Buffet Garden can be found at 365 North Front St. in downtown Belleville, the municipality approximately 180 km east of Toronto. We went for weekend lunch. AYCD pop is available for $1.50 although only Pepsi products, but I’m not complaining. The pop is even stronger than many other places, not watered down as much. It was packed, but we didn't have to wait for a table... it did a very good business, possibly as this was Mother's Day but it was not charging Mother's Day prices yet on lunch.
There is even a sushi station on the far end of the buffet, although it's all little rolls and unlabelled, but still nice to have. There is miso soup as well, and it was good enough, though missing plenty of umami via dashi. The soy sauce from there was very strong and salty, but not bad. Shrimp nigiri was delicious and had a nice flavour overtop of the soy, rice and shrimp. We both noticed that the rice tended to fall apart a bit, but I'm not holding that against it because at least everything was fresh. Avocado salmon roll was delicious. Some crunchy avocado roll I am unsure of was still good.
Wonton soup was good, although I think it was near going stale, but not there yet. Lemon chicken was so good it was like breaded chicken, and the lemon sauce was on the side so it never got soggy, said Mishy. I tried it as well and really liked it, as it was a big slab of juicy moist chicken even without the lemon sauce. Mishy also liked the General Tao chicken saying that the sauce was delicious and it was moist and overly not overly sweet. She also loved the chicken balls indicating that they are full of chicken rather than being a ball of dough. Fish was simply called “fish”, and was probably pollock, but whatever it was was very good to excellent with a very nice sauce and seasoning. Fried scallop was almost certainly surimi, and did not have any sauce nearby so not sure what to put on it, but it was quite good just by itself.
Pork balls were absolutely delicious, with a wonderful seasoning that was reminiscent of good sausage... I was impressed. Sweet chili chicken, while being breaded so it wasn't really Hakka, was still quite good and didn't leave too much afterburn. Buttered crab meat, really surimi of course, was breaded but was still quite good. Beef with broccoli was very good and I enjoyed the sauce which was quite savoury. The beef was not dried out and had some flavour to it. BBQ pork was delicious also in a good sauce.
Onion rings were alright; they had a bit of a raw onion flavour, and not much flavour in the breading which was also a bit brightly coloured, indicating they were somewhat undercooked possibly due to the rush. Black pepper zucchini was the first dish that I didn't like it all; it had a weird planty flavour and I think it was also undercooked and certainly was lacking in black pepper or anything else other than plantiness. Sesame balls, although the last ones in the tray, were still quite good. Black pepper potato was much better than the zucchini, and quite good. Spring roll was a little dried out but otherwise good. Egg roll was good and not dried out at all. Green beans had an odd flavour. Salt and pepper fish was quite good and had interesting seasoning. Honey spare ribs were alright; spare ribs are definitely not my favourite but this wasn't bad. Szechuan chicken was very good and only had a bit of heat. Chop suey was just stir fried bean sprouts.
Mushrooms with oyster sauce were delicious with plenty of umami. Sweet and sour pork was very good and fresh. Sesame chicken was quite similar and equally good. Chow mein was good and fresh although is made plain. Fried pork dumplings was quite good, moist and fresh. Chicken wings did not appear good but were better than appearance, as were moist and not dried out. Szechuan noodles were good and well-seasoned. Fried rice was not bad though a bit stale.
For dessert, Mishy raved about the ice creams as there were tiger tail, cotton candy, birthday cake and other hard-to-find flavours. This is because Belleville is well-known for Reid’s Dairy, which is just down the street from Buffet Garden yet ships all over Ontario... I confirmed Reid’s is indeed the supplier. Maple walnut, bubble gum, tiger tail and birthday cake ice creams were all excellent and not freezer-burned. Black forest cake was very good and fresh. Little mango, cappuccino and raspberry cakes squares were, surprisingly, still the same as many Toronto AYCEs, even at this distance. Weekend lunch was $20. There were a few minor issues but they are overshadowed by this very good price. We definitely had an enjoyable lunch. However Buffet Garden has a rather mediocre rating on Google Maps. We were there on a very busy day when the turnover is highest so there may be freshness issues, but not being able to rate by hypothesis we can only go by what we experienced.
Rating: 7 - 7.5 / 10 + 1.5 value adjustment = 8.5 - 9 / 10
