China King Buffet — Restaurant in Duluth

I am sad to say that the China King Buffet in Duluth, MN, has recently come into new ownership. My family and I moved to the area 8 years ago and searched in vain for a decent Chinese buffet - until we found the China King. It was hands down the best in the area (5 out of 5 stars any day of the week)! We dined there so often that we literally watched the owner’s daughter grow up as she was often at the restaurant while her parents were working. When we first walked in today, 8/15/23 at 11:15, we immediately knew something was different. The employees were different, there were flies in our table’s window, and there had been a price hike ($12.95 for lunch $14.95 for dinner). One of the buffet aisles was also not working. Now, things happen and it’s obviously not the new owner’s fault that it broke. In fact, they tried to compensate by putting 2 dishes in some of the same steamer trays on the working aisle. However, the food that was available was extremely limited (with no discount in price), and ALL of it was cold and overly spiced. The Egg Drop soup was also off its normal awesome taste. I will give the new owners some time to get settled in and go try it again, but the flies had better be gone, the broken steamer aisle better be up and running, the food better be hot, and the original recipes had better be back - or this is one family that will, once again, be forced to continue its search for a decent...

The food was a 2 out of a 5. The service was a 0 out of a 5. I had a group of 10 that walked in during lunch at 1 pm. We did not make a reservation but the buffet was not busy. I had four seniors with me and when I told the waitress that I had four seniors and that they were in their 60s and 90s, she replied that if they're 60, they do not qualify for the senior discount. I had to inform her that they were at least 65 and older that's why I said they were in their '60s' and one in her '90s'. She literally rolled her eyes at me. I don't know if she even notice that she rolled her eyes but that is bad customer service. Then when I told her that I also have a 10 year old with us, she said 'same price, same price'. She seemed she was in a hurry but when we were seated, she was only folding napkins with eating utensils. I felt that she did not have to rush us to seat or me, when I was questioning her about the senior discount and child discount. It was self-served drinks. The crab legs were served a little at a time. They did not give out a lot. You had to wait for them because of that. They only came to take away the plates. I felt they did not deserve tips but I did tip them because we were a big group. The food taste like it was not salty enough. If the waitress had given more attention and respect to my family and group, I would have given the...

Probably the worst Chinese buffets ive ever been to. They're missing a lot of the main Chinese dishes that you would usually have in a Chinese buffet. Horrible booths(straight 180 Degree angle going up, and hard) and the tables are super close together. I have no idea why some people think this buffet is good, the food is not all that impressing. Yes they do have American foods and i had to take advantage of this seeing that they didn't have a lot of the Chinese dishes that you usually see, i decided to get some waffle fries and it was 75% batter and 25% potato (yuck), they also had fruit but most of it was out of a can. Duluth MN really doesn't have much for competition when it comes to Chinese restaurants or buffets so that's why I assume this crap Restaurant is able to stay in business. I myself am from St.Cloud Minnesota, we have around 5 Chinese buffets around here.

PROS- Wontons are actually pretty decent, They have Sushi. American foods i guess.. Not that good tho.

CONS- Seating (booths and tables), Not a huge selection of Chinese dishes, Coke products not Pepsi, Pretty bad American food. Canned Fruit. *note, one other thing is that I visited Duluth with my girlfriend and the bill between us both around 8pm was close to $27.00 before Tip, Also its in the Ghetto...