KIOKU SUPREME BUFFET — Restaurant in Conroe

When it comes to Chinese food, I’m usually the first one to step up to the plate. I don’t demand gourmet style, just hot fresh and flavorful. Yesterday I went to this buffet and was sorely disappointed. The restaurant was clean and the choices were many. The chicken items were mediocre and the only difference was the slight variation in the type of sauce that it was sitting in. The beef was tough and lacked flavor. I did not enjoy any of the seafood items because I’m not a seafood person. I am confident that because of the numerous shrimp and crab and imitation crab items, that’s why they jacked up the Buffet pricing.

The hot and sour soup and the noodle items were about the only items that were hot fresh and flavorful. The crab salad (imitation) tasted like it had been sitting out for a couple of days. Too many items tasted like they were “off“. Once I got to my table after filling my plate, the food which was supposed to be hot was cold to the touch or room temperature at best. I left the restaurant with the start of a stomach ache and had intestinal distress until almost midnight.

As other people have written, I highly recommend you get there early in the day, before the kids come and get their hands into the food. By the way, one of the reviews talked about a glove being provided for handling the utensils to dish out the food. The glove arrived long after I had started eating And it wasn’t until I read about it in the review that I knew the reason it was there. The staff are not very communicative.

When it comes to the employees being rude, I cannot comment because once I sat down I rarely saw them. Customer Service is not a big issue for this team. Chinese people are wonderful but by and large they are not outgoing. Had the waiter/waitress come by the table and said “how is everything?” or “is there anything I can get for you?” It would’ve made a world of difference. I also can’t comment on the speed at which they replenish the empty items on the Buffet. Being there at the opening offered me plenty of choices other than the sushi which does not come out for about an hour after opening.

The pricing for the Buffet was again, weighted by the seafood and sushi. Too bad they didn’t differentiate on the menu, making the beef and chicken one price level and the seafood at another price level. The “menu“ shown in this page is a very old one. The adult lunch price has increased at least 25%. The notion of giving senior citizens the stated discount is totally forgotten.

There is always a question on tipping at a buffet. Clearly when there’s unusually good service you want to give them a decent tip. In this case the hostess seated me and brought a glass of water. The waiter only brought me a bill when I got up to the cashier. I did not know who my waiter was until the very end.

In these reviews, there are some very positive comments. Moreover they have achieved an unexplainably high 4.3 star rating. You may wish to visit this Buffet but if you do, leave your expectations flexible.

Update

I went there again yesterday, April 21, 2023 and generally the food was good. The poached salmon tasted really bad, the bourbon chicken was also bad and they had this fancy salad with a lot of different vegetables and little did I know they had squid in it. I didn’t know until I bit on the darn thing. Sushi rolls good. Great fresh fruit. Their service is about the same perhaps a bit better. The tipping issue is about the same. Definitely try it, but leave your...

I have eaten at this location since it was Hibachi with my friends, always been our go to. I love Chinese food, nothing makes me happy like eating Asian cuisine, if I’m upset it’s my friends go to. Today? The foods texture was off, temp was lukewarm if not room temp, the flavors I usually look forward to on my pallet of soy and mirin, sake vinegar and sesame oil, teriyaki and honey simply weren’t there. I and my friends however could detect an umami sugar salt flavor in every single dish, not 2 minutes after completing our meal we were unbearably full (we each had a single plate not our normal 3[+] courses) flushed like we had been drinking, nauseated and uncomfortable like we were all gaseous. Msg is a flavor inhancer, and in small quantities not a completely terrible thing as far as neurotoxins go but it is most certainly NOT the main ingredient. In order to cut corners drinking glasses are now bigger and the waitstaff (most of whom I did not recognize, nor them me as the hostess said something rather rude in mandarin when we asked for a booth I declined to comment this to my friends as we had all had a trying day) were more than just willing or attentive they were almost pushy with refills to The point of standing in between me and my friend having a private conversation for an uncomfortable amount of time and we ceased speaking. Will never return to this location, a golden piece of my childhood has been taken away for mediocrity and low an underhanded food standards. When asked for comment the manager reported to my friend that she’d inform kitchen staff to cut back, which not only confirmed the overpour of the salt liquor but also tells me as a restaurant manager of 9 years they aren’t following a guided recipe or inforcing uniformed dishes, I shudder to think of the hygiene in the kitchen or the food safety practices that are in place in every restaurant if they aren’t even following a menu guide. Really saddened by today, i am now experiencing chest pains, sweating profusely, and incredibly uncomfortable and painful bouts of gas as well as vomiting. Even as I type this my skin is flushing with heat rash as my body tries to metabolize the poison I unknowingly ingested. Msg can kill, cause cardiac arrest, fever, asphyxiation due to swelling as a reaction to the toxins, as well as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and organ damage of multiple varieties. It should never be used in that amount, they outta be ashamed at their poor performance and their obvious greed. Times are hard, cutting corners to make ends meet especially in food however just made it a little harder for them. Me and mine will sadly...

I had a powerful craving for Chinese food for lunch on Sunday after a miserable dinner at Dairy Queen the previous night. I haven't been to a Chinese buffet since before the pandemic, and being totally unfamiliar with the Conroe area I just went with the closest one on my route home, which happened to be Kioku.

I was quite happy with this restaurant! The staff was friendly, drinks were refilled before we needed to ask, prices were very reasonable, and most importantly the food was very tasty!

I try to have at least a little self-control at buffets, but it had been one of those weekends and I pretty much threw dignity out the window. There weren't many trays I didn't try a little of, so by the end of my visit I was pretty much an authority on their food. I won't go into food blog mode about it, I'll just say that everything I had ranged from good to excellent. They had all the familiar favorites like cream cheese wontons, sweet and sour chicken, and General Tsao. They also had some things I don't see very often, and I was delighted to see frog legs, one of my favorites. There were even a few things I had never seen before, like sea snails--I have to admit, they were a bit chewy, but I don't think those get a lot of action so they may have just been on the hot tray for a bit too long. I wanted to try the crab because it looked great, but I didn't want to make the two hour drive home with crab hands, so that was my one nod to restraint. The sushi was particularly good, as some other reviews have said. Having tried to make sushi myself a few times, I'm always impressed when a restaurant can churn out good quality rolls at the rate needed for a buffet. Always tip the sushi guys separately, they deserve it!

The one thing I didn't get to try was the hibachi grill, but all the ingredients looked very fresh, and like the rest of the restaurant the area was very clean. I'll try that first next time I'm in the area.

So now I have to start my diet early, but after absolutely stuffing myself for lunch I was able to skip dinner with no problem, so I see this as an...