Aaltos Fort Garry — Restaurant in Winnipeg

Had a very bad experience for Thanksgiving buffet dinner yesterday. Our party of 6 arrived before the 5 pm reservation but it took almost 30 minutes to be seated. The hostess was definitely having difficulties seating people. Then things got worse. We were seated for quite a while but no waitress arrived at the table. Finally we went searching for her and she told us to go to the buffet and she would eventually get to our table to take drink orders. That happened 30 minutes later. Water orders arrived an hour later and were short one. Two wine orders did arrive sooner since a fellow goes around the tables with a cart specifically serving wine and Bloodie Marys. My green tea arrived just in time for dessert. The food was okay. One big negative was the Vegetable Medley which looked appetizing however the veggies were uncooked and hard as cement. You would have broken your teeth on them. Back at the table, none of our used dishes were cleared. So we took matters into our own hands and moved the used dishes to a vacant table. Other nearby patrons followed our lead. When it came time to get the bill, one of our guests had to chase down the waitress. She printed off the bill but it was incorrect and she had to be chased down again. I did feel very sorry for the waitress. She was clearly inundated with responsibility for too many tables, some of which were not even in the main dining area. We did pay our bill and leave her a good tip. I am sure under other circumstances, she would have given us top notch service. On our way out, we noticed an open door down the hall to a new function at Canad Inns Pembina ... it is a dinner theatre club with a 3 course sit-down dinner. We spoke with the Manager at the door and told him about our awful dining experience at the Thanksgiving buffet. We mentioned that it was obvious that the buffet area was significantly understaffed and when we saw how efficient his space was running, we enquired if he had an understaffing problem. He told us that they could not afford to have any understaffing in that area when they are guaranteeing a 3 course sit-down dinner. Timing was important not only in serving the food but to ensure it matched the theatre performance intermission. We said it seemed strange that there could be so many servers in his area and yet just down the hallway, servers were non-existent and dining was pure chaos. He told us that it was very possible that many of the buffet servers were being used in the theatre area. The dinner theatre runs every day except Mondays and Tuesdays. My advice to anyone considering dining at the Aaltos Buffet Pembina is to avoid going there except perhaps on Monday and Tuesday nights. It might be better on those nights but I am certainly not going back to try it again. Good luck to any customers going...

The buffet was great. Just some little concerns, first never got ask to show my QR code,where I though maybe will be ask when I got to be setted, no. My husband went to the manager about the situation. 2 nd of all we got setted near the entrance of the restaurant and I was able to see it had a function going on in the over flow (I would call it)section 1,2,3...or a,b,c... Of course the way it is set up people were able to walk through the restaurant to get to their section for the function or other guests of the hotel if they were the guest of the hotel walk right through. Now for my own and my husband safety, were is the staff or management looking after the QR code scam tablette/iPad or phone 📱? And reassure that everyone wearing the mask proper. I felt unsure if we were vaccinated or not. As experienced to an other place my suggestion would be having someone to monitor. Don't be wrong if I was a guess of the hotel and wasn't vaccinated my rectriction would been stay in my room of the hotel having room service or pick up other restaurant. Otherwise I would not be able to ...

It started off OK, nice surroundings, friendly enough staff. Soup and salad bar was good, and the dessert section afterward was fine. BUT - what came in the middle ie: the hot buffet table was the most unappetizing and disgusting mess I've ever witnessed at a buffet. I couldn't even stand to look at the vegetables - one bin had sliced up carrots and celery with some grey curdled goop floating on top. I tried the so-called Cantonese chow mein - there was no meat or sea food in it whatsoever. The spring/egg rolls were just so/so, same with the shrimp - which it turns out were "popcorn" style - nearly all breading. To top it off - everything was luke warm at best. The chow mein was actually cold. The pork loin had been cooked so early that at 12 noon (when I was there) , it was dried out and starting to taste like re-heated pork. Oh, and the ribs that look great in the picture on their website, were just grey and lying in water. I would NEVER go...