Aaltos Garden Cafe

Aaltos Garden Café
Canad Inns Destination Centre
Seven locations across Winnipeg

The Canad Inns hotel chain has grown prolifically over the past few years in Winnipeg and it now has locations near most major destinations in the city.  Inside the hotel, Canad Inns offers a number of eating choices, including the quick and easy Aaltos Garden Café buffet.  For a reasonable price, Aaltos buffet features a monstrous selection of pretty much anything you want.  I’m not a big fan of buffets—normally buffets equate with unrestrained gluttony.  Especially here in Winnipeg, where people are known for their stinginess, people load their plates over and over again until their stomachs distend and they groan in grief. 

If you want to save yourself a few calories (and your health), the salad bar teems with vegetables, and most of it comes fresh and crisp.  You can choose from dozens of greens (or whatever colour of vegetable you want), and you can pair it with any of the usual dressings. 

The main courses change and they often follow the occasions of the calendar.  That philosophy’s great in some respects, but sometimes, it fails miserably, such as today.  Here we are, less than a week after new year, and the main feature is turkey.  That’s fine for me as we rarely have turkey over the holidays, but put up your hand if you’re up to your wattle in turkey. 

Another reason I don’t like buffets is that the food basks under heat lamps, or roasts atop warming trays until someone whisks it away.  If turnover is fast, you’re fine, but if it’s slow, your food could sit for hours and bake like the sands of the Sahara.  Alas, the turkey here has been sunning for a while.  I prefer dark meat over white, since it’s a lot fattier and not as susceptible to drying out.  Because this meat has been sitting around for so long, it’s dried to elastic consistency with a hard crust on top (you know what I’m talking about).  The gravy can’t do much to help it since it’s beyond desiccation, and you wouldn’t want to use too much of it anyway since there’s barely any flavour to it.  I’m trying to cut down on the starches but that’s difficult when the herbed stuffing and the roasted potatoes taste better than anything else from the carving table.  At least you don’t have to make an effort to save room for dessert.

Nothing much can go wrong with desserts at a buffet.  Because of the high sugar content, it takes a long time for desserts to dry out and all of the options here look fresh and taste great.  Of particular note, the cheesecakes taste firm but not dense.  Both the guts and the toppings remain moist, and same goes for the crust, which sticks together nicely without going crumbly.

Most of the food on Aaltos trays taste good but they fail at the most important station, which are the main meats.  I probably wouldn’t bring anyone here to show off great food but it is a fine place to stop for a quick bite to eat, especially if you avoid the carving table.  There's a good reason why they call it a "garden cafe," stick to the garden part and leave the meats alone.

** /5

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