We’ve already experienced eating beside VLTs (Dojo’s) and we found we weren’t fans of it. We couldn’t see them, but we could feel the VLTs in the other room, a mere hundred feet away. Not a good feeling, the feeling of desperation and broken homes. It can be as shiny as you want, but a s&!t machine is still a machine that is s&!tty.

The coffee was actually decent. They gave us a few carafes for our large table, and each carafe came from the high end of the underground reservoir of coffee. However, they also had bonus grounds at the bottom of every cup.

There were good parts of the buffet, but the breakfast features were lackadaisical. The eggs especially. They were camp eggs, or army eggs if you will. A big honkin’ warming tray of rubbery scrambled eggs. Cold and tough, just like camp. The omelette station was pretty standard. I always enjoy watching the endeavor. The hashbrowns were deep fried tater tots, so they were tasty in as far as they were fried. We had to order toast separately, but it wasn’t extra on the bill. We got garlic toast & regular rye in big baskets. Most of it didn’t get eaten, but to eat at a buffet is to accept the incredible waste of food involved.

Yikes. It’s a constant moral dilemma, this breakfast review thing. It’s indulgent, excessive but tons of fun. I try to polish off my plate to ensure no food waste, but is that sustainable or gluttonous? Sustainable gluttony? That may be a good band name, but it’s also the dilemma we face every week. So far the gluttonous part has won out every time.

You know there’s something wrong with a restaurant when it makes me question the validity of my actions. For this reason alone I will not return to Aalto’s.

At this point it’s almost moot to point out the decent ice cream station, the good roast ham and the pretty desserts and chocolate fountain. The questioning-of-faith thing surpasses all that (that, and some of the desserts were actually stale).

However, it is still worth noting that it took for-freaking-ever to get out of there. Their register works on the SQRRL system, meaning there are more keystrokes on the screen than I’m using to write this review.

Bonus Omelette review

by Chantal Guénette

Tomato, mushroom & cheese omelette.

Bouquet: It was a “make your own omelette” station with ingredients such as bacon, ham, sausage, an onion/pepper blend, tomatoes, non-canned mushrooms and cheese. They also had hot sauce that tastes like Frank’s Red Hot (known as buffalo sauce to them) but we had to ask our server for it. The preparation was well done. The skilled chef flipped the omelette in the air (I love it when they do that) to cook the other side so it would be fully cooked and slime-free.

Boeuf: The cheese was processed. Don’t be fooled, it looks real, but I have insider’s information and it’s processed. The omelettes were small and didn’t have a lot of filling in them. Normally I wouldn’t put that in the Boeuf category because you need to sample everything at a buffet (and shouldn’t stuff yourself with one item), but since everything else was so bad, the omelette was my only form of sustenance! Also, by the time the hot sauce arrived, my omelette was ice cold because I waited. Wish I could have tasted it when it was still hot…

Sophie’s first brek.

Leif looks doubtful.

Chantal and Andrew make the chef happy.

October 26 2008

Aalto’s Garden Cafe

1405 St. Matthews Ave

Hours of operation:

Mon - Fri     6 AM - 10 PM
Sat               7 AM - 10 PM
Sun              7 AM - 9 PM

Brunch Buffet - $13.99

coffee $2.13 extra (free refills).

It’s a Canad Inns restaurant.

Need I say more?

I was told, or rather, warned how this place would be from several people. They were not incorrect. Aalto’s was adequate, but by all means shouldn’t be a specific destination for breakfast. Another inadequate buffet that has all the appearance of adequacy.

Aalto’s looks like a mall and a casino had a baby. I hate that.