This isn’t a food blog, but we had a unique experience today that I thought I’d share.

We’ve only been to a Chinese restaurant once since we’ve been in the country, and it was a fairly familiar experience: all you can eat buffet, decent food under heat lamps, you know the drill. Much like any place in America except more expensive and with a few unfamiliar dishes. Today, we decided to go back, but the place was closed for today “due to unforeseen circumstances”. Yikes. So, we decided to try another place just across the street.

We walked in and were informed that it was a Sunday buffet, but we’re looking around and not seeing any food at all. We were seated and handed menus and asked what we would like. “Well, the buffet….I thought that’s all you had today.” “Yes, but what would you like off the buffet?”

At this point, our American brains kind of broke and required rebooting. Turns out the way they do a buffet is the menu just turns into all you can eat of whatever you want. So, we ordered some vegetable spring rolls. I think the waitress then took some pity on us and tried to get us our money’s worth by talking me into trying the duck pancakes with hoisin sauce. They then proceeded to bring us most of a duck…for a starter. Kyla had some hot and sour soup, with the emphasis on “hot”, so spicy she couldn’t eat it.

We were then asked about our main dish. Again, we could pick whatever we wanted and they’d just fix it fresh and bring it to us. The girls got chicken with pineapple, Kyla got beef with vegetables, and I got beef with mushrooms along with a bowl of fried rice for the table. The portion sizes were a bit modest, but we could have asked for seconds, or even thirds.

It was a bit expensive (£14.95 a person, half price for Molly), but I think if we’d known what we were getting into, we’d have eaten a lot more. Even as it was we didn’t feel ripped off.

I don’t know if this kind of buffet is common over here or this place is completely unique, but it was definitely different for us, so I thought it was worth sharing.