East Buffet — Restaurant in Austin

I gave 3 stars because I did not know what to expect. I have never been a fan of buffets because the food is stale old and cold after awhile. I can’t comment on it here b/c I did not try it. I was impressed by fresh sushi bar although the guys were texting on their cellphones, didn’t turn around as I was trying to ask a question several times; the other was plain rude but I’ll write it off as language barrier as I think they don’t speak a lick of English. What bothered me most however is that I walked up to the front and showed the lady Probly the owner that I had gotten a coupon on my cell and it was my first time there and she brushed me off to a young girl at the cashier. I ordered a to go dish from specialty dishes and I paid. I never tip for takeout for no table service but for just putting it in a container and a bag. Well I got my food quickly. Impressive. And I asked the girl where the hot mustard sauce was and she said at the bar. I had no clue where andhad to try to ask 4 people where that hot mustard sauce was. I found it rude that i was ordering take out yet i had to go in to the buffet to the other side of the restaurant to try to guess where a sauce was for take out!! Finally got 1 person who spoke English who was very friendly that walked me to it and helped me. I found the cashier girl to have been rude and merited no tip. If she ever expects to get a tip she should’ve gone to the bar and gotten me the hot mustard sauce and a few napkins, plasticware and soy sauce in my to go bag. Just saying that’s good customer service that earns and merits a tip. Lastly I drove from 1 end of austin to there to try their food and they got 3 stars because the Mongolian beef was so good and fresh onions etc. I loved it. Better than I expected. But they also only got 3 stars for their lousy English and lousier customer service skills… not friendly or courteous. I know Chinese people to be so much nicer (and very respectful) than their staff. Restaurant needs to work on that. Impressed by take out food. Just not takeout staff. Read your reviews and you’ll learn that when it quacks like a sick, it is a duck. So when people tell you your staff is rude and unfriendly, then they have to be trained or replaced. I went back a 2nd time and yet again the young girl who answers the phone doesn’t know the menu. She is rude. Could be cultural or language barrier but she doesn’t seem to care about serving customers in a helpful way. She seems to just want to rush you off the phone or go in to order. The purpose of calling ahead is to not have to wait 25-40 minutes there for food to pick up, but instead pre order and pick up when ready just to go in pay and pick up. She is not the nicest person to have as the hostess representing their restaurant. Lastly there is no hot mustard anywhere for the egg rolls, which are dry. Need to make more moist. Or perhaps a spring roll option. Or crab Rangoon s. Outdated appetizer choices. Bring up...

Update: my friend and I went there to celebrate my birthday. Most of the food at the buffet line had been there a while, even though they were relatively busy. It was otherwise marginally passable.

The main reason for dropping my rating to a single star is due to the staff. After seating us and bringing our beverages, the girl we had was nowhere to be seen until she went around removing the soy sauce containers from all of the tables.

It's general practise at restaurants to refill condiments and sauces at the end of rush periods. Fine, but you don't just grab things from a table when people are still eating! Asking nicely works as long as handing customers a refilled one. She did not. Not only that, but when we finally managed to corral her (almost literal use of the word here), she said the containers were with the cups. Ookay. I asked to use one and she pointed to the Mongolian BBQ sauces area.

As the selection of fresher dishes had been limited, I put together a small dish at the Mongolian BBQ line. That, too, was limited and one look at the meats was enough to make me suddenly go vegetarian. Nasty! I'd hesitate to feed that to a starving animal! After taking my first bite of my assembled dish, I had to grab a napkin and try to be discrete while spitting out the small amount I tried. One of the sauces I used apparently was as fresh as the meats, and someone had put some nasty-tasting concoction into the soy sauce container.

Back to Little Miss Attitude. Instead of bringing us a regular table soy sauce container, she had gone to the Mongolian BBQ table and put some sauce into a condiment cup. The same, nasty, sugary soy mix I'd had earlier. I tried to explain to her that it was not regular soy sauce. She insisted I was wrong. I tried to explain to her fellow floor staff, and she jumped in front of me, raising her voice, and tried to tell me I was wrong.

We left shortly afterwards. So much for having some tasty Asian-ish food for my birthday celebration. I'm so thankful that Austin is blessed with many Asian food restaurants and eateries, as East Buffet will not be on my list any longer.

Original review: Good selection of dishes. Typical Americanised version of Chinese and other Asian food. And Mongolian BBQ! That was overcooked and dry, but probably not always like that. I'm a dumpling fan and I really like their pan fried dumplings. Buffet places usually have people who bring your drinks and clear used dishes, but the lady assigned to our table was really attentive without being pesky. She was friendly, and our water and tea cups stayed full. We'll...

BEWARE!! 🤢 Their coupons are tricky.

We have been denied usage of them twice. 🤨🤨🤨☹️☹️☹️

We visited without a coupon and received a coupon on the back of our receipt, so we went back to use that coupon within the month and they said it was no good! Sure enough, it was dated last year. If they stood on good business policies they would have accepted that coupon, because of the receipt dated from the last time we were there, less than a month before!! 🥺😭😱 The next time we used a coupon from the mail that said $8.99 lunch buffet, but they would only let us use it, for one person, out of the entire group. If I would have had 6 of those coupons for lunch, they would have still only allowed us to use one, because we sat at the same table. 🧐🤯😠

We had the afternoon and evening off so we sat and visited for quite a while, even though we checked in during lunch hours, we ended up leaving during dinner hours, So at 1st she wouldn't even accept the one coupon saying that it was dinner time and not lunch time. 🤑🤑🤑 So un-caring and judgmental they are. I had to show the uncaring lady myself of the stamped time of arrival before she would acknowledge the coupon at all.

Oh wow! The kitchen looks 👀 so dangerous for workers too. Floor was nasty and all wet, in the area that I could see, when the doors were open. Surely the rest of it was not much better! 👀

The Food is good tasting though. They serve some of the best 🍉...