Golden Wok Buffet and Lounge is located at 16 Front St. N. in Orillia, about 130km n. of Toronto. I went for weekend lunch. Note that lunchtime is very brief for only two hours 1200-1400 and then the premises closes for 2.5 hours, reopening for dinner. The buffet area is closed, and instead the diner has a dry erase menu and marks a maximum of five items per order... it’s the first sit-down Chinese AYCE I have encountered. Pop is $3.60 AYCD and Coke Zero is available.
I got there right at opening at noon, so the hot and sour soup was fantastic as it was very freshly made, something that is almost never found at AYCEs unfortunately, as it is one of my favorite soups when it is made fresh and properly. Spring rolls were also very fresh, and delicious with that wonderful haylike flavor that only the fresh ones have. The sauce was also not too sweet which is appreciated. Egg roll was also fresh, crisp and quite tasty. Wonton soup was very good and the broth was savory and delicious. Green salad had a packet of Kraft dressing included... Lettuce was very fresh and so it was enjoyable.
Cheese wontons were very good even without sauce, with plenty of cheese and very fresh. Lemon chicken was quite good and fresh as well, also with the sauce not overpoweringly sweet; Mishy would have loved it. I enjoyed the seasoning on the General Tao sauce. I did not care for the coating on the sweet and sour chicken balls as it was soggy and had an odd flavor, but they were almost all chicken and it and the sauce were much better than the coating. Deep fried chicken wings were quite good and well-seasoned, although a little dry but I didn't seem to mind as I like them crispy.
Mixed vegetables were also quite fresh and well-seasoned. Tempura shrimp were not, but instead just deep-fried shrimp in a coating with sweet and sour sauce on top, rather than tempura dipping sauce. They were still mostly enjoyable except the sauce was becoming overused. Beef with broccoli, in contrast to the rest, was definitely not fresh, was probably one or even two days old and had been losing flavor with a broccoli going soft. Deep fried egg noodle wasn't bad, but the sauce lacked character and savor, there wasn't much in it except noodles, and the portion size was a little too large. Sweet and sour ribs were boneless and nicely breaded, but had too much of that now tiresome sweet and sour sauce added on top, rather than being cooked in the sauce.
BBQ pork slices were good but a bit dry. Meatball with mushrooms meatballs were deliciously seasoned; the mushroom was good and also very fresh. Szechuan chicken was good, as was its accompanying vegetables. Plain chop suey was fresh and savoury and well-seasoned. Fried rice was good but again there was more of it than I would have taken myself at a regular buffet. It's difficult to control the portion size when someone else is serving.
For dessert, honey twists were alright but seemed a bit stale. The daily ice cream was cookies and cream, and it was very fresh and tasty. Mango ice cream was also fresh and tasty. Jello was plain orange, hard to mess that up. Got a free Chinese New Year calendar. Weekend lunch was $18.99. Because of the five item limit and two hour lunch period, what with the wait between orders not as many can be placed though I still managed to leave full; I noticed that almost everything is fresher with the service model than they would be in a buffet, with exceptions as noted. It has also been noted in other reviews that there is too much catering to perceived local palates with the excessive sweet-and-sour sauce, which I agree with. Other than this and the excessive cost for AYCD pop, it was a reasonably good value considering other prices, and I enjoyed my lunch.
Rating: 7 - 7.5 / 10
