I feel confident in disputing Buccacino’s claim of being “Winnipeg’s best” breakfast buffet. After all, my group—the Breakfast Connoisseurs—has reviewed quite a few buffets.

Buccacino’s buffet was certainly better than those at Aalto’s and the (now defunct) Royal Crown, but it paled in comparison to The Fort Garry Hotel, The Current and even to The Viscount Gort.

The Osborne Village restaurant is an inoffensive and unexciting place to eat. The décor is family-friendly; very yellow and orange. I did like the large mural depicting an Italian-style patio, which was beside the food. The buffet spread hosted the smallest selection of any I’d seen before, and everything was warming-tray cold, even though I was one of the first people to dive in that morning.

Fear not, because the food itself wasn’t bad. Unfortunately the same can’t be said about the coffee, which was tepid and unappealing.

The buffet had a lot of breakfast items, which is what I like to focus on. The eggs benedict were nicely runny, but lukewarm. The chopped, peeled potatoes were salty and lukewarm. The bacon felt solid, and was nicely tasty, but lukewarm. You get the idea.

The sausages, while they certainly were the brand of generic breakfast links I despise, were cooked thoroughly enough as to melt the hard bits. Next came the scrambled eggs, which I knew even before I took them would disappoint. I liken them to what you’d be served in the army or at summer camp: cold and congealed into a rubbery mass, the whole of which can be picked up with one fork.

One big disappointment was that Buccacino’s lacked an omelette station, something I consider imperative at a buffet.

The non-breakfast items were decent and the shining star was the mussels. The pasta salads were what you’d imagine, and the caesar salad was garlicky good. I liked the lemon chicken soup but I did not like the boiled egg cut up into it.

The desserts were quite tasty though. They had bread pudding, which I’ve not seen before at breakfast. I managed to tap a nice custard vein in it which was very satisfying. Along with the pudding came chocolate mousse, half-éclairs and assorted sweets like Nanaimo bars.

All in all, there are better buffets for a comparable price. Buccacino’s makes a good effort at it, but the coffee, the lack of an omelette station and the surprisingly low temperature of the food turned me off.

Nothing was cold per se, but like the weather, it sure wasn’t warm.

Published in Volume 63, Number 17 of The Uniter (January 22, 2009)