Throwback Thursday - River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, BC

Throwback Thursday to the Girls Weekend at the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, BC.  

What is girl's weekend?  Every year a few girlfriends and I go on a girls weekend away instead of celebrating our birthdays with dinners and presents.  We save our money and treat ourselves to a weekend away from our regular daily life and instead take a much needed girls weekend away.

How do we choose our destinations?  It's never easy for the three of us to decide on a place.  It has to be during the weekend from Friday night to Sunday and close enough to return to Vancouver on Sunday.  It needs to have shopping, eating, drinking, spa-ing (luxuriating at the spa), or more drinking.

In 2016 we decided to go to the River Rock Casino in Richmond.  They had Trattoria (highly rated restaurant), the Buffet (which actually was our favorite), casino, Spa Utopia with hot tub and pool access, and shopping at Richmond Center.  It met all of our requirements for a girls weekend away.  

What was our least favorite part of this trip?  Well, I have to admit that I upgraded our room from two queen beds to a suite.  I thought the idea of a suite would be great!  Of course even though no one was smart enough to tell me that this was a bad idea and we should change our room, instead the other girls banned me from ever being in charge of the hotel room for the girls weekend because I would get enough bed.  At least this is one trip we will remember.

What was our favorite part of this trip?  Spa Utopia and the male Registered Massage Therapists who were excellent and after the treatment I had wished that I chose the longer one.  45 minutes was too short.  And The Buffet at the River Rock Casino.  Our timing was perfect so we didn't have to wait long for dinner and were so impressed we returned the next day for the breakfast buffet.  

Take a look at our suite in the Vancity Girlfriends video and you can decide if this is enough space for three?

Our 2017 Girls Weekend away will be in Kelowna, BC coming up in October!  Subscribe to Vancity Girlfriends on YouTube to see what we do in Kelowna.  

Thrifty Tuesday - Ebisu Richmond

Ebisu Richmond is within walking distance of the Lansdowne Skytrain Station on the Canada Line.  I've been to Ebisu Vancouver on Robson Street.  This was my first time to Ebisu Richmond.  

Ebisu Richmond is where my brother likes to go for lunch when he is in town and now I understand why.   Lunch at Ebisu Richmond is a real bargain.  We arrived at 1:30pm and were told we had 25 minutes until the last call and only 50 minutes to eat since they close at 2:30pm.  That was not a problem for us.  The benefit of arriving late is that we didn't have to wait for a table.  

Since this was my brother's favourite lunch place in Vancouver, he knew exactly what to order.  We ordered a BBQ Eel sushi boat, Sashimi bento box and an assortment of 3 items from the lunch special which included a dynamite roll, tuna tataki salad, and spicy salmon don.  Each order was less than $15 which included a miso soup.  All of the dishes were elegantly displayed and tasted delicious.  Now I'm a big fan of Ebisu Richmond and hopefully my brother's trips will fall on a weekend when I can go out and enjoy this fabulous lunch menu with him.  

Ebisu Richmond - Tuna Tataki Salad

Ebisu Richmond - Sashimi Bento Box

Ebisu Richmond - BBQ Eel Boat

Check out Ebisu Richmond Lunch Menu - http://www.ebisu.ca/richmond/menu.html

Vancouver Restaurant: The Buffet at the River Rock Casino Resort

National Blog Posting Month

Blogging Almost Everyday in November

#NaBloPoMo Day 28 - The Buffet at the River Rock Casino

When we first planned the River Rock Casino Resort staycation, i did not have The Buffet on my list even though I had a casino card which means a small discount.  Instead I was thinking of fancy dinners at restaurants and it was Carolyn who said "I want to go eat at the buffet one night."  Of course I wasn't going to stop that idea because I do love all you can eat buffets.  

The best part was our timing for eating at The Buffet on a Saturday night.  We shopped at Richmond Centre all afternoon to work up an appetite.  I specifically starved myself knowing that the Surf and Turf at the Buffet was coming up!  Surf and Turf of sea and land and that is definitely what the Buffet had.  We returned to the hotel at 4:30pm, dropped off our packages and then went downstairs to the Buffet even though it didn't open until 5pm. 

Boy that was the best decision ever.  There was already a line up and large groups ahead of us.  We made it through the line and were brought into the dining area.  The Surf and Turf weekend buffet had such an assortment of food.  Now the maximum dining time is 90 minutes and believe me, you'll need it.  By the way when we were all done and left the Buffet the line up was even longer and along the hallway so who knows how long those folks had to wait.  

There was the Turf part with prime rib, turkey, chicken with roasted potatoes (I wouldn't dare try the mashed), gravy, toppings, and perogies.  There was an unexciting salad bar.  The Surf part had prawns withe seafood sauce, and the big ticket item were the crab legs!  They had a table filled with sushi rolls and sashimi and another area with hot items such as rice, vegetables, asian noodles.  If you prefer dessert, there was an entire dessert table and a freezer full of ice cream.  So many options, it was hard to choose and eat it all.  

Feel free to check out their prices at The Buffet at the River Rock website here:  http://www.riverrock.com/dining/buffet/