Spoonful by Imperial Buffet

Spoonful by Imperial Buffet is a restaurant located in Brampton right by the airport which specializes in special unique foods and experiences not seen in other buffet places in which they serve raw scallops, raw oysters, has one of Canada’s first rotating Tonda ice cream display, and a donut making machine to name a few.  Of course it also has all your other traditional foods embedded within its grand buffet menu including crab legs, prime ribs and sushi.  We picked a Saturday night to go there so that we could have the opportunity to try out their entire menu.  For that Saturday evening, it was $27.99 per adult and kids under five were $2.00. 

As with my previous experiences in a buffet restaurant, it would be extremely difficult to go through every single meal that I had that evening.  We wanted to try as many different types of foods as possible and I believe some of the raw oysters and scallops were only available on the weekend menu.  Upon entering the restaurant, you will notice how grand and upscale the place looks and the amount of different types of dessert that they had.  They definitely had a lot of desserts to choice from and my understanding was that they even won an award for their dessert selection. For this place, I will go through the good, the bad and the ugly as I have done so in previous buffet experiences. 

Raw Scallops

The good and probably the best were the raw scallops.  The raw scallops were nice and cold and immersed in a tray full of ice as it came out of the kitchen. The raw oysters and scallops come out approximately every fifteen minutes.  The scallops were fresh, healthy looking and quite tasty.  As per restaurant rules, you could only get three at a time however it doesn’t say that you can’t go back afterwards and go get some more at a later time.  The scallops itself were certainly well worth the wait.  Make sure you give them a try.  It's where you will get some of your money's worth.  Also good was the prime rib that evening.  The meat was nice and pink that evening and I was given a beautiful center piece. I had about two of those pieces that evening.  They also had a variety of hams and other meats available for one to choose from.  Another nice feature they had was a running chocolate fondue station.  People can gather as many marshmallows and fruits from other stations and have them drenched in a running fountain of chocolate.  This was very yummy and had many people flocking to its station.  

Some of their seafood

In terms of the bad, the squid legs in my mind were not the greatest here at this restaurant.  They seemed stale and almost had a hard rubber texture to it.  I’m not really too sure whether I got some tentacles that had been sitting there for quite some time but the squid legs weren’t really my cup of tea that evening.  It actually took some effort to chew it apart and the bland taste of it certainly did not help matters.  My gut feeling was that it had been sitting out there for quite some time and unfortunately I was the recipient of it.  The hardest part about buffets is that it is sometimes very difficult to determine how long some of the food has been sitting at their stations.  Most places won’t even consider throwing it out because after all it is food.  Regardless of the situation, the squid legs were just average at best. 

Raw Oysters

The worse part of the evening had to have been the raw oysters.  These oysters I know were “fresh” from the back because a lady had wheeled out a whole tray of them out from the back.  There was a lineup forming and the lady made sure that you were only to get three raw oysters each time around.  The three I took back were all somewhat deflated. (They are not the ones depicted in the picture)  Personally I could tell that they probably had not been sitting in the ice tray too long as the oysters were a little warm when I had them.  Needless to say, my fears were soon realized as I tried one of their oysters.  The oyster was warm and actually tasted like damp cardboard.  It didn’t taste good at all and I actually ended up spitting out the first oyster I had on my plate. The second one was slightly better and by then I didn’t even bother consuming  the third.  The problem with the raw oysters was that if they had been opened and just left in a tray and not iced for a long period of time or if the box itself has been sitting out for a while, then the oysters could potential begin to dry.  Another problem with eating raw oysters in an all you can eat buffet restaurant is that sometimes you could get shortchanged by getting some of the cheaper oysters of the sea.  With the oysters on my plate, all that was left on them was just the skin from what I could tell.  Good oysters, even the cheapest ones, still have some “stuff” on the inside so that the oyster looks healthy and inflated. The ones I had were all dehydrated and deflated to say the least. 

Overall it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either.  The raw scallops and their dessert section were actually my favorite especially with the huge variety of desserts that one could choose from.  I know I ate my money’s worth however as mentioned above, the quality of some their seafood could have been better prepared.  Despite the odds and ends, the place was super packed and I would highly recommend getting reservations prior to going.  Overall I would give it a 3 out of 5. 

Spoonful by Imperial Buffet

499 Main Street South

Shoppers World Brampton 

905-453-8388