Review – Flaming Dragon, Valley Centertainment

Daisy Collingwood tells you why this all-you-can-eat is worth the tram ride.


As students, it’s all too easy to stay within the comfortable and accessible radius of Sheffield’s city centre, rarely integrating with the unknown surroundings. So when a God-like ticket collector on our tram home from Meadowhall overheard our quest to find an all-you-can-eat buffet in Sheffield and intervened, we took a leap of faith for a mere £3.50 fare and got off at Valley Centertainment. Here we found the treasure that is the Flaming Dragon.

Last week brought our highly anticipated return to this palace of Eastern delight. Let me tell you, buffet attire is something that requires careful consideration, and, after the last trip resulted in one member of the party having to change into joggers midway through the meal, I opted for a charming full jersey tracksuit, with plenty of give on the waist. Food over fashion. Always.

Food over fashion

The interior of the restaurant is as pleasantly oriental as you’d expect, very spacious and the particularly large area dedicated to food is more than pleasing. Even if the uncomfortable wooden chairs do leave a lot to be desired. Luckily my carefully composed outfit meant that I was ready to deal with anything.

I’ve found that you can always identify good service with the standard tap water test. Restaurant establishments would love you to spend an abominable £2.50 on a Diet Coke, and students can often be met with disdain and a glare from the waiter/waitress when boycotting this. So, on asking for two large jugs of tap water and four glasses, I was physically taken aback by our waitresses beaming smile and helpful nod.

Duck puncake

The trick with an all-you-can-eat is to start off slowly and gently prepare the stomach. I’d recommend a couple of plates of the duck pancakes with hoisin sauce and cucumber, just to get things going. Impressively, even under a glaring hot lamp, the cucumber was still crisp and fresh and the duck was second to none. Then you move on to my favourite stage of the meal – carb loading. There’s a vast range of Chinese delicacies on offer and, in my opinion, it’s important to team each of these which a portion of egg-fried rice, beansprout noodles, chips, prawn crackers, and prawn toast. And it doesn’t end there. You can enjoy a vast array of authentic little Chinese cakes, jelly, ice cream and fresh fruit for pudding. All for £10 with your UCard.

At one point in the evening a chef actually came round with what looked like a duck on a big stick and shredded it onto our plates on request.  Similar personalised touches seem to have appeared since my last visit; a fresh stir fry section, a popcorn machine and to my delight; a man employed purely to serve candy floss.

Don’t forget to floss

Remember: if you don’t leaving Flaming Dragon shaking, sweating, and in dire need of a lie down, you haven’t eaten enough.