Horrible Vichy.
Buffet Vichy is one of the cheapest buffet I know and for good reasons.
Last Thursday, I had lunch at the one located on Jean-Talon close to Pie-IX. There was no line up when we came in, but we had to wait a few minutes before they assigned us a table and from the looks of the place, it wasn’t crowded at all even though it was lunchtime. The table they assigned us to didn’t have anything on it. No forks, no spoons, no sugar, you know all the usual stuff you find at a eating table in a restaurant.
As for the food, there wasn’t much. Some pasta, bad steak, and vegetables that weren’t fresh at all. They displayed more batches of tomatoes than they needed.
The waitress that was appointed to our table couldn’t be more clumsier. She dropped papers, money, a pen,… It took eternity for her to give us our bill which she was holding in her hands and kept going back and forth. At least, she was able to calculate. When we put the tip on the table, she took it right away and a buck dropped out of her hands. She told my brother “Pick it up and keep it” and I wondered why she was tipped. Other customers didn’t like her either, but clumsiness is quite funny.
Now, the Montreal Mirror’s Best of Montreal 2005 Readers Poll has listed Buffet Vichy as the 2nd best buffet in Montreal, so don’t judge all the Vichy buffets. It must have been my luck playing tricks on me.
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I’ve never been to a Buffet Vichy, so I can say one way or another, but it sounds like the one you went to was on its last legs. A buffet restaurant depends on high turnover, and if it doesn’t get that the food gets old and stale. If its a consistent pattern, then the restaurant will put less and less food out, which in turn means fewer and fewer people will bother showing up. It’s a downward cycle.
But as long as there are lots of people showing up and a rapid turnover of food, most buffets can provide a serviceable, if uninspired, supply of food.
Also, the Mirror’s “Best of Montreal” is not to be trusted. Never has been.
We went to the one on St-Jean a few years ago (it’s closed now). Kids normally love buffet but even mine coudn’t find anything good in it…even the desserts. In our family, Buffet Vichy is now synonymous for bad restaurant.
buffet vichy has to be the dirtiest restaurant in town. no wonder they all keep closing. bad service, bad food, bad management. what else could i say?
I used to work at the vichy’s on Jean Talon street.And i have to say that it was the worst job i had! MAybe the service is so bad because of the way the management treats its staff.But come on what do you expect to have for 4.99$