Golden Buffet — Restaurant in East Peoria

From the ashes of many other restaurant rises Golden Buffet.

If you’ve lived in the East Peoria area long enough, you’ll remember Grand Village Buffet. At least I do and I remember it fondly. Golden Buffet is the latest incarnation of a restaurant going into this building and I believe all the prior restaurants have been owned by the same family. But, that’s a discussion for another day.

My dad suggested we grab food here since we haven’t had time to hang out recently and that sounded like a good idea to me. We dropped in right at open and many other people had the same idea. The place filled up quickly as we took our seats and waited for some coffee to come out. The lady waiting on our table was very friendly and delivered us some coffee pronto. The first cup was definitely the first one out of the coffee machine as it had a very strong blend to it. Not bad, just not the usual taste you get from your average cup of coffee. The second cup tasted more like a normal cup of coffee.

The interior was a lot nicer than I expected but had a bit of a fast food vibe to it. That’s kind of hard to explain but the way the tables and seats were set up, it didn’t feel like a place you’d lounge at for hours. Once you go, you might get what I mean. There were these robot guys at the entrances that seemed like fun things for kids to take photos with. And the plates had the business name printed on them so they definitely seem invested in this iteration of a restaurant in this building.

My dad and I joined the lines at the food troughs and started grabbing food that sounded good. The selection here is a bit pared down compared to other buffets I’ve been to but there’s still plenty of options for everyone. My first plate was a bit light as I was tired of waiting for everyone else to make their food choices. I went back to the table, dug in, and waited for the initial rush to be over.

I went back up for another plate after about 10 minutes once I noticed everyone settling into their food piles. Between the two plates, I got a variety of food and goodies. Fried rice, General Tsao’s chicken, sweet and sour chicken, some delicious buttery potato chunks, and other items one would come to expect at a Chinese buffet. With the first plate of food, the meats and chicken were a bit dried out. I think this was due to the food being cooked a bit ahead of time to be ready for opening. The second plate had a bit of the same problem but I think it was more of what I just described. The food was incredibly tasty and full of flavor despite being a bit dry. My dad seemed to enjoy every bite of his food, though!

It’s nice to see East Peoria have a Chinese buffet again. I miss Grand Village Buffet dearly. I do see myself going back during a different time of day to see if the food is a bit more juicy than my experience this first time.

I should note that our tab was $44.88 for two lunch prices and two coffees. That does feel a bit high but with it being a buffet, you definitely get as much out of that as you want. We ate at 11am and its 8pm as of this writing and I’m still not hungry.

Until the next review, stay golden and stay hungry (for new...

Brought my family here for afternoon lunch because of the reviews I read. The modern look of the restaurant was also appealing. Adult buffet on weekdays is $16.99 and I believe on weekends is $17.99. We arrived and were sat, drinks are not included here fyi. They charge 2.69 per drink as well. Most of the food is usually hot and being replaced every other 30 minutes or so. They have a pho bar where you can choose your toppings and the cook will make it for you. They also have a sushi bar apart from the buffet. My favorites were definitely the salmon, shrimp and rice. The broccoli chicken and broccoli beef were very soy sauce heavy so did not enjoy that. The grilled scallops were also good. Fruit is fresh here and the desserts are ok. If you do decide to come here make sure you are a fast eater. The staff is always constantly picking up any unattended or empty plates. They are always watching you to make sure you are almost done too. A lady who was assigned to our table kept doing this. After our third plates she brought out the check and fortune cookies. We felt rushed to say the least. She got upset when we were not done eating after paying. She constantly kept looking at us to make sure we were done. We felt uncomfortable so eventually left. For 6 people and 2 drinks our total came out to be $116.44. Also be careful to check your bank account after dining here because they will automatically add gratuity without you knowing if your not careful. I put $0 tip on the check and the next day I found out that they went behind my back and tipped themselves 15%. $17.47. So my total came out to be $133.91. Very shady business practice, wanted to warn anyone if you do decide...

Hello there! We were invited to a family lunch here at the new Golden buffet last Sunday. I don't know if it's true or not, but I heard the original owner of the very first Grand China buffet (at this location) was back and heard some people were very fond of that thought! I'm going to assume that's why they've been so busy every time I drive by. We don't often eat Chinese, but we decided to meet the family there. The restaurant was very busy and we had 8 people in our party so they gave us a number while we waited for a table. We only had to wait maybe 10 minutes before we were called in. I get that they were busy, but they sat us in 2 booths where as we would have much rather sat together, we would have gladly waited for a table. Other than that, the food4 was good and the buffet was well stocked. My group of people were able to go up a few times to try some new things! The fruit and dessert bar looked the best to me. Everything looked so good. I believe there were some things I didn't even see just because they were so busy and I was hiding from the crowd, lol. On the way out my niece and nephew took some cool pictures with the"alien characters" they had a great time. I do believe we will go back...