smorg – Elsie Hui

October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

High River Inn Restaurant – High River, Alberta

We were actually trying to find some dinner in Longview where the place of choice didn’t have space for us. We started our journey home when we decided to make a stop in High River – where we found High River Inn Restaurant and it was a neat place. The owner was really pleased we were there, and she kept explaining to us that the food she has here caters to small town people. No problem – I know and I love it!

Although the place appears small, it’s actually very spacious inside with a decent size buffet. This place got pretty busy in here as well, but I don’t think you’re going to have to worry about making reservations as there’s lots of tables and chairs. The chef constantly puts out fresh food, so the smorg doesn’t go empty.

As this was our dinner, I allowed myself to help myself! Serving after serving, I really enjoyed the food here. I especially enjoyed the little conversations with the owner and she enjoyed talking to us in Cantonese as she doesn’t get a lot of Chinese speaking people at her place.

Overall, the place was really clean, the staff was really friendly, the food was really good! There’s nothing to complain about! It was an enjoyable dinner and I really like their eggroll. Most places have spring rolls, so this was a nice treat!

High River Inn Restaurant

503 1 St Southwest
High River, AB
(403) 652-7733

October 13, 2014October 14, 2014

Imperial Dragon Family Restaurant – Stratmore, Alberta

Sometimes on weekends, I like to just do nothing and visit a Chinese/Western buffet. This particular weekend, I found myself at Imperial Dragon Family Restaurant in Strathmore, Alberta. It is just located right off the highway and it’s pretty big inside with a decent sized parking lot.

Once inside, it’s huge inside, lots of tables and chairs and lots of selection for the buffet! We were really happy and got started right away!

I had a few plates, but the food selection is quite standard. The quality is pretty good as well! They did have a few odd-ball items such as deviled eggs but that tasted pretty good.

They even had some giant wontons in their smorg and that was awesome! We had quite a few wontons as they tasted alright and the broth was nice too!

Dessert was fun, they had a good selection of sweets from Chinese almond cookies, to jello and cakes. They even had ice cream with more than 2 flavours! So, I was really happy to have a scoop of maple walnut!

Overall, it’s a great place to stop into a family owned Chinese/Western restaurant and go for their buffet. I’m assuming that their food is going to taste pretty good as well since their buffet was good!

Imperial Dragon Family Restaurant

1014 Westridge Road
Strathmore, AB
(403) 934-9963

July 27, 2014July 27, 2014

Starlight Chinese Restaurant‎ – Airdrie, Alberta

We found another small town restaurant that offers Chinese & Western buffet so we didn’t give up the oppertunity to try them out. This time, we found ourselves in Airdrie at the Starlight Chinese Restaurant located in a strip plaza off Yankee Valley Blvd with tons of parking, it’s a great location!

The buffet was a pretty decent sized buffet, with delicious options, but one thing that stood up for me was the quality of the food. Even with soups, they had both wonton soup and hot & sour soup!

The food here was really good and it actually got quite busy around the noon hour! It was a fabulous experience!

Overall, we loved the experience here and we know we’ll be back!

Starlight Chinese Restaurant‎

960 Yankee Valley Blvd SE
Airdrie, AB
(403) 912-7887

July 27, 2014July 27, 2014

Cochrane Palace Restaurant – Cochrane, Alberta

There’s something satisfying about small time Chinese/Western buffets which I know it as smorgs as we use to have a family restaurant in Medicine Hat. Now, as it’s not available to me, I find myself craving it, so we’re been driving around Alberta small towns looking for smorgs where we found one in Cochrane called Cochrane Palace near their downtown. Tons of parking and the space is large!

Once we were inside, we were seated for buffet and basically they release you to the buffet! There are tons of options at this buffet and their food was simple – which is how it’s suppose to be!

We had a few plates of food, tried their wonton soups and we left satisfied. The dim sum didn’t have a lot, but it’s something unique here as dim sum’s are not normally in Chinese/Western buffets!

We enjoyed the selection of food here as they offered some roast, some dim sum, and their fried foods was really well fried! I did find the food to be a little on the bland side, but a dallop of hot sauce can go a long way!

Cochrane Palace Restaurant
22 Westside Drive
Cochrane AB Canada
403-932-199