Self-serve nerve

As seen on TV, Buffet Casa Corfu launches the all-you-can-eat challenge

by SARAH MUSGRAVE

When I saw the television ads for Casa Corfu, I wondered if the buffet could really be as immense and plentiful as it looked. After spending an evening gorging at this Rosemont restaurant, I'm pleased to say that it's definitely worth lining up at their troughs for a satisfying and cheap meal.

The décor is cut-rate cruise ship and the atmosphere calls to mind a civil service office party, but that's not why you're here. You're here to get your money's worth, because that's what the all-you-can-eat outing is really about. Depending on when you go, for between $6 and $11, you can load up your plate as many times as you want from about 10 service areas overflowing with international delights.

There's a sizable and very fresh salad bar, with all the standards like chickpeas, shrimp, calamari, marinated mushrooms, lettuce aplenty and chunks of feta to accompany the makings of Greek salad.

Then there's the grilled area, with four kinds of flat pizza, tomatoes au gratin, chicken Parmesan and a tasty coquilles St-Jacques served on the half oyster shell. Fluffy, creamy and brimming with shrimp flavour, it's one of those satisfying crowd pleasers.

Then it's on to the hot stuff. In the Chinatown area, you can get sweet syrupy spareribs, two kinds of rice, pineapple chicken balls and "classics" like chow mein, chop suey and macaroni with beef. In Little Italy, there are several pasta staples including manicotti in a rosé sauce, generous pieces of thick, soft eggplant parmigiana and a light lasagna made up of broad swathes of noodles. Petit Paris is represented by frog's legs and a couple of vats of meat with sauce. Other dishes seem to hail from some place in between, like a dubious stir-fry of pepperoni, bell peppers and onion that looked like all the makings of a pizza that never happened.

The best dishes we sampled were meatballs similar to Greek keftedes, full of garlic and spices, in a thin but tasty tomato-based sauce. The Southern fried chicken was a pretty good version of the real thing. Also on the must-try list are the roasted potatoes, tucked away behind some mussels, fish and shrimp at one end of the grill area. The stews were pretty good too. One was slightly sweet with a hint of cumin, and the other was more traditional in thick, brown gravy with tender chunks of beef and veggies--great paired with parsleyed noodles.

The roast beef was a little on the dry side, but the other racks of meat were well prepared. Dour men in chef's hats will carve up a smoked meat brisket, dole out pieces of tender lamb, or slice into a whole roasted chicken for you.

There are enough choices that a person could theoretically eat healthily here, if that person had an iron resolve and averted their eyes from all the glistening fried foods on offer. The cooks have the sense to keep some things really simple, and those dishes taste truly home cooked.

The dessert section consisted of about every shade of cake squares imaginable, à la Technicolor dream coat. As Chris de Burgh belted out "Lady in Red" over the sound system, we finished up our immense meal feeling as overstuffed as the cabbage rolls.

Buffet Casa Corfu is quite a deal at lunch, when it costs a mere $5.99. It goes up to $8.99 on weeknights and tops out at $10.99 Thursday through Sunday, still a bargain for a little of everything or heaping helpings of your favourite dishes.

Buffet Casa Corfu

Address: 3177 Masson

Phone: 727-5250

Hours: lunch Mon-Fri 11am-3pm; brunch Sat & Sun 10am-3pm; dinner every night 4:30-10pm; closed 3-4:30pm

Best features: fresh, all you can eat

Vegetarian friendly: so-so

Wheelchair access: yes

Alcohol: yes

Credit cards: yes, but no Interac

Price: $6-11/person without tax, drink or tip

Rating: HHH out of HHHH