantity you’re looking for this is the place, the slab of prime rib was sadly left on its own and you could cut as big a slab of it as you wanted. For $ 21.95 it was not worth the price.

This is a bit of a mixed review, as I’ve tried the many different versions of Graze’s buffet. There’s the weekday breakfast, the weekday lunch, the dinner buffet and the Sunday brunch.
So I’m going to give 4 different ratings and reviews for each:
Weekday Breakfast: 2.5 of 5
As restaurant buffets go, it’s about average. Quite small in terms of selection, with a few cereals, eggs omelet station or scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, hashbrowns, and fruit. It’s good enough for the day, though it’s nothing extraordinary either. If you’re there as a business person or a quick stayover, it’s more than enough for a decent hearty breakfast. Service is a little slow, but then, I don’t imagine it’s a busy place also. After coffee and taxes, it’s about $ 20 for breakfast, which is about the norm for a resto buffet.
Weekday Lunch 3 of 5
Again, as lunch buffets go, it’s not particularly huge. A pasta dish, vegetable dish, some breads, potatoes and whatever else is in rotation at the time. But what separates this from the other times is the carvery station of Roast Beef (not prime rib, more like Eye of Rib or Round) which is surprisingly well made despite the quality of cut. When my uncle went for his 4^th helping (hey, so he was hungry), the slices kinda got thinner and thinner so I assume they don’t make too many of the roasts at lunch time. Price is pretty reasonable at $ 20 a person more or less if you want to really enjoy a heavy lunch.
Dinner Buffet 3.5 of 5
Much like the lunch buffet, the selection is small, but this time the carvery station is comprised of Prime Rib. I really love this cut as many others do, so it’s worth it for the occasional protein injection of fatty marbled meat. There was also a chicken stew at the time I was there, and there’s a ok selection of desserts as well. Why I’m not going 4 or 5 star? Well, this is still a situation of quality over quantity. The Prime Rib was good, but still a but tougher than say something from Vintage steakhouse, so I suspect they used a 2 star cut as opposed to the 4 and 5 star cuts. Also, it wasn’t particularly well seasoned.
Sunday Brunch 4 of 5
It’s in Sunday Brunch where the Graze excels. It’s probably the single largest hotel sunday brunch in the city, with tables all over the lobby floor filled with pastas, breads, carvery station with 2 to 3 meats, omelet stations, salads, soups, cheeses, cold seafood and more. I’m honestly kinda amazed by the raw selection they offered. While the food quality itself is more 3 star than 4, the selection and the appeal to all palates make it a 4 to me. So much so, that I’ve been banned from future visits by family as they’re worried I just might go banshee and have that one mint too much (a la Monty Python).
Now under ALL circumstances, I can’t give it a 4 star review out right, as each one has their major flaw or atmosphere, but it’s still worth a huge nosh if you don’t mind sacrificing your diet.

My family and I purchased tickets for today’s Mother’s Day brunch. It was a hit with everyone. I’m not a huge meat eater so I have nothing personal to report about that, but my step dad thought the roast beef and chicken were good. I enjoyed everything I ate and particularly relished the crepes and veggie lasagna. There are few words to describe how much I love the chocolate fountain, especially when I can dip cream puffs and banana loaf slices. My desert plate always looks like a disaster and people look at me sideways, but I am in heaven with my dish of chocolaty countless calories.
I have attended functions here before with the buffet as the meal. It’s a gong show when there is no crowd control. Lines are very long and it becomes painful. The Mother’s Day brunch was reservation only and it was perfect. No overcrowding or long lines. If I have choice, I’d save visits for an occasion like this.

I agree with Cory, Graze was a huge letdown. I am a fan of prime rib so I did enjoy that but my husband who hates fatty meat really hated it and he is the biggest carnivore I know! For an alternative protein, there was only a pork option and our family does not eat any pork products so it was really pathetic that there wasn’t a fish or chicken considering it is supposed to be a buffet!
Many religious groups don’t eat red meat and Graze really is loosing out on patrons due to that limitation, with exception to Wednesday when they serve carved turkey in lieu of the prime rib.
When I think buffet, I think of an abundance of selections. NOPE, not here, there was only one steamed veg medley, one potato, one really sketchy looking pasta and one soup. No buns, no rice dish, dismal salad bar and not a huge selection of deserts, nothing at this buffet screamed out at me and I think this is the main reason I don’t do buffets.
If a buffet is going to do a few items, they should be executed perfectly (which was a total fail for Graze) and if you have too many options they end up bland and dry and really the average person eats one plate and finishes with something sweet. For me, you don’t get the best bang for your buck here, or any other buffet I have been to with exception to one brunch I had several years ago to at the Coast Plaza hotel, but still at $ 25 bucks a pop for brunch, really?
Back to Graze… My little guy only ate caesar salad and some fruit, so thankfully we didn’t have to pay for him since he was under 7. In fact, I was surprised to not see any kid friendly options.
If I wasn’t a prime rib fan I would have given Graze 1 star, but since they had the mushroom/​onion sauté station that helped a smidge.
I would have really liked this place if they a.) had more selection, b.) had other protein alternatives and c.) had some kid friendly items, really how much work is it to make some mac ‘n cheese and nuggets?

I liked this buffet. I first tried this place, because I was looking for an all you can eat prime rib buffet that was in town and reasonably priced. Their aren’t many around, so when I Googled one Graze came up on one of the searches.
It has pretty much eveything you would expect at a buffet, and nothing more. they have a salad bar, two different types of soups, they switch up the flavours. Roasted potatoes, stroganoff, chicken dish, rice pilaf, or rice with vegetables, and the main roast beef carving station. The guy carving the roast beef, isn’t stingy neither. I get that it’s all you can it, but he’ll cut you a thick piece right off the bat if you ask. They have all the trimmings beside the primerib as well, Au jus, horseradish, fried mushrooms, yorkshire pudding, etc. and when your done all that they have a dessert table with pies, cakes, and fresh fruit. All for around $ 21.00 per person. Kids under 7 eat a little cheaper.
I heard that Graze will be closing by the end of August.
If anyone has purchased a Groupon for the buffet, they should use them now !!
They’re getting rid of the All you can eat prime rib buffet :-(
To be replaced by another sit down restaurant with menu service.

I purchased a Groupon for this place (which I kinda forgot I had) so my aunt and I ventured over to Graze last weekend for the Sunday buffet. The first thing that struck me that was odd, is this buffet is kinda in the middle of the hallways in the lobby. Weird for sure. You wander up and down, back and forth. Then once you have a plate off food, you go over to this big room, like a room a hotel uses for a wedding reception. That was strange. Add a polka band and it surely could have doubled as a Saskatchewan wedding reception.
Now let’s get to the food, because really, that’s what a buffet is all about. There was a wide variety of food here: muffins, freshly made crepes (which were outstanding!) made to order omelettes, eggs benedict, carved ham & roast beef (yum!), the standard sausage bacon scrambled eggs potatoes. Almost forgot the soups. Down the one corridor they had a lunch selection with some spaghetti, chicken, rice, mussels and fresh shrimp and large selection of salads. I thought it was pretty tasty. Then there was a whole table centering around a milk chocolate fountain. It had fresh fruit, cake pieces, & marshmallows to dip in the chocolate. I much prefer dark chocolate so this wasn’t really for me. However, the desert table was more my speed. OK selection of cake slices, although no cheese cake :(but some of the squares were good. They only offer coffee with the buffet and you have to pay $ 2 for a glass of OJ. Bummer
Overall, I’d say the quality of food was a 3/​5, the variety 4/​5, logistics and ambiance ²⁄₅. I haven’t quite decided if I’ll return. I still don’t understand how come buffets in Canada have to be so freakin expensive. Food for thought!

I’ve been to Graze twice. I’m not a huge fan of buffets overall — I don’t have a huge appetite and I feel like food is fresher having been made speciffically for me — but Graze is excellent considering.
There’s a large selection. For breakfast, there’s your scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, etc… and then the choose-​your-​ingredients omelette station, and the crepes and waffles station. To go along with the latter, there are chocolate, caramel and strawberry sauce, or caramelized bananas or peaches (YUM).
Then, around the corner is the lunch buffet. Tons of seafood, fish, meat… soup. And don’t let me forget the chocolate fountain, or the dessert buffet. There’s something for everyone.
Get there early as the lines get longer after about 10:30. Servers were excellent at keeping our glasses and mugs full.

Hit up the prime rib dinner buffet using a voucher I purchased from TeamBuy (never a bad thing when you can get a half price buffet ;-)
To be honest, I was kind of let down by the overall selection. There were 4 or 5 salads so that wasn’t bad, but with only 2 soups, 3 side dishes, and only 1 other entre‘ choice, I must admit I was expecting more. The quality of the food was decent so that was a plus.
I would recommend Graze if you are in the north end of the city, but if you’re in the south or willing to drive, you are way better off hitting Grey Eagle.

Graze’s buffet is meh-​all right. It isn’t fantastic. I hate the line-​ups for all the 3 stations — omelette, eggs benedict and dessert crepes. The buffet had the usual fare — brekkie items, muffins, breads and pastries, soup station — had the cream of tomato and found it was more like cream of tomato paste!, the cold appetizers — peel and eat shrimp were a decent size, the cubed smoked salmon was delicious and very delicate, the cooked mussels in honey were ok, too sweet — not my fave, the hot entrees looked ok — mixed vege, pasta in tomato sauce, italian roast chicken (bland), mashed potato, 2 meats on the carvery — ham and beef, desserts and fruits — had a chocolate fountain.
Loads of parking.
Adult prices and senior prices.
Beware of lots of screaming kids — turns me off!
Wait service — comes and goes. She remembers then she forgets.
Some hits, some misses… mostly misses. They need to beef up their presentation of the food. Something is missing here.
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