>>>>>>What do you call "reasonable portions"? - reducing what they give you or increasing it?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I'd always thought that here in the UK we get "portions" (always hated that word when applied to food) whereas in the States you get dirty big "helpings".
>>>>>>
>>>>>>So when you say "reasonable" do you mean "what a reasonable person would eat", rather than the supersize-me fare that you alreeady get, or do you mean that the helpings are too small to be reasonable (for the price)?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>To British eyes, you already get HUGE helpings, at a reasonable price. :-)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Terry
>>>>>
>>>>>All restaurants should be reconfigured as 'All you can eat' places. The price could be based on body weight. You would be weighed as you come in the door. Or they could charge based on inches of waist circumference.
>>>>>
>>>>>Actually there are salad bars that are 'all you can eat' and charge by the pound for the weight of your tray. Of course, then they fill the salad bar with things like 'pickled herring' that weigh a ton.
>>>>
>>>>Pickled herrings - I love!
>>>
>>>You are not alone. I have to be careful or I can eat it 'til I'm sick.
>>
>>I'd die of acidosis first!
>>
>>>
>>>>But that's not 'all you can eat' if you have to pay by what you eat, surely?
>>>
>>>Well, I suppose in that vein, all restaurants are 'all you can eat'.
>>
>>Yeah. "All you can eat" implies a fixed price and their counting on punters with small stomachs to offset the gannets.
>>
>>>
>>>>Recently discovered an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet in Brighton, for a set price. It's worth it just for the crispy aromatic duck and hoisin pancakes alone (one of the reasons for living) - as many as you like. Then there's king prawns, just about all your favourite dishes, and a grill where you can "mongolian" your selection
>>>
>>>There is a restaurant here in Toronto called "The Mandarin". It's 'all you can eat' (sort of) and it's magnificent. It's a fixed price (less for lunch than dinner) and whenever I go there I think about how much food they must throw away. The selection is truly enormous and the food is excellent. I say 'sort of' because whenever I tell them that I'll be back tomorrow to continue, they get mad. They just can't seem to grasp the concept that 'all I can eat' doesn't just consist of an hour or so out of my life.
>>
>>LOL
>>
>>I may well have been there. Is it on the ground floor of one of the malls (maybe the one with fairground rides inside)? And they have crab their too (not a particularly Chinese dish)? If so, the food wasn't a patch on Chinese you get in England, I'm afraid.
>
>I'm not sure what mall you might be referring to. With fairground rides inside? Sounds more like Edmonton than Toronto, and to my knowledge the chain doesn't exist outside of Ontario. It's won a lot of awards. They do carry a lot of food that isn't necessarily Chinese. They even have pizza made on the spot. If you want true honest to goodness Chinese food, then the place to go in Toronto is either to Chinatown or to Chinatown North (near where I live). I'm afraid that most of the food in many of the restaurants in those areas is completely unrecognisable to me, so I usually just pass. I'm not adventurous enough to eat food I can't recognise. A friend and I went to Dim-Sum at a restaurant near my place, and we both ate very little. I prefer the more Canadianised versions of Chinese food, I'm afraid.

No, I know my Toronto from my Edmonton. There's a good chance that, given the no. of malls in T, you wouldn't have visited it anyway.

As for dim sums - they're to die!

Just get the lady to take the basket lid off, smell the contents, and ... well eat it anyway!