The Oriental Buffet near Guildford Shopping Mall (15140 – 101st Ave., Surrey, BC, phone 604-583-8893) is a huge all-you-can-eat restaurant that has a big selection of Chinese and Japanese items (some of which are pictured below).

Be adventurous and try some Peking Duck on a crepe with hoi-sin sauce and green onion, or how about some Japanese sushi, Chinese dim-sum, deep fried crab legs (pictured below), or the old favorites such as barbecued pork or chicken, popcorn shrimp, mussels, sweet and sour, wonton soup - you name it!! Finish off with some icecream, cake, jello, or mango pudding for dessert.

This restaurant is very popular with Chinese tour groups; the tour buses pull up and the high volume of customers keeps the food fresh. Dinner per person is a reasonable $14.99 plus tax; various alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages are also available at an additional cost.

Tomokazu Japanese Restaurant (more photos, 20-1128 West Broadway, Vancouver, phone 604-677-0426) is one of the best all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants in Vancouver, if you enjoy the more exotic sushi creations. The menu has pretty much everything you can find at various all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurants anywhere in Vancouver, plus some unique items that are hard to find at other places. If you’re adventurous be sure to try the lobster sushi, abalone sushi, shark fin sushi, prawn tempura, unlimited raw oysters, salmon roe sushi, tuna belly, mackerel, soft shell crab, oyster motoyaki, seafood cones, or unlimited sashimi (many varieties). Price for an all-you-can-eat dinner is $22.95, which is worth it if you order more of the expensive items. Be sure to try the cold mango pudding for dessert.

Griffins at the Hotel Vancouver (900 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, phone 604-684-3131) is a decidedly upscale and yet casual restaurant in the sumptuous Hotel Vancouver in the middle of downtown. Most of the patrons at lunch were wearing business attire, but this was not surprising considering that the restaurant is located very close to Vancouver’s main business and financial district. The attraction here is the lunch buffet which is a somewhat formidable $27, but at this price offers a good degree of quality as well as the expected quantity. Pictured below are some of my choices from the buffet table: there is a variety of cold and hot selections including seafood, salads, soup, cuts of meat and pasta dishes, as well as some very tempting desserts.