Liangs Village: One man’s junk is another man’s sampan!

I was recently admonished by one of my readers for being, in his opinion, too harsh in my criticism of a local restaurant. I went back and re-read my post and found that I had told things exactly as I had experienced them at the time. Since that original visit, it just so happens that we have been back twice to that same establishment and although it may have come up slightly in my estimation, the majority of my original impressions remain largely unchanged.

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This incident did cause me to reflect on the vagaries of writing a food blog. It is certain that many people will not necessarily agree with everything I post of these pages. Nor would I wish it so! These are, of course, my own subjective views. I have my personal foibles and likes and dislikes which will be reflected here. The old saying goes: “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”. What some consider a delicacy, others will eschew as worse than trash! Although I don’t usually add salt to my own meals, I would expect you to ingest this blog’s content with several large grains of it. As with any other critique, in the final analysis, you will be the final judge.

Where we went: So here it was, yet another Friday night in Ottawa’s East End and another hunt for a desirable location without an interminable wait. There are a couple of restaurants that are favourites with the Supper Seven that always spring to mind. The Mongolian Village in the Gloucester Centre is often top of the list but normally has a wait of at least 30-45 minutes. This particular evening, we also tried the Lone Star opposite the St. Laurent Shopping Centre but our ability to not even see a vacant spot in the parking lot, persuaded us that this was a lost cause. Since it was in the neighbourhood, (at St. Laurent & Industrial) we decided to slip along to Liang’s Village. We have a long history with this location. In a former life as one of the Cathay Restaurant locations, it was one of our frequent hang-outs when we had an office on Belfast Road.

What we ordered: As you can probably guess, we took the buffet. Even though I personally would probably prefer to go  à la carte, whenever we have trouble finding a place to eat, we invariably end up eating buffet since the girls are usually wanting to eat right away. In fact, at Liangs Village, we have noticed that most of the patrons of Asian descent rarely take the buffet.

What we got: Compared to many of our other regular buffet hang-outs, the buffet here is rather modest. Although they do not have the vast selection of dishes of some others, they make up for this by keeping quantities of each dish small but replenishing often. This means that the food is generally hot and fresh and you do not have the impression that is has been sitting for hours drying out.

Worthy of note: When we do order from the menu, one of our family favourites is the moo shu pork.. We used to love it back when this place was The Cathay and Liang’s Village’s version is just as good!

Summary

• Positives: Most of the time, the food on the buffet  is fresh and hot and they re-stock frequently.
• Negatives: Selection of dishes is relatively small when compared to other area buffets! They stop stocking the buffet at 8PM sharp
• Recommendation: It’s not a stand-out but worth a try if you are in the neighbourhood and feel like Chinese buffet!

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