Food Review: AALTOS Garden Café

AALTOS Garden Café

1405 St Matthews Ave

 

            Food tradition runs strong in my family and sometimes that tradition is motivated by the contemporary world as much as anything else. Having a breakfast at a buffet sometime between Christmas and Easter is just one of these: a tradition. My guess is that it stemmed from about when I was about 9-14 years old, which was the point in my life when I was growing like a weed. That made special dinners out quite expensive. From that day forth, we have always gone to buffets when we eat out with them.

            My family has been going to AALTOS in this context for about fifteen years and I have to admit my perspective of the place has changed somewhat over that time. In the earlier years I loved it because “food is food” and lots of food is better. This opinion changed when I stopped eating as much and started looking for higher food quality. It also meant I became more willing to pay a higher prices for what I eat. This journey continues.

 I can also say in earnest that any hungry teen I know would love to eat here. After all, there’s and ice cream bar! AALTOS is perfect if you are hungry and you need to eat a lot of food. It is tolerable if you are selective about what you choose to eat, but if you try everything you’ll probably end up feeling like it was not worth the money you paid. This is because the dishes are very much a hit and miss. Some are good, such as Hash browns (which are totally NOT homemade, but that is nice sometimes). Others are standard, like the coleslaw, and some are terrible such as the mostly raw quiches.

            During my most recent trip there I ate:

-          Salad from the salad bar

-          Borscht *Definitely not vegetarian broth

-          Hash Browns

-          Scrambled Eggs

-          French Toast

-          Quiche

-          Bean Salad

-          Coleslaw

-          Apple Cakes

-          Hot Cross Buns

-          Ice cream sundae (why not right?)

-          Fruit

-          Apple Crisp

In other words I ate a lot.

By far the most impressive was the salad bar. I could have only eaten salad. If I had, I would have been totally happy with the money I theoretically paid for this meal (I didn’t foot the bill – thank you grandma and grandpa). There were water chestnuts, beets, green peppers, tomatoes, eggs, and many other things that made for a considerable array of salad options. Iceberg lettuce salad mix and kraft dressings were everything I expected and more. All in all, it was much better than many salads that I have been given at restaurants and they were much more expensive. This also means it is very vegetarian and vegan friendly, provided they can tolerate the salad only fate. I have also talked about the quality of the hash browns. The fresh pineapple was also very good.  

The French toast was reasonably good, more exciting than the pancakes. The pieces I ate were warm and toasty, made with egg from a carton, but that didn’t surprise me very much. The coleslaw was also pretty standard, which is great, because nothing makes me happy like standard-fare coleslaw. I love the tanginess of the dressing and the cabbage and how it is usually just a little bit cold. It didn’t change the world, but it was comforting. Additionally I can’t really say no to a soft ice cream Sundae, or to apple crisp made with apple pie filling.

Everything else was varying degrees of mediocrity, except for the quiche and the bean salad. The bean salad would have been good except that the beans were undercooked. The quiche was horrible because the pastry was still pretty much dough.

            So, what’s my feeling about the whole experience? I left feeling extremely full. That is pretty much the sole purpose of a buffet.  Indeed, I was not hungry until lunch the next day, which is great if you are on a tight budget. The service was a little bit better than most buffets. Most of the food wasn’t very good, but you get what you paid for. Except for the salad bar; that was excellent. Overall, I think Winnipeg needs places like this. A lot of senior citizens eat here, which is proves there is a niche that this place fills. It is also nice to have something better than muffins and a waffle iron when you are staying in a hotel. On the other hand, I don’t feel the need to eat there, and I certainly would not go there with friends.

Until Next time,