I stayed at the Omni during the 1st week of the Jazz Festival this year and I was very disappointed that Zen was gone. It had been there since at least 2003, and the truth is, I ate there a number of times but it never seemed very busy. My own speculation is that they relied heavily on the hotel guests for business because of that basement location, and with the downturn in the economy, and less people travelling, they must have felt an impact.
I recall taking Karyna of Eleganza there for dinner back during the Jazz Festival in 2007. At that time Karyna was fairly new to the business. I think they had some option where you could order like 4 different dishes tapas style. This was different than the $32, all you can eat option. I actually never tried that option. They made a very good spicy noodle salad, which had veggies and shrimp in it. I can't remember what the name of the dish was but it was very good.
I think Breadman is probably looking for the American-style Chinese buffet. In my area they have a lot of these buffets and they serve both American and Chinese cuisine. Some of them are very good, and they are very popular and when the food is being moved quickly it's usually very fresh. That is key with any buffet - if they are busy and constantly bring in new trays of food, it's fresh and the food has not been steaming under a heat lamp for 2 hours drying out.
Breadman, I have not been there in years, but the Delta Centre Ville had a really good and reasonably priced breakfast buffet which did the best job I have ever seen keeping scrambled eggs hot and moist. It is not easy to keep scrambled eggs both hot and moist. You have to know what you are doing. For this reason, I rarely eat scrambled eggs in buffets. But the Delta CV's Chef, at that time, had it totally aced on the procedure. They used the right trays and the right amount of steam and they kept those eggs hot and moist for the Breadmans of the world.
Now someone asked earlier why Breadman needs to go to a buffet. If you met Breadman, you would know the answer to this question pretty quickly -inside of 2 minutes. Breadman is just a buffet kind of a guy. It's his personality. Which is why when I saw this thread it did not surprise me in the least. One other thing about Breadman. When I first met him I thought I had a Sergeant Schultz from Hogan's Heroes on my hands. However, he is much smarter than what he initially seems, and I like the way his head works (big head that is). But like Rumples said, any suggestions on buffets should not be anywhere near the $35 neighborhood. Breadman is looking for value and lots of good food. That's it.
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The tables are somewhat arranged around a dance floor, but I didn't see anyone dancing, just getting food.
