Last Sunday I had to go to my dad’s cousin’s daughter’s kid’s christening. You can say family, I think? Anyway, after the church service, we ended up at Fu Lam. A chinese buffet my family tends to frequent a lot. I for one haven’t been there in almost half a year and there was nothing to eat at home, so I tagged along for the free meal.

When I go to buffets I like trying a little bit of everything, and that’s what I did. I started with a bowl of Birds Nest Soup. The tofu was well cooked but very bland. The broth was way too salty and had a weird after taste. Not great, I should’ve went for the standard and safer looking Wonton Soup. Back in the food pit, I grabbed a plate and started going down the aisles. For a Chinese restaurant they sure have lots of non Chinese things on the menu.

My first trip down the aisle landed me with some really good fried chicken wings, run of the mill onion rings and curly fries, a soggy slice of pizza, a couple hushpuppies, and well, I needed something Chinese so a took a little General Tao Chicken. Everything was fine, the chicken was surprisingly good, and everything that had chicken in it, like the hushpuppies and the Tao was also pretty good. What do the Chinese know about making pizza, I’ve had better frozen stuff, and the fries and onion rings were Bell Province quality, not bad but not great. I went for seconds. This time I got some limp greens, some fried noodles, and more of that chicken, because its really that good.

Time for desert. I went straight for the Jello, I love Jello. They only had red or green. I went with red, and it tasted like strawberry, maybe cherry, I’m not really sure. All I remember is that it wasn’t that good. The Jello felt tough like it wasn’t mixed properly. Kind of disappointing, I really like Jello. Then I took a couple of tiny pastries, each more underwhelming than the last. At least the cake made for the celebration was great. A thick two layer mocha vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream icing, very good.

Overall, its a buffet, meaning everything is salty and greasy, and that’s what makes it great or awful depending if you’re one of those glass half full or half empty people. This isn’t the first time I’ve been here, and unfortunately it won’t be my last. However, with enough good people and a cheap price, Fu Lam is tolerable. That’s Chinese Buffet Fu Lam, 3500 boulevard de la Cote-Vertu, Saint-Laurent, QC.