Out & About #52 | Dragon Legend

This past Saturday, we attended an early Christmas get-together at a buffet restaurant by the name of Dragon Legend.

A significant portion of the photos taken can be found HERE, though as my camera decided to malfunction quite early into the evening, the rest of the photos had to be captured using alternate methods.

The exterior had a rather interesting design, with blue, green, and red lights outlining the odd pentagon-like shapes surrounding the building. Utilizing the same colour scheme, lighting components forming abstract figures were found in the grassy area of the parking lot.

Dragon Legend is quite possibly the largest buffet restaurant I've ever set foot into. The building had high ceilings and a grand waiting area decorated in red and gold. Buffet goers had the option of being seated in two areas: an atrium-like hall featuring a stage, boat-like table decorations, and a large monitor on which live television could be streamed, or a smaller area with fewer tables and even higher levels of noise pollution.

Frankly speaking, I have never had such difficulty capturing photos in a restaurant prior to this experience. Both the area near our table and the buffet area itself were densely populated to the extent where I could not snap a single photo without being shoved or blocked. It was to a degree where even maneuvering oneself from one aisle back to a back wall became difficult.

Standing slightly off to the side didn't ease the photo-taking process either. Thankfully, our table had a decent amount of lighting, allowing for the following photos of Peking duck wraps and assorted sushi rolls to be captured.

Majority of the time, the food being displayed didn't look half as appealing as it would have initially; the reason behind this would be that hordes of seemingly seafood-/sushi-/noodle-/BBQ-deprived people would gather around each newly refreshed platter like an angry mob in order to grab whatever they could before backing down and moving on to the next dish. Passive eaters were definitely at a disadvantage here.

I also noticed an inconsistency in the quality of food. Dragon Legend had done a great job of serving fresh sushi and authentic Chinese dishes (such as Stirfry and Braised Chicken), but their Western dishes were significantly lacking.
While browsing the dessert aisle on my first round, I picked up two small ramekins of crème brûlée and steamed milk pudding. Steamed milk pudding is a common dessert served at Dim Sum, and was done perfectly. The crème brûlée, on the other hand, tasted foul in my mouth: the ramekin had only been filled with one fourth of the custard before an equally thick layer of sugar had been poured on top. Not only was the ratio incorrect, but the sugar had been burnt to the point where it had become bitter. To make matters worse, the overly eggy custard was already at room temperature.

It is a known fact that the restaurant caters mainly to the East Asian population inhabiting the Markham area. However, I do not believe that this is sufficient reason to spend less effort on the non-Asian dishes being offered.

I also ordered an Alata Colada (aka the non-alcoholic version of a Pina Colada). While the taste was nothing extraordinary, they had managed to get the consistency of the drink to be somewhat slush-like, which did wonders for washing the horrible crème brûlée taste out.

As mentioned previously, Dragon Legend had done a great job with their sushi bar. Their rolls were unique, and the sashimi was fresh.
While I'm usually not one to pick up too many sushi rolls at a buffet, their thinly-sliced tuna sashimi definitely had me going back for a few more pieces.

They also had a well-stocked grill bar - or, well, they originally did. The food disappeared so quickly that even getting the opportunity to try a piece of grilled squid became frustratingly difficult.

Western desserts had been lacking for the most part, but I did manage to find pleasure in topping a mini waffle with black sesame and green tea ice cream. My mom had found the waffle to be too eggy and not crispy enough. I had agreed on the point that waffles should generally be crispy in nature, but I still enjoyed the cake-like feel of it, even if the softness was a result of being left out for a tad too long after being removed from the rack.

Overall, the dining experience was a lot more chaotic than I would have wished for. And with the food quality being lower than expected, it would be unlikely for me to return. (While not a priority for majority of buffet-goers, the environment made it extremely difficult for proper photos to be captured. And in my opinion, that is an important deciding factor.)
Nonetheless, if you are the type to prioritize variety and quantity, and don't mind the whole chaotic dining style, then I'd say give it a try.

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