Royal Buffet — Restaurant in Downers Grove

Terrible service, terrible employees, and mediocre to terrible food. Having worked in the field of hospitality in the food industry, this place is the lowest of the low for many reasons.

1.) If your sign clearly says "closed at 10pm", then you close at 10, NOT taking more than half the food down at 9:10pm and closing down the sushi & hibachi bar. Even more so, if you still have multiple families that have paid (giving YOU their business), that are STILL dining in and eating... You should NOT kick them out even if it is 1 minute past close. They're PAYING customers that came there for YOUR food, so have some RESPECT for your own business and your customers (which provide you with the money for your business).

2.) The employees had some real nerve directly asking for a tip multiple times, especially after giving us terrible service on our mother's birthday dinner, and especially after taking food/plates off of our table WHILE we were still sitting there eating. Along with this, you don't serve beverages, you don't serve food like a typical "sit-down" restaurant, so you're not considered a server... You're considered a BUSSER, which typically in most small buffets like this, do not get tips.

3.) If you're going to ask for a tip (which typically you do NOT directly ask ANY customer for tips if you have any form of dignity and respect), at least ask politely instead of saying "Tip? Tip? You leave tip?"

4.) There are plenty of ACTUAL servers in the food industry that WORK HARD for their tips because they're serving food, beverages, alcohol, etc. at MAJOR restaurants. There are people that work hard in those restaurants that DO NOT get the tip they WANT or even deserve. It's life. Get over it, and act like an adult. Not everyone will tip you according to what YOU WANT. Even myself, way back when... I had served and have gotten little to no tip after working hard, not making any mistakes, and even giving out free beverages. Sometimes things happen, but these people need to WORK HARD for their tips by being RESPECTFUL and using their COMMON SENSE (brains) to be polite and cater to the customer.

5.) After kicking our family out of the restaurant as well as taking out all of the food WHILE we were still eating, these people had the nerve to ask for tips in a rude manner, and when my mother walked out because she was upset about the bad service on her birthday and lack of food, the employees turned to her older daughters asking, "you leave tip?" After we had said, "this is ridiculous... You've got to be kidding!"... They just sat there and laughed at us.

... What kind of hospitality is that at all?... This BUFFET (not even a restaurant or worthy of being called such), is a joke. A mockery of the hospitality - food industry. It's a poor excuse for a business and these people should be ashamed, including the owner. The owner only laughed and ignored his customers. Along with this, he continued to close down, not care, and not listen. He did not try to make anything better, nor did he make any attempt to even COME UP to HIS OWN customers to politely let them know they'll be closing in an hour, or to make the experience better after HIS EMPLOYEES were rude.

Keep in mind, most high end restaurants do NOT close on time. They start to do side work and close when the LAST CUSTOMER LEAVES... NOT while there are still many customers still dining in. Just because they paid already, does NOT give ANY business the right to take their money, give them bad service, then close early, and then still expect a good tip.

6.) My father was in the washroom when our incident happened with the employees. We left since we had gotten kicked out because they were "closed". When he came out, he had no idea what had happened, & the employees were speaking in Chinese very rudely and making gestures and mocking noises AT him, TO HIS FACE, for not leaving a tip.

Needless to say, we will NEVER come here again, and we WILL be calling the BUSINESS BUREAU. Worst experience...

Royal Buffet, located at 31 Golf Center in Hoffman Estates, IL, is a popular all-you-can-eat destination offering a diverse selection of Asian cuisine, seafood, and sushi.

🍣 Menu Highlights

The buffet boasts an extensive array of dishes, including:

Sushi & Sashimi: A dedicated sushi section featuring items like California Maki, Spicy Tuna, and Shrimp Tempura.

Seafood Delights: Offerings such as crab legs, crawfish, salted & pepper shrimp, and coconut shrimp.

Chinese Favorites: Dishes like sesame chicken, Mongolian beef, and lo mein.

Dim Sum & Hibachi: A variety of dim sum options and a hibachi station for made-to-order selections.

Desserts: A range of sweet treats, including fried bananas and sesame balls.

For those interested in larger portions, party trays are available, featuring combinations like the "Super Royal Boat" with assorted sushi and rolls.

💰 Pricing & Hours

Royal Buffet operates seven days a week with the following schedule:

Monday – Friday:

Lunch: 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM ($22.50)

Dinner: 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM ($36.00; Friday dinner: $38.50)

Saturday – Sunday:

11:00 AM – 9:00 PM ($38.50)

Children under 2 eat free, and there are scaled prices for children aged 3–10. Seniors aged 65 and older receive a $2 discount on both lunch and dinner.

📝 Customer Reviews

Patrons often praise the variety and freshness of the offerings. One reviewer noted, "The most amazing buffet I have ever been to... Everything you can eat! Especially the crabs!"

Another mentioned, "Royal Buffet is awesome! Everything has always been fresh when I've been there."

However, some reviews point out areas for improvement, such as ambiance and cleanliness. A Reddit user commented, "Royal Buffet is pretty good, get the lobsters of course! However, I'm a sucker for good ambience and this place is very dark and the floors...

I went to Royal Buffet today. I was expecting much worse after reading these reviews. FYI the buffet cost 20.95 for adult and 18.95 for senior. Not sure if it was because of it being mother day or an increase happened recently. I was very impressed with the selection. Seriously I was expecting it to not to look very nice after reading these reviews. Everything was good, I saw crawfish. 2 kinds of large shrimp, every kind of asian chicken, egg roll. Soup. I saw toast, pizza and even Crab. I watched a family leave and I watched a team of 3 attack the table to clean it. I saw them wiping clean. I saw someone doing the chairs and a 3rd person taking away dirty dishes. Impressive. Now I am going to state my reason for only a 4 when the food was actually very tasty. OMG the bathroom. How come you don’t attack clean that bathroom like you do the tables. It smelled god awful in there. 3 stalls. 1st one looked like poop was in it and the seat looked dirty as if someone took a dirty shoe and step all over it. The next one looked like it had been plunged. No water in the toilet and seat up. I’m not putting it down. 3rd one was actually decent looking but no hook for your purse and the part to hitch it was missing. I left thinking eww I felt like I just went to a dirty gas station. Big turn off. I skip the habatchi, wasn’t much variety in meats. Shrimp was almost all gone. So it not all bad a little pricy and don’t use the bathroom. They have ice cream but you have to scoop yourself. After seeing a bunch of kids there..I thought no thanks.sushi was fresh and pretty. Oh FYI some of the food was cold that should be warm like the beef...