Since my family and I hadn’t been out to dinner together for a while, we decided to try out Griffins Restaurant at the Fairmont Downtown – despite reading the mediocre reviews on Urbanspoon. To be honest, I would rather have gone out to somewhere more special, but the fact that Griffins is having an awesome 50% off deal for all dinner entrees (and that price includes the dinner buffet!) really took us in.
Walking into the Fairmont itself was pretty nice – and seeing Griffins was too! Beautiful furniture, large windows, and walls. The whole black and white tiles pattern sort of threw me off though, it gave off a diner vibe which was weird compared to the nicer decor around it. And I don’t usually say much about service, but the host was awesome! He gave my family and I a quick run-down of the restaurant, and explained how the appetizer and dessert buffets worked. Anyway, on to the food..
I had the Grilled Chicken Linguini was quite substantial, and came with bread, chicken breast, onion, bell peppers, pine nuts & was covered in a pesto cream sauce. On the menu, this was $24 – but was only $12 thanks to the special! The bread was your average everyday bread, which I didn’t have a problem with. However, I thought it was strange how the bread was cut really thin. Maybe it was just me though – I’m used to thicker slices 
Because the pasta had a cream sauce, the pesto flavour didn’t come out quite as strong as I had expected, but was good. The bell peppers added a nice sweetness, but it still felt like it was missing something to take it to the next level.
Rating: 2/3
My mom had the Queen Charlotte Halibut, which she was quite pleased with. On the other hand, my brother had the Prime Rib Burger, which he was disappointed about. The fries and onion rings on the side were standard, but he said that the taste of the burger was just not there. He even went so far as to say that he would’ve gone to Wendy’s instead! (Disclaimer: My brother is a huge fan of Wendy’s so this may be biased ). However, my brother hardly ever criticizes food – so I’d probably take his advice on this one.
After passing by their dessert buffet on the way to our table, I was itching to get my hands on some of these treats! They had everything from black forest cake, to cream puffs, apple pie, chocolate cake, cupcakes and much more! A sweet tooth’s dream. Hate to say it, but a lot of these looked better than they tasted. Everything tasted pretty standard, nothing all that amazing. The only thing I’d go back for are the cupcakes – those were probably the best of everything.
Rating: 2/3
Verdict: My mom really enjoyed her entree but my brother didn’t, and I felt like mine was just okay. So it’s average – better than average food, depending on what you get. The only reason I’d come back to this place is to take advantage of their 50% off special if I felt like being cheap and trying to be full – otherwise I would take my money elsewhere. The variety in their appetizer and dessert buffets is nice, it ensures that there will be something for everyone. However like all buffets, the quality suffers a little to meet the quantity.
Overall Rating: 3/5
