Reviews for Driftwood Chinese Buffet in Nanaimo, BC

I've been having an odd craving for buffet Chinese food and kept wanting to try this new place out! Driftwood is a chain buffet... restaurant on Vancouver Island with Nanaimo being it's 4th location. It opened earlier this year and I've heard many greatthings about it... So here we are! We got here shortly after they opened for lunch on a snowy Sunday. It was half full of peopleand after we sat down, more people streamed in. A nice spacious seating area. Onto the food! They had a good selection of food,but refilling the items was a bit delayed. Food was fresh and above average quality for buffets, I was surprised. The lunchbuffet is $19.95 for ages 13+, and included dim sum. Dim sum was as expected, but not bad for being in a steamer for a longtime. I really enjoyed the Singaporean rice noodles, chicken wings, and butter shrimp. Jello was a bit bland, but I like how theportions for dessert are bite-sized, easier to gauge how much I can eat after stuffing myself on the main food items! Overallthe food tasted authentic, although a bit salty. Staff were friendly and helpful. Read more

Great buffet selection, lots to choose from and friendly service. Delicious menu items with generous portions, great for... sharing! Read more

After hearing many raves about the new restaurant in town, I was ready to write a great review. I took this picture, everything... looked delicious, until my friend bit into a tainted chicken ball. She spit it into a napkin and couldn't finish the dish. Wegot the waitress's attention and told her that the chicken was rotten. She took the plate and returned to tell us that therewasn't anything wrong with it. Huh? How could she come to that conclusion, without tasting the food. No money was taken off thebarely touched food, so, needless to say, I won't be recommending this place, nor will I be returning. Read more

We arrived at the beginning of the supper buffet, and we're not disappointed. As far as buffets go, the food was top tier and... the non-pork options (I'm Jewish) were quite significant. This is now my favourite Chinese buffet in Nanaimo. Thanks to all! Read more

I am a fun of Chinese Food. I could say this is one of my fave cuisine. I am a little bit critical with the taste. We tried... this buffet recently, but didn't exceed my expectation. Some of their menu could be compared to Quality Food, or Fairway's fastfood menu. The taste wasn't that great. Not so many selections compared to Shanghai buffet. I thought it was dinner and muchmore expensive. I expected more selections, unfortunately they only have few items on their buffet corner. Not so manydesserts. No ice cream. No sushi which I could usually see on Chinese buffet. I cannot remember if they have fresh vegetables onthe menu, anyway I hadn't have one. Drinks are not free or included to buffet price, which is so sad. We ordered a jug of icetea which taste like water according to my kids. I concured to what they told me when I tasted it. The jug is notinstagrammable, it doesn't match the restaurants aura Some Chinese buffet have unlimited free drinks when you pay forbuffet. Their website looks organized and beautiful to look at. I expected so much. I think I wouldn't be back. Read more

Nanaimo newest Chinese restaurant and buffet has finally open after 3 years of setting up. Tonight I tried their dinner buffet... to see how it stacked up against Hong Kong house and Shanghai in town. Dinner buffet is $27.95 for adults or see my photos forother prices. The dinning room and restaurant is beautifully done up. The service is also better than your typical Asianrestaurant. They were attentive, friendly and the bus boys did a great job cleaning up. The food is slightly above average inquality but the deep fried food could use less batter. The selection is similar to Shanghai but less than Hong Konghouse. Quick update: We tried the weekend dim sum lunch buffet. There were 8 dim sum items offered. Best was the steam shrimpdumpling and the worst was the 3 different types of Sui Mi (pork, beef, seafood). The dim sum is not on par with the real dimsum restaurants 2/5. The cost of quality dim sum is likely an issue for them, so they cost cutting shows in the dim sum . Therest of the buffet is good 5/5, but overall today I scored them 4/5. Read more

Been here a couple of times for delivery order. Have seen the robot take away server totally cool! A pump futuristic chinese... cuisine at its best! Read more

We went to try the new restaurant that was apparently fabulous in Campbell River and it was not great at all. We were seated... without menus for the first 17mins, given water at around the same time but still no offer of a menu. Two other tables came inafter us and were served before we finally got menus. The green tea was served in a regular pot but cold and in a non-authentictea bag that wouldn?t steep due to the temp. There was no buffet option offered this day (likely due to a lack of staff andcovid sadly) and when we went to order the 1 person meal they were out of 2 of the 3 things we wanted (almond chicken andchicken balls). One server was fine, friendly and apologized for the service but the hostess was unfriendly & unprofessionallydressed ina red pullover hoodie and tights without a crack of a smile. We definitely will not go back but also will notrecommend this venue. The only thing we thought was ok was some of the decor. We left and found better service at a Nanaimostaple. Read more