It's hard for me to decide whether to give this place two stars, or just one. I would have given it two stars, just because some of the fried vegetables were tasty, the decor was pleasant and the wait staff was friendly. But my colon is reminding me to vote one star.
The "meat" in the broccoli beef and the broccoli chicken is unlike anything I've encountered in a chinese buffet. It's like fat, molded into the shape of the usual little cuts of meat that are typically featured in these dishes at other Chinese eateries. At first I thought I had just gotten a bite of some meat that had not had the fat properly trimmed off before cooking. But no, every single piece of "meat" in these dishes was the same repulsive consistency, with slightly more firmness than a "loogey" but certainly not as much firmness as an actual piece of animal flesh. (I am not a vegetarian but this experience has me seriously considering a permanent conversion to that mode of eating).
The "sauce" in these dishes was a gooey, disgusting science experiment of some sort as well... not thin enough to be a fluid, not thick enough to be a paste. I feel queasy just remembering biting into the mushy, overcooked broccoli florets that were saturated with this mystery spunk.
I thought I'd try the noodles. Surely no one can mess up noodles. Nope, I was wrong there too. The lo mein was literally some sort of spaghetti with ketchup stirred into it.
Bear in mind, I ate small portions of the foods I didn't like, but since I was very hungry, I went a bit heavier on the bland fried rice and the overly greasy fried vegetables to make up for it. One plate of this stuff and it was diarrhea time folks. Luckily for me one of my companions had some imodium in her purse. I had taken several tablets and made at least two trips to the restroom before the quasi-oriental gut-bomb which I had unwittingly ingested was successfully de-fused.
As far as pricing... It's always hard to know whether to tip at a buffet. You're already getting bent over at this place on the price, and then they come and refill your tea and take away your plate and all that, so you feel you have to give at least a token tip of a dollar, which I did. So for me alone, with a buffet, iced tea, measly one dollar tip and tax, my total came to over $11. For what had to have been no more than $3 worth of actual ingredients including the slimy sauces, the mystery meats and the dough and grease for the fried items. Oh yeah and the ketchup and bargain brand spaghetti that was used to construct the so called lo mein.
The repeated trips to the restroom for the hershey squirts, and the mild nausea (that thankfully did not escalate into regurgitation), were delightfully enhanced by the fact that an entire section of the restaurant smelled strongly of moth balls. In addition to this, some of the grizzled, sickly-looking patrons emanated that "stale apartment" odor that comes from a person who very rarely leaves their home or cracks open a window to let in any fresh air. (I probably should have gotten a good look at some of these folks to see if I recognize any of them in upcoming episodes of A&E's "Hoarders".)
As far as the "questionable people" mentioned by one reviewer here, I'm not sure exactly what that meant, but pretty much anyone who would eat at a Chinese buffet in the suburbs of northeast Dallas (myself included) probably falls into the "questionable" category, at least as far as sanity goes. read more