China Buffet — Restaurant in Ankeny

These guys get 4 stars mainly because of value and cleanliness.

The food is pretty typical for Chinese Buffet. They have your main staples like fried rice, chow mien, Mongolian Beef, etc... They also have stuff for people who don't like Chinese food like fried chicken wings, cheese sticks, and so on... My wife and I particularly like their selection of Sushi they offer, as other similar buffets we have went to don't usually have that big of a selection.

I see some people have complained about having to pay first, seat yourself, and get your own drinks, but my wife and I rather like this approach because we don't have to wait on a member of the staff to give us a simple refill (You are already getting up to get your own food, it won't hurt you to get your own drink as well). Instead of the staff running around and getting everyone drinks they use the opportunity to clean, which we also found quite nice because we've been to plenty of buffets that we didn't want to touch the food because everything was a nasty mess.

On both of our visits here the food was always hot when it was supposed to be (or cold in the case of the salad and sushi bar), the staff was always friendly, and the rest of the customers seemed pretty friendly due to the laid back attitude (opposed to other buffets where I have seen customers fighting over certain buffet items).

If you are like my wife and myself who are laid back and don't mind sacrificing a little service for a clean restaurant with good food choices, at a good value, this is a...

This is the first and last time we will go there. I thought it was new, you know something new to try. Other Chinese Buffet's that I've been at bring you your drinks and your silverware. Here you get your own. Not a big issue, just not what I'm use to for the basic same price. I mean it is a self serve, so no big deal really. The selection of food was basically ample, only one dish with shrimp in it, I'm use to more. But maybe they do more shrimp in the evening??. Quality of food was terrible. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give them a 2. Even though the food is in warming trays, 2 of the dishes I took were cold. I got some macaroni salad and left most of it on my plate as it has no flavor. Added salt and pepper, still no flavor to speak of. 2 dishes I ate were good, those I did enjoy. Service- they did come around and remove your empty plate in a timely manner, but no smiles on their faces. They acted like they hated being there. I guess I can understand that, I hated being there too. There is another buffet on the South side of Des Moines and out in West Des Moines that are far better in quality of food, and the service is friendlier. In my opinion, save your money and don't go there. Take a trip into DSM or WDSM, for Chinese with pretty darn good flavor and great service. I will never go there again. Hopefully they'll close soon, allowing someone else to occupy that space and hopefully serve higher quality of...

Its definitely gone down hill since my last review, from reheating leftovers from the lunch buffet menu, to serving cold coconut shrimp in the hot wells with the left over lo mein noodles being mixed in with new batches. I barely made it home before I had diarrhea from eating dinner there tonight, August 18th 2023 @ 5:19 pm. Took less than 1 hour for the diarrhea to hit as my drive home runs on average 28 to 34 minutes, depending on traffic. I wanted to see if they had improved any since the last time they were using styrofoam plates, cups and plastic forks. They have since switched back to using regular plates, cups and silverware but the food service has dropped even less than before. This will be the last time I go there as they have also raised their prices to 16 dollars per adult, with no standard of quality being maintained. This was a good place to get a solid meal before the plandemic, and due to the rise of food costs and lack of quality inspection processes being issued by state officials they have been allowed to fly under the inspection radar for far too long. But it's cheap and those on a budget will continue to frequent the location, but I for one will not no matter how hungry...