JRC Global Buffet — Restaurant in Watford

Having been to numerous JRC buffets in the UK since their openings over a decade ago, we have always liked JRC and would go for an occasion with the family maybe once or twice a year. HOWEVER, we went there last night after not going for about two years, and can finally say JRC buffet is not the same anymore. Not sure if there are a change of owners but the food and service is no longer the same.

We went there at 7:15pm (was told their last entrance is 7:30pm sharp), only to find a lot of the food is already empty and has not been refilled. We thought maybe someone will refill it considering it is only 7:20pm which is still really early. Unfortunately none of the food were replenished automatically and we even had to ask one of the staff if they had anymore salmon. The staff then took out a really small portion of diced up salmon to replenish the empty bowl. The portion was only enough for two people and that’s only if you take a few pieces each. This is not what you would expect at a buffet.

The fried food is over cooked, all dried and hard so not edible. Sushi is soggy with rice stuck together so not made fresh. Prawns had no flavour at all. Avoid the siu mai (Chinese pork dumpling) at all costs as that’s just blended cheap pork fat and not even sure what meat it is. The tinyest piece of smoked salmon on a slice of baguette, where you can barely see the salmon. Desserts were ok except you have to get it quick before they close the counters by like 8:30pm, kind of ridiculous since we were only there for an hour. Lightning is dim so you can’t see what you are eating. Only after an hour in to our meal, the waiters were already cleaning the tables next to us and spraying disinfectant. Also asked if we finished our plate to rush us which clearly still had food on it and we were eating it. We were also told the kitchen was closed at 8:30 (not that we felt like there was a lot to eat anyway), which is really early for a buffet.

For the price of £28 for adult, this is not the sort of food or service you would expect. Do not recommend this place as there are better buffets elsewhere.

Food: 3/10 Value:...

The restaurant inside is impressive, walking through to your table you can't help but be excited at the prospect of being able to try so many different dishes and types of cuisine.

The staff are effective but almost robotic. There is no emotion or passion in the job they are doing. It's not like a regular restaurant where the staff will smile and welcome you.

The atmosphere is big and noisy, this is not a big problem because as a major buffet you have to expect hundreds of people walking around at the same time, the kids or teenagers are free to go every where, they seem to love the desserts station so the location for the ice cream, chocolate fountain and sweets will always have plenty of kids around it, you have to move carefully and navigate around.

Finally the food, the quality of the food is acceptable, the dim sum and some of Chinese items are very enjoyable. But the rest is just average. The ingredients are like you would expect in a major hotel buffet restaurant, it's not the best quality or the best taste, it's just average.

The Teppanyaki station on the day I visited ( Mother's Day Sunday ) had just one staff member cooking so you had to wait. Now because you have a time limit at your table, the waiting time was unfair or maybe it's done on purpose to waste away the time.

As a buffet business if you know the Teppanyaki is popular and you can see it always has people waiting, logic says open a temporary 2nd cooking station for Teppanyaki, this way the line moves faster.

In conclusion I think with very average food quality and the atmosphere being very big and noisy, the staff not interested in the customer apart from taking the money and to show you the table.

You can feel, they want you to eat and get out on time to get more customers. It's like a big machine wanting to just make as much money as possible every day selling average quality food.

On this basis it's not a very enjoyable casual dining experience.

However if you want to get good value for money and eat until your stomach feels like its exploding, this buffet will...

I don’t write reviews often, but this buffet was so shockingly bad that I feel obligated to warn others.

We (a family of 4) travelled to Watford from London to try this buffet. To start with, the selection was embarrassingly limited compared to other buffets and for the price we paid. For a place that advertises itself as a global buffet, offering barely a handful of varieties of food is unacceptable. The few items they did have were poorly presented and looked like they’d been sitting out far too long.

Instead of offering a balanced variety, the buffet was overloaded with the cheapest possible options — potato chips, hash browns, fish cakes, spring rolls, samosa, chicken nuggets — as if quantity could cover for quality. In contrast, there were hardly any decent starters like chicken tikka, chicken kebabs, tandoori chicken or lamb chops. Don’t expect to find much in the way of actual chicken dishes beyond the occasional dry wing. By the way, none of the meat items had any spices at all and were all very very bland including the indian curries.

The so-called Italian section had only one or two tired-looking pizzas and a basic lasagna. One steamed salmon was the sole highlight — and even that felt like a token effort. The Japanese food section was dry and stale, clearly left sitting out for hours with no attention or refresh.

And then there was the meat station. The person manning the grill was moving painfully slow, almost deliberately, as if the goal was to frustrate customers into giving up and leaving the queue. It felt less like a live counter and more like a test of patience. I had to wait for 15mins to get 3 pieces of fried prawns and scallops.

Overall, this was less of a dining experience and more of an overpriced disappointment. We left hungry, frustrated, and regretting we didn’t just go to a proper restaurant where we would have got fresh, tasty food for the same price. Avoid this buffet...