Inexpensive and to the point buffet (Agra Tandoori Restaurant Burnaby)

    If you are looking for a buffet that gives you your Indian food craving but don't want to pay too much, this is the place to go. Con Agra is a bit out of the way in terms of public transit, but there are many offices around so you see many business people eating here during lunch hours. The restaurant itself isn't too big. It can probably fit around 30-40 people, so it can get busy.

    I was there this morning (it's Tuesday) and their buffet is only $9.95. I had a flyer coupon that took $2.00 off of the original buffet price, which made my meal to be $7.95 (which I thought... is cheaper than getting takeout at the food court.. and I get to eat all I can eat).

    When it comes to the selection, the restaurant only has about 10 dishes. The first is the garden salad with a selection of 3 sauces. There is not much to write about for this as it's just regular caesar sauce, and hot sauce. The only thing that was special was the spicy pickle sauce that they had.

  The next set of dishes after the salad was Indian fries and rice. I must say, the Indian fries were pretty good. It was like regular fries infused with curry (but it wasn't as greasy as curry).

  After this, there was a choice of daal, vegetable curry, butter chicken, beef curry. The vegetable curry was pretty good and so was the butter chicken. I mixed it on top of the rice and the infusion of the curry into the rice was just right. They also had tandoori chicken and these circular egg like things. I

Overall, this place is limited in terms of how much selection there is for the buffet. Given the price, it is much cheaper than going to the food court to get take out of butter chicken... and you also get so much of it. If the options aren't enough for you, they have an a la carte menu too! Overall, I would definitely come back here again. 

2 for $3 Samosas (Maurya Express UBC Review)

Being one of the only places that specialize in Indian food on campus, Maurya is an average place to get your dose of India. I was going to Staples with a friend when I noticed a strong scent of curry. Being a huge curry lover, I decided to investigate and it brought me to the door steps of Maurya. 

   The first thing I noticed was the special offer they were offering on a poster at the door. Apparently, it was 5 dollars for two scoops of rice and a choice of curry. That sounds like a pretty sweet deal (or should I say, spicy deal? ;)), however I wanted something small. I noticed that the samosas were 2 for $3. That seem to be a good deal so I went in.

    The inside of the restuarant was small and felt like it was designed for the take-out sector. There weren't many dine in seats and the seating was awkward. It was right in front of the cashier, so I'd imagine it wouldn't be too comfortable sitting there.

    After looking at the pretty uninteresting menu (there wasn't much to it beside black and white words. You'd think there would be a design of some sort... but noooo. ), I ordered the samosas.

   The cashier had to warm them up before giving them to me. This makes me wonder how fresh the food here is.

       Has it been sitting in the heater all day? The samosas themselves taste pretty average. It was on the small side and it wasn't as spicy as I'm used to from the samosas at the other Indian restaurants I've been to. Nor are the portions as big. This samosa can be put togther with another one to make a bigger one. Overall, the place is pretty average and price is slightly on the high side because of the smaller portions. Otherwise, the samosas were good.

Chicken Soup of Everything Asian (Wok Box Queensborough Landing Review)

Located at Queensborough landing, Wok Box is probably one of the only places around that mixes a bunch of Asian cuisine together. Passing by here numerous times on trips to Wal-mart, I never had the chance to try them out, so after class one day, my friend and I decided to give them a try.
 From the outside, you can tell that it's a Chinese place. However, that wasn't the case when I walked in. The decor sort of has a mix of Asianness. Especially the murals of Buddha on the wall, it sort of give a sense of Thai yet it's not exactly Thai. I think a large part using buddha as decor sort of shows the Asian stereotype.
After taking a minute to look at the decor and digesting the interesting yet museum like aura of the restaurant, I turned to look at the menu. I was very surprised by the menu because not only did they offer Chinese food, they had Indian food (Butter Chicken) too. I can tell that the food here is very westernized. Their selection from each culture in Asia is very limited and they seem to only feature dishes that are common. Dishes such as Kung Pao Chicken and Indian Butter Chicken to name a few.

   What was special was that for takeout orders, the containers that are used are the paper ones that you see in the US. I never seen the takeout containers used here before, so that was pretty special. Everything comes in two sizes, there is the lunch size and the dinner size. Actually, the After debating with myself for a while, I decided to get a Kung Pao Chicken (the noodle version). My friend decided to get the Indian Butter Chicken.
  We waited for about 15 minutes before we got our order. What I really like about this place is that the food is freshly made and not like food courts where the food is already made up and sitting on the counter and waiting for the customer to come. I was very fascinated with the take out boxes, so the cashier asked if I wanted my order in a take out box to which I said yes.
  When the order came, I was pleased with the portion of the food. It was a fair portion compared to the amount that I paid. It was about $10 for the meal, and there is an option to make it a combo for $3.99 more. The combo includes either two spring rolls or a samosa with a fountain drink.
  The Kung Pao chicken tasted pretty fair, however, some of the vegetables such as the sprouted beans tasted raw. I am not sure if they are meant to be raw, but it definitely is something I never had before. The downside with the take out containers is that it is hard to get food out. Also, there is quite abit of sauce with the Kung Pao chicken, when I put in the fork to get out the noodle, the plastic fork bent... Overall the taste was pretty average.
  In summary, the downside with Wok Box is that they do not have a specialization in a specific culture of Asian cuisine. Because of that, the taste wasn't too outstanding, but the price is pretty fair/average.