China Bar Yum Cha & Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

Where do I begin with this. one star is a little generous.We visited China Buffet Burwood a few years ago and had a great experience, today we returned and we had the opposite, appalling. We decided to celebrate two birthdays with the family so booked the 1.30-3pm lunch session on a Sunday. On entering we were asked to pay...a little unusual but not out of the question. We did however then have to go and order our own drinks not from a waiter and pay separately again. The bill for 6 adults was around the $245 mark and did not include even tea or coffee, so a bit steep and i guess as we only go out for special occasions we expected some value for money. Couldn't be further from the truth. In hind site I believe they take your money at the start so that you cant refuse at the end to pay for the horrible food you receive We were seated for our 1.30 booking by 1.40pm and upon approaching the buffet found most of the food to be half empty/empty and not being replenished, we are confused as to who had eaten all the food so early? Not only was the food available cold, tasteless and unappealing in appearance most of it resembled a bad 21st cocktail type selection.... Think samosas, wedges, spring rolls and calamari rings that were so uniform in shape that they were clearly from your frozen section of the supermarket. The hot dishes were lacking vegetables, colour and taste and to advertise it as seafood buffet because they have soggy prawns and a few mussles is a joke. At 2.45pm (about 1 hour after arriving) we were told that we had better hurry up and get anything else we wanted as they were closing. Not sure why we would have rushed from our seats as 80% of the food had been packed away already. During our hour the food was hardly restocked and mostly cold. There was however plenty of chicken feet on offer throughout the session. The chocolate fountain was devoid of chocolate and the deserts all tasted the same. the icecream was well.....icecream. I guess we should have read the reviews before going as they are fairly accurate. Toilets were disgusting, plates looked dirty and place was run by inexperienced staff. We would rather eat hospital food and hope that by visiting this place we don't get our wish and end up there. Food Quality 1 Service 1 Value 1 . Do yourself a favour and use your hard earned money to eat...

Had a horrible experience! The food was nothing like it used to. Low grade ingredients are quite obvious. Food was cold & not fresh. The worst part was at the end when we came to pay & were told we have to pay extra for left over food. I was totally shocked & argued with the horrible person on the register & the manager. They both kept pointing at the small sign they have up at the buffet and tiny ones on all tables. Sign says in large letters Don't waist food & then in tiny letters says they will charge $10 per 100gm of left over food. I didn't even notice the signs & needed glasses to read small print. Then they pointed at our table with food we left, other people's tables that were eating, telling me look how they don't have left overs. We got really loud, everybody was looking. It was unbelivable! She kept talking over me when I gave her a description of a buffet & says that I will not eat food I don't like. She kept rudly lying & telling me that apparently they always had this rule, since they were opened. This is absolutely not true & all 20 times we came before & left food, we have Never been charged for what we didn't eat. The hole point of the buffet is that you can eat what you want, as much as you want & you don't have to eat it if you don't like it. Especially when it dosen't taste fresh! I have never had this type of experience in my life! They could of handled it all differently. I left totally disrespected & was called discusting by the manager & told not to come back again. Don't worry, I won't be back! I don't like to be treated like an idiot, called names & then ripped off. Be Aware that this place is not here to provide good service or food to their customers. They are here to rip you off & put you down when you stand up for yourself! I looked up on Google the definition of Buffet to educate them & to prove what they are doing is unheard of in the buffet set restaurant. Don't let them rip you off or...

Used to be my favourite Asian buffet with delicious cooked foods like hainanese chicken, roast duck, roast pork, congee…. Then they went and made it a hot pot/grill.

They still had prawns, mussels, special fried rice, barramundi, limited section of sushi, pipis, dim sum and some other cooked foods but lower quality.

I was not impressed with the meats after grilling - underwhelming, not really my taste even the marinated ones. No flavour.

Desserts looked good but were not that tasty.

What cheapened the buffet were instant noodles as a buffet choice and lollies like M&Ms and caramel throaties as another buffet choice. Why on earth would you include these cheap supermarket options in the buffet??

And my partner said the ice cream they served was the same they have in the hospitals.

They have real plates and cutlery at least! (I read some reviews that said they were serving with paper plates and wooden utensils!!). But they don’t have dessert spoons available, only disposable mini wooden ice cream spoons to eat your dessert with. And they don’t replace the fork and knife you’re initially served with.

On the plus side, ambience was good. Very clean and inviting environment. Wait staff were very helpful, polite and attentive. The grill top is immediately swapped out when dirty.

I guess with this economy they couldn’t keep up with their previous standard of tasty and good quality cooked foods. And little things like instant noodles and lollies as dessert really cheapened the buffet. And the tiny wooden dessert spoons.

Wish they brought back the...