Emperor's Buffet and Grill — Restaurant in Appleton

There was something strangely creepy about this place from the moment I walked in. Twilight Zone style. It was asif the place was being robbed and the gunman was holding someone at gunpoint in another room. About the only reason I go to these places is for some cheap sushi, and at these prices, you can’t really complain. But cheap is one thing, but this place has lowered the bar for what people know as “cheap sushi” a long way. At first it sort of looked like sushi, but upon closer look you realized that all six selections relied on the same ingredients: imitation crab, rice, seaweed paper, in various configurations the topped off with various sauces squirted all over then sprinkled with sesame seed, or crunchy stuff. (They have even used ketchup and mustard?) When I sat at my table, I glanced around the room and the I noticed something odd. At first, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. So I took a closer look. And then I thought to myself it’s true, but I can’t believe my eyes. The salt and pepper decanter, the metal wire thing that keeps the catchup and mustard’s from roaming all around the table Was completely corroded and filthy at the bottom. It looks like a brown shag carpet was stuck to the whole thing. Was it a green brown mold. I literally felt like I was going to vomit. It was disgusting. I’ve never seen that ever before in a restaurant. I could barely eat my food. I was embarrassed for the restaurant, and all of the people who were servers there. It must’ve been an oversight I thought to myself. A one off.

But when I saw the server coming towards my table, picking up plates and dishes to take into the kitchen to be washed, I picked up the metal Catchup and mustard holder and held it up for the server to add to her collection of dirty things to be washed, and hoped that she would take the hint that this was a need of some attention. But instead of being embarrassed by the filth, she asked me what I was doing. And I told her that I was handing her this filthy thing so that it could be cleaned. And then she sort of rudely reacted by saying, “put it back, put it back“. I didn’t want to put it back because it was filthy but I did, then I said to her “I’ll put it back. I’ll put it right back where I found it, and I also put it on the Internet, so everyone else can see it too”. She told me was crazy and walked away. It was an unfortunate encounter for...

I can't recommend.

Positives: The remodel looks great. The staff are very friendly and attentive. Everything looks really clean.

Negatives: The food in the main part of the buffet is mediocre. If you like lots of deep fried stuff, then this place is well suited to you. If not, then you're out of luck. The food is mostly the same as it was before the remodel, so the same weird peanut butter chicken, mediocre General Tso's, and other selections that just aren't very good.

Dangerous: The Dim Sum meatball things wrapped in wonton rappers weren't at a proper holding temperature. They weren't kept warm enough to retard bacterial growth. The ribs in the hibachi section were cold, at around 85 degrees... who knows how long they'd been sitting. And the sushi had been sitting out long enough to get warm. The way to keep sushi cold is to have the plates sitting on ice, and the cold plates help to keep the sushi at a safe temperature to keep bacteria from growing. The plates the sushi were sitting on weren't on ice, and the plates were at room temperature (around 75 degrees). The avocado on and in the sushi was turning brown, the mayo based sauces were turning strange colors, the raw fish was getting aromatic and turning colors.

Long story short, there were a number of items being served that could potentially give people very bad food poisoning. Until the place learns store their food at the proper temperatures, I'd stay away. Food...

Ordered Mongolian Beef, Hunan Chicken, Chicken Chop Suey, and a side of Crab Rangoon. All in all, Emperor's Buffet is solidly in the average zone, and not a place I'll be re-ordering from. The quality of the cooking that I received was sub par but the delivery was prompt and on time, so points for punctuality.

If you like onion, particularly undercooked onion, I would recommend the Mongolian Beef. The breakdown was roughly 1/5 beef to 4/5 undercooked onion. Imagine one of the thin rectangular chinese food containers filled almost to the top with onions, and you'll have an idea of the Mongolian Beef. I would estimate two full yellows, personally I'm saving them for omelettes for the next week.

The spice level of the Hunan is a bit below black pepper level, so I would avoid if you're looking for heat. The meat was all cooked well, no issues there, but the Rangoon seemed as though it was steamed rather than fried and was about 90% cream cheese if you're into that.

The presentation of the food was clean, no dripping containers or leaking food, so again good food prep, just lacking in the general cooking. This review is also given under extenuating circumstances considering covid, which can absolutely affect the quality of the food received, so take it with a grain of salt.

3/5, average, cleanliness of the food and punctuality of the deliver are...