China House — Restaurant in DeKalb Township

first off, let me be clear I'm a buffet connoisseur (if you can be a connoisseur of buffets!). I've done them all: Golden Corral, Sizzler, and numerous chinese buffets in an assortment of cities. I was in Dekalb dropping my son off at college and I decided to check out China House on a Monday night (8/12) around 7:30pm, or about 1 1/2 hrs from closing time. Being it was Monday night after normal dinner hours I was fearing the worst, but thought for $16 even if it was crap I could still get my $$$ worth.

It wasn't crap. At all. I was pleasantly surprised, err, AMAZED how fresh, and yummy, all the line buffet items were. The fried chicken wings were huge and moist, the chinese dishes (honey chix and general tsos), again fresh, and flavorful. The fish was tender (can't remember, Snapper maybe?). The spare ribs meaty with good flavor. The hot & sour soup was to die for, some of the best I've ever ever had (late heat kick, don't underestimate it!).

EDIT: I had to come back and edit this as I forgot the peanut butter chicken. I've never had it as a buffet item so had to try it: DELICIOUS.

Then tried the hibachi grill, loaded it with chicken, chinese noodles, and some veggies. The chef whipped it out in no time, piping hot (I forget what seasoning I picked). I don't know where they get the noodles from, but better then I've ever had.

Moved onto the sushi, and I always get sushi last as at buffets I'm usually disappointed with it. Many restaurants don't make the sushi fresh, so the rolls get that "gummy" texture and mouthfeel. Not at China House. Clearly they make it on-site, again fresh and flavorful. I couldn't tell you what I ate, but it was good, and nice chunks of meat in the rolls.

If I have one "complaint" it was the egg drop soup was a little too "eggie" flavored for me. But if it was too "eggie", I don't really know if thats a complaint?

After I left I text my son and told him it was awesome and he needed to try it. He thought I was being sarcastic as sometimes with buffets we experience the usual: old line items that are dried up and stuck to the steam tray, and crappy sushi with avocados or tofu at the core.

I read some of the 1 star reviews and don't know if they really ate here, or maybe had other motivations. I can only speak for my experience on Monday night, August...

So I've been to this buffet more than i can count but I'm going to be sharing my daughter’s experience. This is her second time here, she enjoyed the first time but the second wasn't the best. She found a hair in her food! Our waitress that seated us and got us started was really nice however the second waitress seemed a little colder. After my daughter informed her of the incident the lady was shocked and felt embarrassed and apologized but not so sincerely as most waiters would. She took the hair away before i could take a picture and the lady walked off in a not so professional manner and went off to refill my drink and laugh with a coworker as if what happened wasn't a big deal. She asked her if the hair was on the chicken or noodle and my daughter said all her food was mixed up so she forgot but then remembered after that it was on the chicken. The waitress didn't offer us any discount or anything. When i come to an establishment, i trust the people within to provide clean and sanitary tasty food. I mean, it’s not cheap or free and thats just a bare minimum so im shocked at how things were handled. The way that lady looked at certain people when she thought no one was looking was quite odd, I'm trying to point fingers but it makes it harder to talk to people with an intentional or unintentional scowl wether they mean it or not, thats why waitresses are trained to be as kind as possible. I think that because my daughter has handled the situation with more kindness than sternness, the lady took advantage of that and didn't feel the need to take action. Overall, the cleanliness was decent (at least what you could see). I mean, that ladies smile and laugh was kind , so its honestly sad to see such a gem hide a smile do great. I the daughter wrote this review so all this is coming from me, the source.

Sincerely,...

I loved this china house buffet, but to be charged a service fee of 15% for the people that walk around and take plates and refill your drinks. Not cool i wasn’t aware of this until i told my mother how much i paid walking out thinking their prices went up she went back in to ask to see an itemized receipt as my son is a baby hoping that was the mistake but to find out i was charged a 15% service fee for the employee to NOT REFILL MY DRINKS “had to wave someone down for a refill” and for them to grab plates ONE TIME And my stay was no longer then 45 mins. This isn’t a normal restaurant to be tipping 15% to the Busser that didn’t even do his job properly. You can NOT charge service fees and not tell anyone about it and when someone asks for an itemized receipt you cover up the service fee part so we couldn’t see what you charged me for. Because of this i won’t be returning back witch sucks because i really loved this place. Unfortunately charging people a butt load of money to pay your employees that you should be paying not me! This is disrespectful to those who work very hard for there money. I used to be a server i know how hard it can be but I’ve never seen an establishment charge a service fee of 15% with out consent or even showing it on the original receipt if i would have seen that charge before paying i would have asked for it to be removed as i left a tip on the table and 15$ to someone that didn’t do there job is just plain wrong. Not to mention the food wasn’t good at all, my daughter loved the bananas with the red sugar glaze and she wouldn’t eat it saying it tasted funny, the only thing she did love was the ice cream. So sad how bad this place as...