Jack Lee's Tavern Restaurant — Restaurant in Ontario

🌹 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 Rating restaurants is always difficult due to the potential for so many things to go wrong. Now and then, my craving for Chinese food (or at least a Canadian version) wins out. My usual choice would have been the Chinese Buffet Wing Hing in Cornwall because I enjoyed the variety of delicacies. Sadly, my cab driver informed me they closed long ago (I don't treat myself as often as I should). Shout out to my very cordial driver from Choice Taxi, who is a lovely gentleman. Anyway, the next logical choice was Jack Lee's on Pitt St.

🌹 The Pitt Street Mall certainly has some interesting characters haunting its sidewalks these days. It was a Tuesday evening and uncrowded as I entered. As always, I had my tunes playing in my ear for entertainment (and just in case I needed to block out background noise). My playlist is an eclectic dream. I received my usual bewildered stare from the greeter and the obligatory question, "Are you alone?". To which I reluctantly responded with 𝒀𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆. I say reluctantly, not out of self-pity but of societal pressures that erroneously dictate singles are necessarily lonely. I enjoy my solitude.

🌹 The greeter offered me my pick of tables. As I walked past the steaming, colourful buffet, the tantalising aromas of the binned goodies assailed my nostrils. I chose a table for two near the buffet counter but out of the way of traffic. I barely sat down when a pleasant waitress approached me, asking if I liked something to start my meal with. Within two minutes, I had a cold beer in my hands. Very nice! Visions of Wonton soup danced in my perfumed little head as I sashayed my red summer swing dress to the giant cauldron of pork-filled dumplings.

🌹 One has to be careful not to fill up on this delicious appetiser. Fortunately, the bowls provided are small, and that helps prevent overindulging. Four slippery dumplings, a generous spoonful of chopped green onion, and a dollop of dried Chinese noodles later, my first course was ready. Back at my necessarily 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒍𝒚 table, I drizzled some soya sauce into the bowl and a dash of pepper. My only complaint was that the soup could have been warmer. Otherwise, it was delicious and fresh.

🌹 My first trip to the main buffet was typical of my routine. I like to build my first plate out of vegetables so I do not miss out on any choices. Other than snow peas and carrots, I love Cantonese veggies. I found certain vegetables a bit firm for my liking, but at least I knew the food had not been sitting for long. I traditionally reserve my second plate for egg rolls, chicken wings, chicken balls and spare ribs. I am not a big eater, so I have to plan my meals logically. I prefer to run out of tummy room for meat than vegetables.

🌹 One hour and 10 minutes later, I was full. The table was cleared of used dinnerware between courses, and the waitress was attentive throughout. After a lovely meal, I like to cap it off with a freshly brewed cup of coffee and a snifter of fine cognac; neat. Somehow, this digestif combo does not appeal to me after feasting on Chinese food. I rarely eat dessert, so I settled for one more barley sandwich. The bill with a generous tip totalled $49.00.

🌹 The service was excellent despite my having done most of the work. But it is, after all, a buffet. The food was as delicious as I remembered. I would like to see new items on the buffet, such as oysters, mussels, and breaded shrimp. The atmosphere was pleasant and quiet without loud music piped in to interfere with my playlist, dutifully humming in my ears. Aesthetically, the decor has not changed in decades. It is a recurring, perhaps petty, complaint with Cornwall restaurants. But a refresh is nice to see in an establishment. It shows the owner's interest in their business and customers. My search for good restaurants in Cornwall continues, but in the meantime, I'll always have Mexi's!...💋 Alanis Rae Sept...

I couldn’t find this information online anywhere. If you’ve been looking for it too, here it is: Open Tuesday to Sunday Lunch Buffet 11am-2:30pm $12.95 Supper Buffet 4pm-8pm. $16.95

With that out of the way… onto the review.

Jack Lees is the “greasy spoon” of chinese food. It’s a great little spot that has been around forever and offers decent food at a reasonable price.

The decor is Chinese themed and adds to the charm of the dining experience.

The wonton soup is a must. It’s a tasty start to your meal before hitting the buffet.

The buffet is under a red light to keep it warm. If you’ve never experienced the effects of staring at red light you will be surprised to discover how green everything looks when you walk away.

My buffet staples are the broccoli and bbq pork dish (it’s chicken now - it broke my heart when we went for dinner last night.), chow mein, chicken balls, egg rolls (I wish they had spring rolls and I wish they were pork and cabbage) and sweet and sour pork. The dinner buffet also has chicken wings. It’s ALL YOU CAN EAT. So you will leave full.

They serve coke and pepsi products and we paid $2 per can of pop.

They give you fortune cookies at the end of your meal and we always enjoy reading them to each other.

You won’t find general tao’s, almond so guy, or buddahs feast in the buffet, but jack lees is not a high end chinese restaurant. It’s also not going to cost $100 for your meal. The food is standard American Chinese food. It tastes good, it fills you up, and is a solid chinese buffet for the price. The many regulars can attest to that.

My only issue is the bathroom. They are always clean, but they are a stark contrast to the dining room decor. If they upgrade anything it should be the bathrooms - so they reflect the rest of the decor. The classic chinese style decor is part of the experience of eating at jack lees.

The offer dessert but we pass on the jello and rice pudding. (Green tea or mango ice cream would really be an amazing finish to a solid meal - I suppose one can dream.)

I recommend Jack Lee’s for the atmosphere,...

We happened to be in Cornwall on a Friday night a few weeks ago, so for the sake of nostalgia we visited Jack Lee's and had the dinner buffet. BIG MISTAKE! It was terrible! What was once one of the best places for Chinese buffet in this area is now probably the worst of any restaurant of any sort. We found the selections very limited with nowhere near the number of dishes as one would expect at a buffet trying to be competitive. There was such dim lighting on the buffet, it was hard to tell just what we were getting. The meat dishes were scarce on protein, the rice horribly overdone and hard, the egg rolls filled with tasteless mystery, and the vegetables limp and overcooked in weak sauces. The place seemed to be busy on a Friday night, so there was both no excuse for poorly presented and overdone foods, nor any explanation for the crowd. With so many choices, why were they there? It;s sad when the high points of the meal were the tea and the fortune cookies presented with the bill.

Jack Lee's? ...