Buffet V

Not vegetarian /​vegan anymore.

This restaurant offers an all-​you-​can-​eat menu at a very reasonable price for central London. Apart from crispy duck that was a bit like leather the quality of the food was good. The range of choice is limited with fruit salad as the only desert. However you would struggle to find anywhere else to eat so much for so little in this area of London.

Out looking for dinner late on a Friday evening, my friend M. and I were enticed by the «£6.50 all you can eat» sign in Buffet V’s window. Peeking through the glass, we saw a great variety of what looked like yummy dishes, so we hurried inside to get our food on.
We were shown to our table quickly, but the waiters and waitresses all looked angry and annoyed at the customers. And, after filling our plates with heaps of food (none of the dishes in the buffet were labeled, so I went for what looked good), we began eating one of the most disgusting meals I’ve ever had. A good amount of my rice wasn’t even cooked, the noodles were pretty much just grease, and the tofu in every dish I tried was watery, tasteless, and gross. M. made some comments about what the meat substitute tasted like, but they aren’t appropriate for repeating here. The only edible food on my plate were the pineapple chunks and the samosas. (For their credit, the samosas were pretty good.)
The previous reviews make this place sound pretty good, so I’m wondering if I hit Buffet V on an off-​night (a VERY off-​night), or if the place has just gone downhill in the past year. Either way, though you can’t beat £6.50 for an all-​you-​can-​eat buffet, I definitely felt a little ripped off. This is one restaurant I’ll be staying far away from on future trips to London.

I love buffets. I love Asian food. And I was starving after getting a tedious, 3-​hour student haircut at Toni&Guy, so I was really excited about this vegan buffet. Many of the dishes, especially their gluteny fake-​meat stuff, were fairly lackluster and the spicing was occasionally off. However, it’s reasonably priced, the spring rolls are delicious (one guy loaded his plate with about 20 of them), and there is plenty of fresh fruit as well. Recommended if you happen to be in the area, but I wouldnt make a special trip here.

I went here because I had vouchers from The Times so it would only cost a credit crunch busting fiver each before checking out Frank Skinner at the Lyric on Shaftsbury Ave. Bargain! Immediately I was disappointed to see it would have only cost extra £1.50 each anyway — hardly a saving a Times reader is too concerned about. The second disappointment was the buffet itself. The novelty of a huge bowl of peantus soon wore off and the platter of chilli brussel sprouts confused me, the reconstituted non descriptive meat scared me, the lack of unrecognisable chinese dishes intrigued me (is this what it’s really like in China perhaps?!) but ultimately, the taste of whatever it was I was eating bored me. Not a single duck pancake or beef in black bean sauce in sight. No chicken balls with that gloopy red sauce you hate, but suddenly, missed. Fans of chicken in cashew nuts and cripsy shredded beef, STAY AWAY. This is a Chinese buffet for folk who don’t care what they shovel into their mouth, have never watched Jamie Oliver’s school dinners, and quite possibly, don’t eat REAL Chinese food — you know, the kind we order drunkly on a friday night muttering something about MSG. Chinese food for chinese truckers, perhaps. If you get sucked into a blind date and want the night to end as quickly as possible, take them here. The staff are pleasent, but you can’t mistake the look of guilt in their eyes as they painfully watch you place your first morsal in your mouth. It’s quite fun to see their feably disguised pain turn tentatively into surprise as you take another bite. Great food for taste-​masochists, who don’t suffer from IBS!

Voici un lieu d’exception tout près du British Museum.
Buffet de fruits et légumes frais accompagnés de quelques plats cuisinés raffinés A VOLONTE où l’on peut se servir sans cesse d’entrées, plats et desserts à connotations extrème-​orientales pour 5,50 £ tout compris dans un décor digne des Bistrots Romains.
Pour couronner le tout, le thé, on s’en doutera, est aussi servi à volonté. Mais j’ai préféré le Tai Gingseng à 1,50 £, ça aussi ça né s’invente pas!

Buffet V is an entirely vegetarian Chinese buffet. I’m a big fan of any vegetarian restaurants, but I’ve only come across a few Indian ones aside from the healthy/​organic wholefood type, so I think a Chinese all-​you-​can– eat is a great idea.
You can peak through the window at all the dishes to choose from in canteen style heaters and it really does look as good as it looks. All the veg is fresh and the dishes aren’t soggy or stodgy like so many other Chinese buffets. Of course it’s not posh nosh, but for a lunch where you feel like picking at a dozen different meals then it’s worth a try.
The spring rolls are lovely and crispy and they do nice spiced aubergine slices in a tangy sauce. You can get veggie ‘chicken’ and ‘duck’ dishes, and these are basically just tofu pieces flavored with soya and spices, not meat substitutes like soya or Quorn.