Golden Buffet & Grill — Restaurant in Bailey's Crossroads

Unfortunately, we will be parting ways from this buffet . My Family has been coming here for about 3 yrs now from all the way in Washington DC. It was truly a hidden gem for us ( food wise) . We are leaving very disappointed and not because of the food but because of the service the waitresses and staff provide. 1.We paid $70 for 2 adults and 1 child and as normal you wait to be seated . But this time nobody came and it wasn’t until I asked if nobody was going to seat us , that the lady at the front said sit anywhere . We found a booth and no greeting from the waitress, she simply asked for our receipt to see what drinks we paid for and left. Throughout our meals we noticed they were getting annoyed at anyone that was taking their time and would place the fortune cookies at their tables as a way of saying it’s time . Mind you it had just started getting busy and there was plenty of tables available. There was a moment where I asked my drink to be replaced because it was too sweet and waitress looked at me like I was asking for the most. But It wasn’t until the end when we started wrapping things up getting ready to leave that someone came up to our booth asking my mother to take what she put in her purse out and pay if she wants to take anything home . Mind you I was still getting food myself . My mother had taken the last 2 sesame dessert balls she had left on her plate and wrapped them in a napkin to not waste food ( as per sign on the wall that states to not waste any food ). I got up to get some dessert and when I came back they saw I had grabbed some sesame balls too and assumed I had grabbed them for her to take them home. How ridiculous. She proceeded to ask if I wanted a to go box since we had a lot of sesame balls and I told her NO , I am eating what I grabbed idk why you’re assuming I’m not . My mother who hardly understands English understood and told her she don’t need a to go box for her 2 sesame balls and that she’ll just eat them there she just didn’t want to over do it . Which she did. During the remainder of the time we spent there finishing up, all the waitresses just kept starring at us . One was posted behind my seat watching . And If one needed to attend another table they would ask the other to watch us. Which to us as paying customers was in fact a huge insult! We have never been treated the way they treated us today . AND another thing to look out for - the waitresses are press for their tip. We always tip generously but on a previous visit we decided to pay no mind but if you don’t have cash for tip they will adamantly ask you where’s their tip….the last visit we did not have any cash we had left tip in the receipt upon payment and waitress did not believe us and brought us to the front to verify that we did in fact tip before hand which was completely unbelievable!!!! We never reported this because again it’s been our buffet for 3 yrs now . But sadly this will be...

Price: $17 including tax, drinks extra Time of Service: Afternoon on a weekday Freshness: Items were regularly refilled and not left out to dry out. Nothing I had was dried out and I saw regular refills going in. It was late afternoon well after lunch rush and before supper and place was just under half full which was a good sign Selections: Mongolian grill items. Pick what you want stir fried and the cook does it. Fried line (fish, chicken wings, general tso chicken, 5 spice chicken on a skewer, French fries, cheese wontons, spring rolls) Salad line. Typical salad toppings Dessert line. Included mousse, banana pudding, tapioca pudding, flan, cookies, a couple of cakes, saw ice cream somewhere there (on a stick, prepackaged, but I didn't explore that area) Sushi line. Has tuna roll, cucumber roll, cream cheese roll, couple of others. No sashimi (at least none that I saw for lunch). About 6-8of the less expensive varieties. Two were deep fried. Vegetables: Sort of mixed in amongst the other items and included Asian style mushrooms, broccoli dishes, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pan fried jalapenos that were stuffed and really tasty Meats: Sausage, mini sausages in puff pastry, chicken wings, beef and broccoli, fried fish, baked imitation crab (nice flavor), peel and eat prawns, baked fish, several chicken and beef items, boiled clams, Soups. Several soups there but didn't try. Had a build it yourself soup in the back, egg drop soup (I think) Sides. Mac and cheese (I didn't care for it), corn on the cob, garlic bread, rice, noodles,

Cleanliness: Restrooms not evaluated, buffet line was clean, no spills, no stuff slopped, and regularly cleaned by staff that were working there. Carpets not the best choice there, but staff were attentive at clearing tables and floors quickly.

Parking: Lots of parking in front and down the side. Note: The sign is hard to see as it is in a shopping plaza and down some stairs. The GPS will take you to the plaza. It is next to TJ Max so watch for that sign.

Overall, great price for the area, attentive staff, good selection. This is not 5 star dining but very good for families, cheap eats, and value for money given the rest of DC prices.

Update: Been here twice again with the family this time. Prices still good and service quick to clear the plates but the servers have now been asking directly for tips and telling me to leave a tip. First, they brought a tray and told me to put a tip in it. The next time, I asked for change for a $20 and she came back with $10 change and said "$10 for you and $10 for me." Since then, have now found other places to eat for only slightly more. Have no...

It was my first time there yesterday. Overall it was ehh, the front desk worker didn't seem all that friendly and immediately after we paid at the front we were told to "sit on the left side" and its just the way she said it that bothered us. Most of the foods in the buffet you can order from your local Chinese restaurant or Panda Express, I wasn't looking all that hard but the buffet areas seemed clean, but the main reason im reviewing is for there hibachi.

How it works is that you fill a plate with what you want them to cook and the cook will take the plates and cook them at the same time on the wide grill. My problem is that I am allergic to shellfish and the first time I did the hibachi a shrimp from someone else's plate ended up in my food ( thats a problem ) and there were only 3 plates worth of food on the grill being cooked so they should have all been spaced out enough to the point where that wouldn't happen. After that I thought I would give it another try and this time the cook put 5 plates of food on the grill so I knew I was going to end up with another shrimp on my plate and I did!!! The hibachi cook needs to be reminded not to let the foods mix because if I didn't notice the shrimp there would have been trouble for that place.

Another thing are the labels. The labels for the buns/dumplings were all on one side glass instead of right over the food itself so I could't tell what was what. And the same goes for the sushi. The sushi looked sooo good but because there were no labels telling me what was in the sushi I didn't get any because I didn't want to risk my allergy.

Last thing is that our waitress stopped us from leaving for the tip even tho we tipped when we originally paid when we entered. The waitress told us that the tip we did when we paid was different but after reading other reviews apparently it does go to her or she gets a part of it or something like that. In all, we basically tipped twice and I watched the host watch us as we put cash on the table.

Overall, go somewhere else. $76 is not worth the confused tipping system they have and your allergies

edit: The plates were sometimes dirty and that wasn't caused by the customers walking around. They sent out...