I’ve visited Uncle Willy’s with my parents a long time ago, when I was probably just 8 or 9. I remember really enjoying my time at the restaurant, which as a buffet, gorging myself on massive amounts of fried chicken, ham, cakes and ice cream. I haven’t been back to the place in many years. Recently, while shopping at Metrotown one afternoon, I decided on a whim to go to the restaurant for dinner. It was still quite early (at around 4:30 pm), and the place was almost empty when I entered. The cost of the buffet (dinner version) was $16.95.
Of course, being me, I skipped right over the rabbit food vegetable section, and headed for the starches (pastas, breads, potatoes) and proteins. The selection for proteins were pretty limited: there was one type of fish, roast beef, ham, roast chicken, and fried chicken.
Savoury Food:
2.5/5
All of the food was lukewarm, but that didn’t bother me too much, and I actually quite enjoyed most of the stuff. Most of the meats weren’t very good – the beef was quite dry, but the fried chicken, roast chicken, and pastas tasted alright, and I actually quite liked their cornbread, which was soft, moist and sweet (albeit cold).
They do have a pretty good selection of desserts, which is of course, the most important part of the meal for me.
Desserts:
3/5
I enjoyed the desserts more than the savoury offerings, but then again, I typically like sweets more than savouries anyways. Their cakes were all moist, albeit a bit too cold. My favourite was this banana-raisin cake and this rainbow-sprinkled cake that had cream cheese inside.
As I ploughed my way through plates of pasta, potato, meat and cakes, it suddenly dawned on me that I was probably getting ripped off. I’m stuffing myself full of starch, sugar, and meat, which is not only very filling (meaning that I can’t eat nearly as much as I had hoped), but also dirt cheap. You see, I didn’t think these kinds of things when I was a kid, but now, as an “adult” I can’t help but be plagued by thoughts of whether I was actually getting my money’s worth. And, as I waddled out of the restaurant about an hour later, looking like I was 8-months pregnant and filled with self-loathing, I came to the unhappy conclusion that I probably didn’t get my money’s worth of food and that I was probably too old to do buffets. Oh well, I’m sure that I’ll forget about all of this in a month’s time.
Summary:
Food: 2.5/5
Price: 2.5/5
Service: N/A
Overall: 2.5/5
Recommendations: N/A
