The Food was plentiful, the buffet trays were refilled as quickly as they were emptied and the Entrees, appetizers and desserts are as good as it gets for a Chinese buffet. General Tsao would be proud. The seating is slightly congested, but workable. I managed not to rub elbows or bump knees with my fellow patrons. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, as one member, a young gentleman of Oriental descent readily pointed out to the largesque elderly colored woman leaning on the buffet next to me, exactly where the frog legs were located (directly in front of her).
This is the first time since last summer that the wife and I ventured out to a Chinese restaurant, worried because of the two delivery trucks that had been caught with spoiled food after having made deliveries to local Chinese restaurants. The restaurants that accepted the deliveries without first inspecting the temperature of the foods per the health code;
Golden, Columbiana, Sunny Chinese Buffet, Salem
King Buffet, Salem
Little Hunan, Austintown
Hana Japanese, Austintown
Main Moon, Raccoon Road, Austintown
Bamboo Garden, Austintown
Main Moon, Canfield
Evergreen Chinese, Youngstown
Royal Grill, Boardman
Main Moon, Market Street, Boardman
Grand Buffet, Boardman
Chinatown, Youngstown
Lin's Garden, Youngstown
Shangri-La Express, Boardman
China Garden, Struthers
Main Moon, Campbell
Main Moon, Belmont Avenue, Youngstown
Girard Wok, Girard
Main Moon, Hubbard (Main Moon in Hubbard told WKBN that it refused the delivered food.)
Our Chinese Buffet of choice had always been the Grand Buffet of Boardman, closer to the Mall. We enjoyed its light and friendly atmosphere, food and service. Sadly it since has closed. The Royal Grill Buffet, also named as one of the companies that offloaded the spoiled food, had never appealed to us because of its packed parking lot and the types of vehicles parked in front of it (pickup trucks, Hyundai's and Kia's), not a single Benz. We only imagined the flannel shirted, pajama bottomed, gold toothed crowd who likened to wearing their wide brimmed ball caps sideways that the Royal Grill clamored towards. On one of our daily drives my wife noticed there were only a few cars in the parking lot, one of which was a BMW, so we decided to give it the old college try. Once inside though, I was surprised to see the atmosphere was a little darker than we expected, it not being the first of the month and all. Before we could turn around and leave, we were quickly whisked to our seats by a lovely young Asian hostess who barely spoke a word of English. Quite the melting pot, this huge Asian hideaway, with hints of Africa, Mexico, maybe Guatemala and India seated all around us. I spotted an elderly Chinese couple who were apparently enjoying their meal to our left. My wife and I both agreed if those two had nothing bad to say about the food then it must be good (actually we wouldn't have known if they were bad mouthing the food or not as neither of us speak Chinese, Japanese or any of the other 'nese's). Our experience was good, the food was relatively inexpensive and the service excellent. And because we were not robbed walking back out to our car I give the Grand Buffet four stars instead of three. Bon Appetite good people. read more