McCully Buffet — Restaurant in Honolulu

Wooooooooooow. I had a terrible experience here.

I went with my husband and two friends, and it is the first time I have ever left a restaurant WITHOUT leaving a tip.

OK, I'm Chinese, so I'm not expecting fawning, amazing service at places like these because I'm used to brusque service at restaurants. What is important is their efficiency, and the Chinese are damn good at that lol. But there wasn't any service to be had. Our plates just sat, gathering dust. Our cups (and throats) sat, unquenched and parched.

We went an hour before closing. We had just gotten our first plates when the lady came over and said that they were closing and that it was our last chance to get food, and HAD TO PAY. So I gave her my card to ring up. She brought back the slip, and while we were debating about what to give as tip (my friends at this point have already been horrified by the service and were telling me to leave very little), the lady came back and reached over, declaring, "YOU DONE?" I grabbed it back from her, but at that point, I finally made the decision to not even leave a tip and just handed it back to her. I mumbled something about leaving cash, and she walked off.

The meat was meh, the sides were meh...the food was just meh. It's not even worth the effort to decribe. Meh. Our whole experience was so bad that I can't even remember the food. I spent the entire time anxious about what the lady in the restaurant was doing--I didn't even enjoy the lunch. I just know that nothing really was TOO terrible. Oh wait, no the tofu was really bad. I left my tofu untouched on my plate. The sides at Peppa's taste better than the ones here.

Our grill wasn't the best either. One side of it wasn't working well, and I ended up having to cram my meat onto my husband's section.

The lady started sweeping, and she would purposely come right by our table, multiple times. She would then ask something (I have no idea because she just barked something incoherent), and then leave. She wouldn't even take a single dish with her. I was getting really uncomfortable, and wanted to leave since she clearly wanted us out the damn door. My friend had a different plan, "I DARE her to ask us to leave!" Haha.

And when we left? I didn't leave any cash tip on the table. I had a harsh inner turmoil for a little bit, but I'm over it. I'm pretty upset I even had to pay $18/person for that lunch.

When we left, I looked at my phone and it was 2:40. We hadn't even been there TOO late. The way the lady was acting, it was like we left at 4pm!

I was spoiled by the other Camellia Buffet, the one on Beretania. Why oh why did they have to close down? Their selection was 10 times better! And I never had a complaint about their service. The ladies at that Camellia's were so nice :)

I will never...

I have seen this place marketed by McCully Buffet on Instagram as the only “Premium, Fine-Dining” Seafood and Yakiniku Buffet and wanted to check the place out.

We visited the restaurant on a Thursday evening, we called 30 minutes prior to arriving and they got us right in!

The spicy beef soup, was a delayed spice - very delicious. Japchae, on point. As for everything else, it was mid. Which made me disappointed after all their advertising on social media.

The selection of meats were below anywhere else (Gen, Gyu-Kaku) and they could not be considered premium. The shrimp color looked scary to even consume. I love salmon kama, however didn’t even want to try due to how crusty/old the cooked salmon looked. The sushi is questionable because of the temperature (not cold) due to the nigiri and sashimi sitting out, which makes me worry. Shrimp tempura very greasy/ oily. Also, no crab legs or scallops.

Water had horrible taste, strong perfume (maybe leftover soap)

We were able to serve ourselves on the buffet line. Service was really good. She changed our grill out three times and also provided a refill on the soda.

No ice cream. Dessert was jello, VERY hard. I had to spit mine out into a napkin it was that bad.

When the bill came, we noticed the auto gratuity. I really strongly dislike when a business does this for a party of 2. Then to look further, they added the gratuity and subtotal and then taxed that! Wow!

We go up to pay and they have a Surcharge Fee for credit card transactions that is based on your total bill due to them not wanting to pay the processing fee.

Bad business model to put all of that on your customers, left a bad taste in our mouth after a below...

Cockroaches in day time ,dirty,dusting,make me puke!! They dont even deserve one star. Going out to eat is supposed to be one of life's pleasures, something to be enjoyed, where the customer puts their trust in the restaurant's reputation as well as food hygiene in the kitchen.

During my recent visit Camellia Buffet only moments after starting to eat I noticed a cockroaches on the wall that divided the food and the dining wares right by my table. The cooked meat such as orange chicken and fried chicken was cold and not kept warm as required to keep it fresh and without spoiling. I immediately felt sick and called over the staff. They did not apologize and the owner told us that it is Hawaii and the cockroaches are everywhere so it does not matter. He did say that they spray the cockroaches what made me feel more sick is that fact that if they spray then they spray around the food which can cause many health problems considering that only poison  kills cockroaches! I declined to order something else, as my appetite was completely gone, I asked for some tea. My family no longer wanted to eat their meal either, as knowing that the dishes were prepared together in the same kitchen was enough to put us all off the food.

When the bill arrived, I was surprised there was a bill at all! Over pricing !! Would not recomend to any one.$28 per person not even worth. With such an incident, the restaurant should have made the entire meal complimentary!Eventually after arguing with owner i was paying for the meal he dropped the price only for the children. Complete lack of customer service and the entire experience has disgusted me that I will never go...