Buddy Wonton Seafood Restaurant

My friend and I were craving for something warm and soupy and didn’t want to trek too far from Whyte Ave so we decided here. He was craving the wonton soup so we got that. For it being $ 9 and they only gave like 8 wontons, I didn’t think it was a good value at all. The wontons (shrimp) were a fair size and not measly portion for each one but I felt that there should have been at least 10. I ordered the bbq duck noodle and it hit the spot for something hot as it was –24 degrees that day. It wasn’t anything spectacular. We also shared a green onion cake and it was a bit over fried in my opinion.
I think this is an OK place for Chinese food and convenience wise but not the best in town for sure. Our server was quite attentive though and quick to come if we needed anything.

We ordered the dinner for two delivery meal and were really looking forward to it based on the previous reviews but we were sorely disappointed. The food was quite bland, lacking flavor and kick. The hot and sour soup was neither, and worst of all was my favourite, ginger beef, that had absolutely no flavor and was not spicy even a bit. the mixed vegetables also were very bland. the fried rice was pretty good but still lacked flavor too. We won’t be going back to this restaurant ever. :(

I visited this place at least 40 times in the past few years. Its inside looks old and the whole place is kind of small. All the tables are arranged closely to each other so more tables can be squashed in. The chairs you’re gonna sit are poor quality ones so you don’t want to sit too long and therefore your table can be used by the next group of people. You probably always need to wait for a table on weekends and Fridays around dinner hours. Waiting won’t take long though. The servers can be friendly or mean all depending on how busy they are.
They have a few dishes I really appreciate but not all of them are good. The must-​order dishes for me include pork with pickled meicai, curry beef that served in a hot metal pot (really don’t know how to differentiate this one from regular curry beef). Interestingly they have two menus one English one Chinese and you’ll find totally different stuff on them. The dishes I like can only be found on the Chinese one. You can order individual dishes or select dinner combo for two/​four/​ten I remember (again use Chinese menu). The Chinese dinner combo comes with free soup and rice. Price is just fine. The dinner combo is pretty good though.
Here is why I keep coming back to this place. The free soup that comes with dinner combo is simply amazing! Well for very a few times it doesn’t taste as good as usual. But it never lets you down! It’s not a broth or a thick soup. The liquid is completely clear. You can find a big piece of pork/​beef spine bone there with carrots and other veggies. It tastes like hours of work concentrated in a single bowl. I’m not exaggerating that in cold days this free soup is why my bf and I would go and dine there. It warms you up and soothes your nerves.
Make sure you drag a Chinese friend with you if you decide to try this place out. If you just want to have stir fried rice/​noodles or Kung Pao chicken or lemon chicken, trust me this place won’t be any different from any other restaurants.
I’ll go back again for that soup.

Ordered fried rice, kung pao chicken, and cumin beef. Pretty good. The amount is good.

Solid Solid Solid place for Chinese food. I don’t think there are any upscale Chinese places in the city and that’s fine for me. Buddy’s won’t have modern décor or stylized plating decorations. They simply push out food to your dining experience with some small comforts to make it enjoyable.
Friday night and we’re too lazy to cook and we’ve got a hankering for some grease. Chinatown doesn’t feel comfortable at all and there doesn’t seem to be any good Chinese joints in the west end. Just like Vanessa Carlton, we «Makin’ my (our) way downtown (well, Southside), walkin (driving actually) fast (at the speed limit) faces pass and I’m (we’re) homebound (at our destination at Buddy’s)» *piano medly* and the parking lot is PACKED around 7PM. Buddy’s wasn’t too busy so I’m not sure where all these people were shopping since many Whyte Ave stores have closed.
We were able to get a seat at Buddy’s at a very large lazy Suzan table and ordered three dishes (thank god I didn’t listen to my stomach): fish and ginger congee (porridge), shrimp and topiko fried rice and satay chicken ho fan. I also got an HK style iced milk coffee (in winter, I know, how bold of me) and Tina ordered the hot horlick milk tea. If you’ve ever tasted ovaltine tea, it’s exactly the same. The HK milk tea was almost spot on and it brought back some good memories overseas.
The incredible part was the food came out before I could even finish Vanessa Carlton’s song. The ho fan looked ho-​hum until we started mixing it with the sauce. The wok spirit (wok hai) really came out as the aroma and taste really came to life. Although heavy on the sauce and grease, I really enjoyed this dish. It came close to beating Double Greeting’s but came a little short with it being to overpowering with satay flavoring.
The congee was a little bland and the ginger didn’t really shine at all. It was an average dish and I was a little disappointed the fish was indistinguishable and wasn’t playing nice with the ginger.
The fried rice surprisingly was also a little on the bland side as it didn’t lean on the shrimp to compliment it. It wasn’t flat by any means but it didn’t really leave an impression on your palette either.
Pricepoint was respectable at around $ 30 for dinner plus we had leftovers for lunch!
TL;DR: solid place to get your Chinese grease fix. Fast fast fast food times.

ask them for traditional Chinese food, not the western Chinese food. dinner for two isthe best value including. beef brisket. galic deep friedchicken

I’ve been coming to this place off and on for almost 10 years now and it’s my favorite place to go for oriental food. You get a ton of food for the price and it’s always nummy! The staff knows me so they’re always nice and they’ve always been nice too. Only thing I don’t care for is the smelly fish that’s by the entrance but that’s just my personal taste. I prefer to never see my meat alive before I eat it. I also don’t care for the programs they show on TV, but again, it’s up to the owners I guess which market they want to appeal to most and I’m mostly there to look at the person I’m with too.

If you’re Chinese or trying to please a Cantonese (Hong Konger) audience this is a good place. Personally it didn’t float my boat. Although we ordered a really good spread (in Chinese!) the place kind of grossed me out — the tanks of fish at the front were kind of gross with the look and smell of algae overgrowth. I didn’t eat much fish as a result. The Peking Duck was good but I’ve had better mushu.

I have been to this place multiple times in the past couple of years and I finally decided to give a review. Yes, it’s only two stars.
Gotta say if you could drive up there and dine then do it. Don’t take the delivery, like the other review said, you might not get what you ordered for and you can’t complain to them. It happened to me once. One of the dishes I ordered was pork and it smelled like rotten. I took the courage to try a bite and spitted out right after. After confirming it was bad meat I gave them a call and told them what happened and asked for an explanation. They refused to admit their meat was bad and claimed all their meat was daily and fresh. Guess nothing I could do at that point so I hanged off my phone and decided never to get any food from that place any more.
Have to say It’s a ok family restaurant in the neighborhood but experience like that just make you never wanna step your foot in their door any more.

My in laws took us out to this restaurant and we just loved it and gorged ourselves. Authentic Chinese cuisine. Brings back memories of meals in Chinatown when I was growing up!

Great shrimp wonton soup.

Offering friendly service and very nice premises, the food at Buddy Wonton is good, but not great. It’s worth checking out if you’re in the area and you fancy Chinese food.

This is hands down, our favorite Chinese food in the city. We have been going to Buddy’s since they opened their doors many years back, and I can promise you that we have NEVER been disappointed. The food and the service is fantastic and has been consistant since day one! They do ‘Canadian’ Chinese dishes as well as ‘Chinese’ Chinese dishes, and I will always recommend the Chinese menu. Flavors are varied & never boring, amongst the different items, No glowing orange sauce on every dish here!
Dishes to make sure you try: Peking Ribs, Crispy Chicken with Garlic Sauce, Crispy Basa fish with Chilis, and the Green Beans, when available, are never disappointing. We have taken many ‘on the fence’ Asian food fans, and have had complete conversions! Hallehluia!
If you need assistance with making your menu choices here, the staff are all knowledgable and will make suggestions that are sure to please.
Oh, and by the way, this place is known for food that comes out of the kitchen faster than most fast food drive ithrus. I don’t know if they are psychic in the kitchen and know what we’ll want, but the food is always out way faster than we ever expect, which is such an awesome thing since your mouth waters as soon as you walk in.
Keep up the great work Buddy’s! We love your place and we’ll be coming there as long as your doors are open!
Laurette

The food wasn’t what we ordered for delivery.
It was delivered within 45 mins, chinese food can be made bad but its made worse when it’s delivered and the manager refuses to correct the ²⁄₅ wrong orders. The receipt clearly showed what we ordered, a menu with circled items and they asked us to come in and dispute it. Come in and argue the failed delivery. We called and asked for the correct food order to be delivered in exchange for what we had and even said we will show the receipt they used to fill the order and they said it was «arguable» what we ordered. We were delivered something that was a risk to someone who had shellfish allergies.
We got no refund or credit toward future order. We were courteous on the phone. They were close and quick but inaccurate and uprofessional.

Buddy’s is an old school family-​style Chinese restaurant. Yummy food, possibly authentic — maybe not, but delicious, nonetheless. They have a huge variety of options and are very affordable with massive serving sizes.
Three of us went here the other day and ordered breaded almond chicken, ginger beef, mixed vegetables and shrimp fried rice. It came to about $ 40 (rougly 10 bucks a dish) and the servings were massive, so much so that we all had sufficient food for the next day. The breaded chicken was incredibly delicious. I’m not sure what they do with the chicken here, but it’s very tasty and succulent. The ginger beef was tasty too, although it’s not technically called ginger beef. They refer to it as Szechwan beef. I’m not sure how close to real ginger beef this is, but it was certainly quite delicious.
The service is fast! We couldn’t finish our first round of teas and the food was already out. Food is delicious and in plenty. The owner/​waiters etc. at this place are so nice and friendly. I love the glass palace feel of the place. Lots of natural light coming in. Good experience and will certainly be coming again!

So… it was Father’s Day this past Sunday. Rather than having a BBQ (due to torrential rainfall), we decided to go out. My father LOVES going out to eat, coffee, etc. He’s a social creature for sure. It’s been ages since we’ve gone to a Chinese restaurant. Decided to check out a local favourite, and if you search on Unilocal you will see it gets great reviews.
We opted for Buddy’s. Just down the road from us, super convenient. I made reservations to ensure we got a seat and did not starve to death waiting!
We got to the restaurant at 5pm and were seated quickly. The place was pretty empty. I suspected they were waiting for the 6pm dinner rush; I was right!
We were handed menus and then were asked every 20 seconds if we were ready to order yet! It’s been awhile. I don’t eat red meat or poultry or pork, just veggies and seafood. My husband does not eat pork and will not eat beef at a restaurant, my dad is pretty easy to please. So I needed some time. The ordering was left to me.
I heard that Buddy’s is also a noodle house and they have great congee. Funny, I wasn’t able to find that in the menu. In fact the menu was not very great and not a lot of selection. Why didn’t we just call: 426‑5050 for Lydo. Oh well.
We ordered the tofu with chinese mushrooms that was recommended by Unilocalers. The three of us LOVE tofu. Well, there were maybe 4 mushrooms and plenty of tofu swimming in a broth of grease! No flavour. We got deep fried shrimp. Nothing spectacular, but hard to mess up, and then one order of Malaysian noodles with shrimp. Again, mediocre and as is usual with Chinese restaurants, some suspicious pieces of fried meat!
I was still wondering if we were at the right restaurant that all these fab reviews were about. Then I noticed they were prepping for a big dinner time rush. The round tables were set with tea cups, bowls and spoons and chopsticks. Ours: plates, teacups, and forks. Then I noticed that in the middle of each table were a stack of HUGE binders. I snatched one and instantly got «the look» from the staff.
I flipped through and there I saw it! Pages of congee, noodle, rice, and seafood entrees. OUR menu had 4 soups, one was noodle and 5 rice entrees. A server approached me and asked if everything was ok. I just said I saw this menu and why is it different. She snatched it from my hand and said, no it is not different it just has no pictures. Righttttt.
So I have concluded that we were given the Caucasian service. Plates and forks at the table and the small menu with the common, basic, familiar entrees.
How was I to know that there were two different menus. I was so excited to try some great noodle soup!
I will not return. I feel totally ripped-​off. Padmandi I LOVE YOU! I will never stray again!

Buddy Wonton is a solid choice for authentic Chinese food on the south side. It’s the sort of place that a Chinese family would go to for a non-​fussy meal out on a casual basis, or value conscious young Chinese will grab a bite before going out. If you’re Chinese, you’re not going to have your wedding reception there, but you’ll likely pick it for a casual night out more times than not.
Aside from the «dinner» menu, it serves an all day «noodle shop» menu with the full selection of dumplings, lo mein, chow fun, congee, «…» on rice and «…» in soup selections. When we go, we usually choose a few dishes from each menu. For example, the tangy hot chili pork lo mein from the «noodle shop» menu and then chicken with yellow bean sauce from the «dinner» menu. It’s great for expanding and educating your palate.
They do delivery over $ 28 in a limited area south of the river and give a 10% discount on take out over $ 25. $ 25 from their menu can be quite a bit of food.

One of my go to places for authentic Chinese food. Hey in Edmonton we don’t get a lot of choices.

Buddy Wonton Seafood Restaurant, a family-​style Chinese cuisine. Our first course was a soup, tasty and filling. Deep fried tofu with Chinese mushrooms, the tofu was supple, soft, tender. The deep fried fish fillet with corn sauce was tasty. A deep fried pork dish, mildly spicy was good. A chicken dish came was overcooked and dry. A sweet, warm liquid dessert with tapioca finished off our meal.
Overall, with the exception of the chicken, a very satisfying meal.

I go to Buddy’s when I feel like having Chinese, but am too lazy to cook. It’s not the best Chinese food you’ll ever have, but it does the job and it’s cheap. I’m not sure if I would classify them entirely as a Chinese seafood restaurant, since most Asian restaurants offer the same amount of seafood fare. But their crab and lobster tanks are the first thing you see when you walk in the door, so that’s something I guess.
It’s a pretty big restaurant, with large round tables and booth seats too. Their menus are in both Chinese and English, although some parts are entirely Chinese, which makes it hard. We usually order the seafood flat rice noodle, cause it’s got everything and gets you full. They give you lots so it’s a total bang for your buck. My boyfriend and I can usually grab dinner here for less than $ 10 each. They take plastic here, so you don’t have to fret if you’re not carrying cash.