The Buffet is inside the Starlight Casino lobby area in West Edmonton Mall. Since it's not in the…read morecasino it's open to children and there were a few families when we went to eat. With my Player's Club card, I get coupons including a 2 for 1 Buffet one, which makes it $20 for dinner for 2 which is a pretty good value. The breakfast and lunch prices are $10 and $15 respectively. There have theme nights, Tuesday is Mediterranean, Wednesday is Indian, and Thursday is Asian. You pay when you arrive so you can't check our the fare first. They also ask for a tip but we didn't tip at that time as we didn't receive any service yet!
We went on a Tuesday and the upper seating area was about half full. They also have seating in lower area accessible by stairs but they closed off that section while we were there. The booths are roomy and comfortable. The buffet itself is small. There are 3 rows with the first having 2 soups, 5 different salads but were on small plates, rolls, and condiments and cutlery. The middle row had the hot foods and that night it included rice, roast potatoes, green beans, other vegetables, beef souvlaki, roast chicken, pita and various dips including hummus, gravy, spanikopita, and a person there to cut you slices of roast lamb. The third row had an ice cream machine and toppings, fresh cantaloupe and honeydew melon, pre made mini cupcakes, a few different squares, baklava, and a peach crumble. They also have self serve coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and one of those soda machines that you select many different kinds of flavoured pop.
The lamb was the star of the show, it was tender and not too gamy tasting. The beef was dry and hard and chicken was cooked well but not very flavourful. Couldn't really go wrong with the green beans, spanikopita, and potatoes. For dessert, the peach dessert was so bad I had to spit it all out as the peaches were so sour as they were the canned type. I went back for a piece of baklava and it was stuck on the plate. I wiggled a piece free and since it was so big, I wasn't able to finish it. It was pretty cold as they probably took it out of the freezer a few hours earlier but still good.
The service to start with was awful and based on that, I would have given this 2 stars. There was a woman walking around and taking away plates and acknowledging other tables but not ours. When I did have a dirty plate, she removed it but not the cup. The woman who came by after her was nice and efficient. The first woman was terrible and I don't see her lasting long. The food was just alright and the price good with the 2 for 1 coupon.