Undercover Buffet - New Buffet Player Sets Standard That Is Hard To Beat

By Billie Wong

They say one of the main problems with buffet dining is that in order to survive you need to have variety. And with variety many buffets sacrifice quality in favour of quantity.

Well there is a new buffet in Moose Jaw which breaks the hard and fast rules and by doing so they have come up with a meal with all of the quality people are expecting by sacrificing the quantity.

This week's buffet is the Oriental Spice Restaurant.

Oriental Spice Restaurant - #105 361 Main Street North

Conveniently located in the City Centre Mall or for those of you who remember Moose Jaw from 50 years ago – the old Simpson-Sears store.

Some may ask isn’t there already a Chinese buffet located in the City Centre Mall? No there was but it is now gone. The Oriental Spice Restaurant is located in former home of the now defunct New Taste Buffet.

And new ownership brings with it a welcome new taste to Moose Jaw.

As far as the layout of the restaurant itself nothing much has changed. It is the same layout as before with the opportunity for some privacy and intimacy to be found.

The booths have been upholstered so you are no longer sitting up against foam flattened by decades of backs compacting it.

The buffet table has been moved from the previous central serving area to up against the wall so you can only select your food from the one side of the heating table.

Although seen as hindrance by some the open floor concept and extra space in many ways makes the food area much more accessible for those with limited mobility.

The washrooms are laid out the same as they always have been and despite passing the accessibility rules are sparkling clean. Areas in both the men’s and women’s washrooms where dust might be found easily passed the white glove test.

Chicken breast in tomato sauce - Billie Wong Photo

If you are hoping for free Wi-Fi in the restaurant sadly it is missing so you are going to have to rely upon your service provider for that one.

Now here is the thing you all want to know about and that is the food

As I earlier mentioned with only a dozen items the fare offered might seem limited but this is where you will be presently surprised and that is where they lack in quantity this buffet makes up for in quality. Plus additionally they bring new tastes to the local buffet scene.

The chicken breast in tomato sauce is a welcome new taste as the 8 mm thick slices of breast meat has bee sliced with care. This attention to detail as well as marinated taste is an almost overwhelming pleasure in your mouth.

The home made meat dumplings are slightly greasy but otherwise cooked to perfection. Taste-wise they are something to be had.

Their cousin vegetable dumplings for me were slightly overcooked and not as tasty as the meat version.

The shrimp stir-fry was just a fraction away from perfection. The shrimp were large, not overcooked nor were they seconds or pieces. The sauce was perfectly titillating and complimented the main dish and did not overpower it. The celery was fresh and tasty although it was about 30 seconds short of perfection in in my estimation of its cooking. Just slightly chewy. The onions were not overpowering although just slightly undercooked for my liking but we’ll within the range of a highly stir fry.

The fried chicken was slightly greasy but not in a majority bad way. The full sized chicken pieces were cooked to perfection not over nor undercooked not overly bland. You can tell it was prepared with care.

The spring rolls were cooked properly but for my taste the filling was trite and lacked flavour.

A new addition to the Moose Jaw buffet scene is the Mongolian pancake with beef. It had a bit of a wild taste which I think was intriguing and is interesting for Moose Jaw. It is a dish which takes a gamble and succeeds.

The vegetables – brocolli - was OK but a bit of a letdown.

A great item to be had are the beef ribs which are not overly fatty but trimmed to perfection. They were surprisingly tender and easily pulled off of the bone. Taste-wise they were great.

The sweet and sour pork was a bit chewy for my taste but the sauce was in my opinion much more than adequate.

Inside View of Oriental Spice Restaurant - Billie Wong Photo

Dessert wise the selection was limited to fresh fruit and small slices of two types of cake with an added item of Mongolian milk tea. Despite its limits what was offered for dessert was high quality and delicious.

The only limitations I found was in the soft drinks being offered as it is all in pop cans and the selection was Coke or Diet Coke.

All in all though the Oriental Spice Restaurant makes a bold new statement in the Moose Jaw buffet scene and delivers not through quantity but rather quality. This is a good buffet and I will be back.

My score for the Oriental Spice Restaurant is 8.1 out of 10.

Billie Wong is a Regina resident and university student whose family worked at the National Cafe during its heyday.

All reviews in this series were made October 24 - 31.