Monday, October 10, 2016

Dining with the sea and the mountains (BC FERRIES PACIFIC BUFFET REVIEW)


I’ve always seen the signs for the buffet when I board this route from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, however, I never been interested in eating here as I get turned off by the price. That said, if compared to buffets in Vancouver and other places, the pricing is relatively similar. In addition, I was starving after I finished running in the Victoria Half-Marathon, so I decided to go for it during lunch and boy was it good! Coming into the buffet, the dining hall is pretty big. However, the best part of the dining hall is the environment as it’s at the back of the ferry (if you are on Coastal Celebration) and you have a view of the sea as you sail. It’s not exactly 360 degrees but it is close to 300 degrees.
The view is pretty magnificent. After paying for the entry into the buffet, your host will take you into the dining area to be seated. The environment is more on the quiet side even with the dining room all full. The also had faint elevator music (I am not sure how to deUnlike buffets that I am used to going, they don’t ask you if you would like a drink (which is good because the drinks usually cost extra, so I don’t get it anyway). Here at the Pacific Buffet, there is a selection of coffee/tea and 6 different soft drinks to choose from. Of course, being the caffine addict I am, I went straight for the coffee.
 When it comes to the selection of food, it is fair. There isn’t a huge variety, however, there is a fair bit. The main entrees already have at least 8 dishes. The dishes range from shrimp to salmon to pork curry to spring rolls. They also have rice, and teriyaki noodles. My favourite dish was the vegetarian ravioli. The perfect blend of mushroom inside the ravioli coupled with the cheesy sauce made it a mouth watering combination. I also liked the pork curry and spring rolls. It had a fresh taste to them. Besides main entrees, there was a salad bar that contains a large variety of condiments on the side for you to choose from.
There was also bread (baguettes that were sliced up with a selection of either margarine and butter). The condiments ranged from shrimp to different dried nuts and lemons. Personally I didn’t have too much of this. The most impressive however, was their dessert selection. As a marathon runner and health nut I shouldn’t be advocating for this (because they only had 1 variety of fruits when I was here – watermelon), but their cake and sweets selection was NICE. There was a table just for cheese cake, whip cream and strawberry sauce. In addition, there was another counter for a variety of cakes and macaroons. YES… macaroons, that was the first time I’ve ever macaroons appear at a buffet. Have I mentioned the views?! Sitting here is just absolutely gorgeous. Surrounded by islands and mountains with the sea and the sun reflecting the trees off the water… it is absolutely gorgeous. Overall, I would say the Pacific Buffet is worth coming to. The price is fair and also it is a great place to view the scenery and have a great meal.

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