The Buffet

Really an unfortunate experience from start to finish. It was the last day that family was visiting with us and we had heard great things from a few different people about the Buffet. We drove out for lunch at 1;30pm (lunch ends at 2;30pm). This location is NOT ideal for anyone with physical challenges unless you have accompanying people to assist. We drove up to the valet area to ask the best entry point for someone who didn’t walk well. They directed us to drive to the end of the road and their would be some wheelchair parking spaces but that they didn’t think we would get one. The road was one-​way so for each of the 3-​times we approached them we had to drive in a large circle on each occasion. It should be noted that at NO point did they suggest stopping in one of the MANY MANY open Valet spots that were directly across from the entrance even though we were just there for lunch. Having a physical disability can be very hard to navigate and asking for help can be further uncomfortable but asking and being refused well… we probably should have just left but we persevered as it’s far and we were hungry and expected a pleasant meal to smooth things over.
At the entrance to the restaurant Buffet we were made to wait while two staff spoke amongst themselves about one being slightly lost even though They were told that my mother was having difficulty standing while they spoke. The clerk then directed her to a seat and I stood there at the register awaiting their finishing so that I could pre-​pay for the Buffet.
The host could not accommodate a seat that was a short walking distance from the food with any view so we took the longer distance to gain having a view. At this point I should mention that any number of fine establishment servers have offered to assist my mom with carrying food– but that was not the case here even among the 2 people that took turns at our table clearing and pouring coffee/​tea.
Now on to the food at last– or so we hoped. What we found was a collection on dried out offerings that spoke to folks wanting to wrap up their shift more so than honouring the buffet hour. My son had to ask for something to be heated that was cold and the warming stations had sadly overcooked what might have been some delicious salmon and chicken and beef. Even the roasting stations ham was a dry offering. Their were 5 soup choices and all were very hot and flavourful but in an effort to safeguard against waste the bowls offered were the size of a small teacup (not even a mug). Juice, pop, frozen treats and desserts were part of the buffet. The salad bar was a nice collection of veg and a few fruits (strange that they offered fake walmart style powdered parmesan instead of real). Anyway we finished up and although the experience left much to be desired at least it gave us the rare opportunity to agree with each other in that we each thought it was not worth the trip and something to avoid repeating.

I can only rate the buffet on their breakfast which are good. I have not attended a supper or lunch session. The service from the staff is very good and attentive. The salad bar has a lot of choices in terms of salads and vegetables. In terms of their hot food, it is slightly above average. I do wish they would offer turkey bacon but everything else is good especially the waffle bar. Lots of variety with fruit juices which is great. It’s beautiful to see the sunrise over the fraser river. You get tremendous value for eighteen dollars. You can never go away hungry after eating at the buffet for breakfast

Terrible experience.
It is not the same as it was before.
Presentation has been changed to bad.
Food variety is not the same.
No more seafood delicacies even at dinner time.
Several Asian food it is not fresh.
Dessert island was the only one well presented with great variety .
No matter no ice cream machine anymore.
Sushi not that fresh and roast beef low quality and guy behind counter serving, offering very shy portions .
Service was OK but buffet extremely poor, same level as Uncle’ Willies at Metrotown.

I am writing to inform you how disappointed we were on our last visit to the River Rock Buffet. I mulled over whether I should write this review or not and finally I decided to get it off my chest and let you know of the horrible dining experience we have had:
Our visit took place on ¹⁰⁄₁₀ 2015, which happened to be my wife’s birthday
Unfavorable situation as follows:
1– the men’s toilet on the restaurant floor was totally unclean, with urine on the toilet seats, on the floor and generally disgusting. I had to go and use the Toilet on the main floor. (That’s how disgusting the place was)
2– the buffet menu was despicable, with a very small selection of tasteless under-​cooked or overcooked food… No roast beef, no crabs, no sea food. The ham was dry, falling apart. and hard to chew.
3– the food tasted stale and had no flavor of any sort. It appeared as if the food was prepared on an online production environment with no thought or culinary art given to it. I’ve had better airline food.
4– The sushi Bar was the poorest I have ever seen, with a very small selection of Sashimi (Salmon and Tuna were the only two items available), the rice sushi was badly executed.
5– the staff hardly spoke any English
6– the salad bar was miserable and anemic. Looked totally uninviting
7– the desserts were totally bad… it catered mainly to an Asian palate… no sweetness in the offerings… just plain tasteless. (Frankly, it all tasted the same)
8– the place looked like a Bazaar or an untidy market place… no order, dirty and disorganized.
I must say, it was a total disappointment.

Party of four of us tried the surf and turf buffet tonight for the first time. I had read the reviews and thought I would give it a try, that maybe the lobster would be worth the $ 36 dollar all-​you-​can-​eat price. Wrong! It was definitely not worth it, not even for the lobster. We will not be back, nor would I take other guests to dine at the buffet in the future. The lobsters were obviously frozen, cooked and chilled, because not only was the texture of the lobster meat tough, but it tasted awful, like it had been frozen in chlorinated water at some point. It left a terrible chlorine water-​like aftertaste in my mouth. The shrimps tasted better though. There was only roast beef, no roast lamb, and the beef was too salty for my taste. The desserts were nice. They looked nothing like the spread of cakes in some of the pictures posted here. The desserts were tasty and the only food I enjoyed. When we got home, one of my relatives threw up and felt immediately better afterwards. Likely it was from overeating, but she also did not like the after-​taste of the lobster either.
Having now tried the surf and turf buffet myself, I think the 2.5 stars cumulative rating is really accurate and fair. The food is not horrible. But it is not great or delicious either. For a cafeteria the food quality would be good, but as a resort restaurant one would expect a little better, especially for the price. If you are considering eating here because of the seafood, I would recommend going elsewhere, particularly if you like good seafood.
The waitresses did a great job in responding to our requests for more forks, coffee, etc. They gave really good and attentive service considering the hordes of messy, self-​serving eaters in the dining room.
That was my first and last time eating at the River Rock buffet. Our tab came out to around $ 150. I think for that price we could have eaten great seafood a la carte at another restaurant and had a delicious and memorable meal.

Found a feather in my pasta dish. Advised one of the servers. She came back a few minutes later amd didn’t seem to care about the substandard dish. She asked me if it ruined my dinner. Hmm… finding a feather in my food isn’t exactly appetizing. Server told me the feather isn’t related to the food and that it probably dropped down from a ventilation vent above the pasta station. How unfortunate for me. I obvious will not return.

We came to the Casino and decided to have dinner at the «Buffet», the only reason to give this place a star is that it’s close to the Casino… otherwise Food is TERRIBLE, BAD, NOT TASTY, I do not know if this place has a chef or just line cooks — but they need to be replaced quick. Service was not much better, they were more occupied talking between themselves than paying attention to the customers. every time we got to go to the buffet — they assumed we have left which we should have … however paying $ 30 PP we kept on trying to find something eatable
we try the BBQ — dry, not fresh, not tasty, than we try the Butter Chicken — Chicken was very old apparently because it was hard, sauce was ok. we left the Beef and Broccoli on the plate just because it was not good — both meat and vegetable were over cooked. Sushi was a joke and to get bad sushi in Richmond BC is really a challenge. even the salads were how to say — tired and not tasty. we hoped that the very large selection of sweets will help with the bad taste of the food but with the exception of the Profiterole (cream filled) which was probably done elsewhere — same results — NOT TASTY
now, I am aware that the River Rock is a Casino/​Hotel/​Resort — which I enjoyed very much playing and staying
Do not try the BUFFET.

Had not been to the River Rock buffet for a few years and won’t be back. Compared to what it used to be it was so disappointing… we went on Saturday — surf and turf night with high expectations. Food was underwhelming– i missed the fancy cheese and cracker selection, I missed the endless fresh fruit, I missed the steak they used to serve, I missed the warm seafood entrees (anyone remember the Thai prawns???) There was a nice roast beef and a few lovley Asian dished but other than that a tiny salad bar, a few strange side dishes and a whole lot of ice cold, undercooked seafood. Your $ 36 bucks would be better spent at one of Richmond ’ s many other world class resturants…

Compared with US buffets is very expensive for a place that small. There’s only 5 – 6 islands including desserts. The food is good but it could be more variation. The best part of it is that you can eat all the lobster that you want and the price includes pop, juice and coffee.

I went here for 2015 Mother’s day dinner with a big party of 10 to 12 people. Waited one hour and half. Oh boy, if you think you are getting a good buffet be warned. Everything was dry and bland to the taste. Lobster dry. Shrimp in water and not properly presented. Kid’s menu horrible and cheap. Hot dogs, onion rings and corn dog for the kids. Dessert looks nice but I did not like it. Taste awful.
If you want a buffet go to the Grand Villa Casino buffet in Burnaby. Lot better than here at River Rock.
You want an excellent buffet, go to an all inclusive resort in Mexico. You won’t be disappointed there. For the price we paid, you could of got two nights stay and all the meals you want at an all inclusive resort.
Sorry to be hard, but customers need to be aware. Service is lousy as well. Attendants just want to clean the tables and not care too much about the customers.
Its been a whole month and more and I am still so upset by this meal. Buffet meal too expensive. Not even worth $ 9.99. Meal awful. Management pay attention. Won’t be back.
Desmond L.

Food is slightly above average, not bad but not awesome, but good enough. Breakfast is a better bang for your buck than dinner. For the dinner, we went to the lobster and prime rib night. The prime rib was awesome but the lobster was just okay. It’s served cold so it wasn’t what I had expected (but I still had 3!). Breakfast had a chef making personalized omelettes and Belgium waffles which were both excellent. They also had Chinese dishes like congee and dim sum items. Our server, Lynda, was excellent and so nice! Not bad for a buffet!

First time to a buffet in Canada and I was little worried by some of the other reviews, however I am happy to report I thought the buffet was better than average.
I have been to many casino buffets, including numerous ones in Las Vegas. While it isn’t the same caliber at the higher end options in Vegas, The Buffet is by no means lower quality either.
I went on Saturday evening which was seafood themed. No disappointment to me because there was Lobster, shrimp, mussels, calms all served cold but had warm drawn butter was near by.
For non seafood lovers, like my husband, they had carving station with lamb and prime rib. The mushroom rice was light and fluffy. Everyone especially enjoyed the potato cheddar perogies.
There was also a nice dessert selection.
I thought the price wasn’t all the bad.
We received excellent attentive service. My only complaint is more about the other patrons pushing and shoving once the doors opened. I think employees could do a better job of corralling customers so that people can walk by without having to constantly say excuse me.

Kind of expensive for what you get. I would say the bc ferry Buffett is better and cheaper! Not enough variety of mains.

Price is good for the food you get. Prime rib Roast beef is perfect and I had 15 lobster tails. Futomaki was one of the best I had, other sushi was below average though. Love the variety and quality of desserts. Kids friendly but I had to wait in line for over an hour on Saturday evening and 2 hrs on Christmas Day. No chocolate fondue fountain tho. Restaurant takes reservations for a group of 8 people or more. Price went up a bit as of March, 2015.

Not bad, I give this venue 3 stars. I will return again, just for the lobsters. We really made sure we ate as much lobster as possible to get our money’s worth. My advice is to get there early, we got there at 9pm on a Friday night so we only had an hour to eat. Therefore, we ate as fast as possible. We were still there at 10:30pm (half an hour past closing time, and the waitress and waiters were at our table, literally taking food and cups out of our hands to shoo us out, lol). They were nice about it and it was pretty funny. The food isn’t super excellent, but the selection and variety is nice. However, all I had was mostly lobsters and some dessert, so I can’t comment too much about the food. The crème brûlée is great though! I think they serve lobsters on Fridays, and crabs on Saturdays, I’m not 100% sure. Anyway I will make a return trip to this place, and will come early and sample some more varieties so I can update this post!

Food is okay. A lot of choices compare to other buffet restaurant. Service is good. However, it should consider expansion since a lot of customers are lining up especially during friday and saturday night. Overall it’s good but not great.

Review for Monday dinner.
OK it’s not the same as a Vegas buffet.
There was a good variety of salads, soup, asian, north american, pasta station and a beef carving station. lots to choose from at the desert table too.
The quality was better than average however not as good as Wynn’s in Vegas.
Attentive service as the plates were picked up quickly.
Hey you’re not in Vegas get over it.
You can’t leave a buffet hungry and I didn’t.

I’d been to the buffet a few times. As usual the salad bar and the dessert bar are pretty awesome. They have an array of fresh veggies and fruits. The desserts were not only nice to look at there were a lot of choices.
When I came today, I was disappointed with the main entrée. There were not many options for people like me who are don’t eat pork or beef. Where is the salmon or chicken wings or the tofu or the turkey ham? The fried chicken breast was so dry and hard. All the dimsum were with pork!!! Where’s shrimp or mushroom dimsum? Thank goodness there was congee with chicken which saved the day.

2.5 stars
Prime rib night $ 29.95
The only other buffet that I’ve been to is the Mother’s Day brunch buffet at the Pan Pacific, but that is double the price, but it has about 3 to 5 times the selection plus an omelette station. I go almost every year. My bar is pretty high. So at $ 29.95 I was not expecting anything near the Pan Pacific calibre.
The prime rib is easily 5 stars. In fact, I think they used rib eye, not prime rib. This was beautifully done medium rare with a course pepper corn crusting. One of the best prime rib/​rib eyes I’ve tasted, carved from a station. This was basically the star of the buffet. Everything else was decent to terrible.
The terrible:
Mini burger patties. Do NOT eat this. It was as dry as sawdust, no exaggeration. It was so bad, I spat it out. I normally do not spit out food. It was *that* bad. My daughter would not touch it.
Pistachio crusted cod in seafood veloute. This was not very good. The seafood veloute tasted funny and did not pair well with the cod.
Chicken nuggets. Frozen processed food. nuff said.
Seafood cioppino. This was not good at all. One small prawn was enough for me. I did not eat the rest even though it looked promising.
The medicore:
Roasted chicken. Kinda bland and tasteless
Ice cream station. This was watery tasting ice cream from a machine. McDonalds is better.
King crab legs. Tasted OK but not really my cup of tea. I guess what put me off was watching someone load up the station pulling out the legs from a generic white plastic bucket wearing rubber gloves. The crab legs were also frozen. The shell was not brittle when cracked but was soft and malleable.
Coffee — supermarket quality.
The decent:
Prawns at the salad station
Pulled pork
Pasta
Cheesecake
Fresh fruit
Things I didn’t try:
Mashed potatoes
Yorkshire pudding
Sushi station
The majority of the desserts, although I had small bits of some of the cake squares — I didn’t like it, too dry.
Steamed veggies
Any of the Asian noodles and rice — it didn’t look too appealing.
In summary, this is 5 stars for the pricing for a prime rib night. I would do this again only for the prime rib. This was a sheer winner for me. The rest of the food is only OK to sub par, depending on what you like, and your personal tastes.
Pro tip: For the prime rib carving station, ask for them to cut you more than one slice. I asked for 3 on each plate the first go round. I asked for two more on the second round. Don’t be shy! They slice it quite thin.

I might have just dropped in at a fantastic evening, but HELLO Prime RIb and Seafood night! Even though we were told that a table for two will take 45 mins, it didn’t. Within 5 mins, we were called in. It was also a Monday, the day before Christmas Eve. So, it resembled a Friday — very, very packed!
My first stop was the Prime Rib station. I scouted out the entire buffet and aimed for the highlights. Holy King Crab legs. I could have just filled up on those! The prawns, oh, the prawns. Let’s just say you’ll never want for prawns ever again. That’s quite impossible, but you get the picture.
The guy slicing the Prime Rib was a little stingy. If you’re going to just carve the Prime RIb, well then, I’m just going to make more trips to your station, bucko. So, why don’t you just give me what I want and I will leave you alone for the rest of the night? I’m serious about my Prime Rib. It was also cooked to a delicious Medium Rare. I didn’t bother putting any sauces on it, as it was already seasoned strongly with peppercorn. Just the BEST!
After my main feast, I made for the dessert stations. There was this heavenly Christmas log dessert made of chocolate mousse and, wait for it… cheesecake right down the middle! It was fantastic. I had to have two generous portions.
Heads up: they have an ice-​cream machine. Enough said.
The wines were also very well priced and portioned. For $ 7, it comes in a FULL glass. I was a happy camper.
It goes without saying that I will come back in a heart beat!