Buffet City — Restaurant in Clive

The only reason they are receiving 1 star in this review is because 0 stars is not an option. Before going out to dinner with the limited funding for "extras" that we have as a family, I went online to price different places to find the most competitive price for buffet. Buffet City won by a landslide in pricing (or so I thought). According to Google their website is tied to their name when you search them up. On their website they have pictures of their pricing, Adults 16$ Kids 7$. We arrived at Buffet City at 6:50 PM. Thinking we would be at the end of the dinner "rush". We were right there was only 4 other patron groups in the whole place. Yet our set of 4 was placed in a booth, with plenty of other tables with 4 chairs available. Rude but okay, so we dealt with the annoyance of having the outside person get up every single time the inside person's plate was empty. When we ordered our drinks I ordered a water. When it arrived at the table and I took the first drink it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was disgusting. It tasted as if they had pulled the water out of a toilet or something!! So I opted to get a sprite instead of whatever that was that they considered water. The food (if you can call it that) was atrocious. So bland that everything tasted the same almost. The "pot roast" was the only main dish that didn't have any complaints from the party. The temperature of the food was despicable. I don't know how they have ever passed a health inspection if that is how they serve their food. The hottest thing on the buffet was the doughnuts covered in sugar. Everything else was not even WARM, it was cold. Almost as if it all had been on ice. The meats were chewy and hard all at the same time. How do you even get that combination?!? The Bill. I was taken aback when the bill reached our table. It's was considerably higher than what I had calculated based on their websites advertisement. Like almost 40$ more and we hadn't gotten anything extra except 4 sodas. I figured that they would make it right when I asked the waitress about the pricing dispute. I even pulled up on their website where it showed the pricing I originally believed to be true. Hiding behind their ability to speak English they said the pricing was from a customer photo (it was not). They didn't offer anything to fix the disagreement. No apology or anything. I paid their ridiculous price of almost 90$ for 4 people and left with my children who were still hungry!!! From an all you can eat buffet! Absurd!

Buffet City will never have my business ever again and I will never recommend them to any persons inquiring. Where had customer service and quality gone? Is it seriously this non existent anymore?!?

0 out of 10 Would NOT recommend this...

I've been to three chinese buffets in close proximity from me and I think I've found my three locales that I like. Out of the three, Buffet City takes a firm second place, beating out New China Grill and Buffet and only marginally losing to Hibachi because of restaurant aesthetic.

The food from what I've had, tasted about what I expected out of any chinese buffet. Though there are particular dishes that I like that I judge in what would make it stand out. Buffet City making coconut shrimp and fried shrimp available for lunch is a huge plus in my book, my favorite dishes. Usually I have to wait until dinner time in the other venues to have them which means paying more and I don't like that as much.

Sesame Chicken is amazing, it's not as watery-looking as New China's and dry/crunchy as Hibachi's. Right level of texture and taste as it should be. General Tso's chicken is not spicy which is actually great because it's a dish that can either be or not be spicy, but I prefer not spicy and I'm glad it's not spicy here.

So for food, it's pretty good in how they handle them, especially with my favorite dishes.

Service was pretty nice, no issues to date.

My only complaint and this isn't to just Buffet City, but to all buffets I've been to so far - why is there no ice cream machine? Ice Cream cups are okay but they're all small, you need to acquire multiple of them to make nice dessert combinations and everything.

Hibachi's does ice cream cups, New China does ice cream cups. Buffet City actually has a freezer where you can scoop ice cream up which is an improvement than having ice cream cups. At the time though when I visited, they didn't have the scoop and I was left to a plastic spoon.

Anyways, overall...

3/29/25 (5*) I ordered delivery and my order was teriyaki Chickenskewers, pot stickers and spribg rolls. Everything was freshly made and delicious. Great food and service .e pictures in the photo listing.

12/10/24 (4**) I ordered delivery, my order was chicken Broccoli 🥦, fried chicken wings, egg drop soup and pot stickers. Everything was freshly made and hot when I received it. Chicken wings are all flats, crispy and meaty. Egg drop soup was delicious. Pot stickers were too oily and no dipping sauce with them. 😫 Chicken Broccoli was delicious

10/29/24 (4**) I ordered delivery. My order was Mongolian Beef, Mei Fun, Pot Stickers and Spring rolls. All was made fresh with good flavor. Beef was tough to chew. All other items were very good.

9/29/24 I ordered delivery. My order was fried chicken wings, freshly made and all flats as I like them. Delicious. I ordered pot stickers,freshly made and soft and flavorful. Hot and sour soup was the best ever. They have a thicker broth as to other places. They take pride in the quality of food they serve. It was all delicious and I will definitely order from here again.

(9/7/24 4**) I ordered delivery. My order was Roast Pork with fresh mushrooms, very good and flavorful. 2 Spring rolls, very good. Crab Rangoon (4) bad, not fresh and very tough and chewy.

(3 stars= 8/21/24) I ordered delivery. My order was Green beans with Garlic Sauce, large portion and very good. Also ordered the fried filled wontons. Not good at all. Greasy and...