Purple Garden Chinese Restaurant, Mount Tolmie

The Brunette of my Acquaintance and myself had had a hard days doing things.  You know weekend things, like shopping, cleaning, delivering tickets for the Day of Boardgamers (plus one for cross promotion), generally Getting Things Done.  We were hungry, and had planned to go to the Heart of Asia on Cedar Hill Cross.  Except it was Opening Soon.  Which meant not open yet.  Despite there being a 'Grand Opening' banner up on Friday, and today.  I am sure it'll all be open and serve me soon.  But Saturday was not that day.

So instead we headed into the Purple Garden buffet.  A place that I had heard of from old students of UVic as being okay.  As I'd been past it about two thousand times, I figured it was time to actually go in the place.

Entry is through a parking garage and down some steps into bowels of the earth.  A faint damp smell came to my nose, and the paint work and carpet felt like it was possibly new around the mid 90's.  That certain air of ageing, rather than aged.  That aura of having been once a shiny pebble, but not having been kept up.  Still, it wasn't dirty, or fetid, or scruffy.  It was well lit, and tables were large and the seats comfortable (and far step up from the old school chairs I'd once sat in for a strange cafe curry in Sheffield, UK).  There was a large buffet selection, and the server brought us tea to the table straight away.

So we dropped our bags and headed to the food line.  There's about 40 dishes, ranging from your standard spring rolls and yam balls to green lipped muscles and fish curry.  Plus green, red and blue jello, and a side table with BBQ pork lettuce wraps.  I dug in with a little bit of everything that took my fancy.

The highlights were the ginger beef (is this made from red cows, we wondered), very gingery, crispy and a not over sweet thick dark sauce on top.  The black pepper steak had plenty of bite, with good thick slices of beef, just cooked to tender, not to tough.  The vegetables in it were fresh and crisp.  And the fat, flat noodles were delicious.  The salt and pepper shrimp was particularly spicey, and the bit sizes had a squeaky tender snap to them.

On the other side, the chicken balls were doughy and dry.  The muscles were over done and dry.  Or so the Brunette reported.  I avoid shell fish in a buffet situation.  I didn't need to find out if they were bad by sitting on the toilet for the rest of the evening.  The pork rice was really mediocre too.  A sort of blandness, punctuated with savoury undertones of over cooked pork.  The shanghai noodles weren't for me either.

The spring rolls were decent enough, and duck was not too fatty but also not with that gamey, meaty taste I love from the aquatic fowl.  The dessert chocolate peanut cake felt like it had been made for a kids party that had just been cancelled, by the birthday boy himself, on account of not getting the red bike he wanted from mother and father.  As they let me top it up with a big scoop of ice cream from the freezer, it finished things off well enough, and I figured it was his loss not to have his sweet course.

We paid up ($15/head, cheaper for kids of certain ages) and left.  With full bellies, and no repercussions.  If I went back, I'd hit up the beef and noodle stations for sure.  But can't think I'd rush back, as there's other places with better Chinese fair in town.