E-Star Asian Buffet — Restaurant in Houston

Went on a Saturday night. This has got to be the most well adorned and stylish all you can eat in Houston (looks very fancy). The lighting is very complimenting; reminds me of a lounge. They have a cute robotic host that takes you to your table. Great way to impress your little ones. Hostess (human) are all very welcoming and so is the vibe in the place. I ordered an unsweetened ice tea and made my way to the buffet. My first impression after walking the entire perimeter of the lines was that it all looked good. They offer your "classic" asian dishes with some random mexican inspired dishes for the locals like menudo. I searched for the hand sanitizer bottle that most buffet's have stationed around the serving area, but couldn't find any. I loaded up my first plate and made my way to the table. Upon returning, I noticed that my unsweetened tea was at the table but no sugar caddy nor mixing spoon in the glass. I asked the server for some sweet and low and she comes out with about 5 packets in her hand and lays them on the table. I thought maybe they ran out of caddies since the place was quite busy. I was ready for a second plate but I was curious to where the hand sanitizer bottles where at. I asked the waitress for some, and she walks me over to the front desk, reaches behind the counter, and pulls out a small personal size bottle for me to use. Obviously they don't offer patrons this luxury so she gave me the one hostess use which baffled me! This is unacceptable in this type of environment. People are eating with their hands, licking their fingers and returning for more food, without a way to mitigate those germs from spreading to you. As I made my way to the food lines, I noticed that I wasn't the only one with sugar packets laying on the table. Literally everyone that was drinking tea had no caddy, just sugar packets laying on their table. Now I started noticing even more stuff that began to turn me off. Being aware that personal hygiene is not a priority in the restaurant, I saw that many of the serving spoons had handles inside the food trays. In the buffet's that I frequent, they have a member of the staff walk around the lines to "readjust" the spoons. This is done to prevent the bacteria covered spoon handles from contaminating the food. Speaking of food, nothing really stood out. Their chicken is cut so small compared to other places. I mean, it's almost like minced sized pieces. Not just in one dish, but in all of the chicken dishes. Some sauces like their Mongolian and hunan were bland. Lomein noodles had no flavor whatsoever. Some dishes were just overcooked and dried out. I can go on but to summarize, the food was overall mediocre.

UPDATE:

I decided to go back, this time with the wife. Same experience, same lack of hygiene measures, same sugar packets on the tables. Oh, they also have the worst napkins ever! Takes about 10 of them to clean your hands if eating with them. To me, it's obvious that the construction of the restaurant was costly, so costly that they are being very frugal. The common amenities that should be offered to make your dining experience better are being overlooked to save costs. It's a shame since it's such a beautiful restaurant. You change literally change the name and menu and pass it off as a high end restaurant, it's that nice. If the owner reads this, please invest in some hand sanitizing stations, some sugar caddies, and better napkins. Get some staff members to keep the buffet lines organized and spoons out of the food. I will more than likely not return. There are other all you can eat establishments close by that offer better food, and provide sanitary conditions for patrons to feel more comfortable when...

Before going to this new location I checked the reviews and, to me, it was obvious some of the postings were written by someone affiliated with E-star and for other posts probably the best service was going on during the first month. So here is an authentic review. My family and I were excited for this location to open. We have been going to e-Star specifically the Jones Rd location for over 11 years. Because their food taste has fallen off from the earlier years we were very hopeful that this place would be better. We were highly disappointed! The first disappointment came when we were seated. There were food crumbs in the booth seat so we sat at another location. The next disappointment is the food. Our child eats only 3 things at e-star: crawfish, lo mein noodles and the general Tso/orange chicken. The crawfish was dry and lacked seasoning. She asked mommy I don’t want to waste food but do I have to finish this? That hurt her more than anything because she LOVES LOVES crawfish. The noodles were ok but the chicken was dry, beyond dry. The amount in the buffet dish was very low (no more than about 2-3 servings) and I saw 2 kitchen staff standing at the buffet table, talking and stirring the food so they got a real good look at how low the quantity was and obviously how old/dry it was. We were there for over an hour and they did not bring out a fresh batch. I even asked our waiter if they would be bringing out some fresh general tso chicken. He told us he would check but he never gave us an answer. Most of what we ate looked good but lacked seasoning or good flavor. The oranges tasted like a hybrid of an orange and a lemon. Our child hated the ice cream. At first taste her face frowned up. There are some items that tasted slightly better than the Jones Rd location and they had some additional items at this location such as the rice noodles. As stated in the beginning, we have had this food for over 11 years so we are very familiar with how it usually tastes. We arrived around 7:20pm so there is absolutely no excuse for the food to not be fresh. As for the atmosphere, we loved it. Hopefully the Jones Rd location will update their decor (without going up on their prices to pay for it). The robot is a cute addition BUT give everyone the experience ESPECIALLY if we come in with a child. The robot was used twice during the time that we were there. My child asked why didn’t we get the robot. The lady at the front that seated us (an older lady) was not pleasant at all, not even a smile of any kind. We thanked her for seating us and still no smile nor a “you’re welcome”. At the Jones Rd location, you get a hello, they always thank you for coming and all of our servers have been excellent and very attentive. We also noticed this location did not give us our usual fortune cookies. This new location has a lot to learn. This could be a great place if the mentioned issues are fixed and what was put in the made up and early reviews takes...

If I could give zero stars, I would.

We waited over 30 minutes for a table, which was already frustrating. When our name was finally called, the waitress started leading us to a booth. As we approached, she suddenly stopped, kicked out some people who were sitting there while waiting to be called (very awkward), and then--surprisingly--didn't seat us there. Instead, she led us all the way to the back of the restaurant, where the tables were packed uncomfortably close together. It was hot, cramped, and felt like we were sitting in a sardine can.

We politely asked if we could have the booth she originally seemed to be seating us at, and she said she'd have to check. She came back and said no, because booths are reserved for people who specifically request one. That made absolutely no sense--no one at the front asked if we wanted a booth or a table. They only asked how many people were in our party.

Had we known booths were something you had to explicitly ask for, we would have. And if booths are for people who ask, then the host stand should be making that distinction upfront--not arbitrarily deciding when the guest is already being seated.

When we asked to speak to someone in charge, the waitress didn't even get a manager--just flagged down another staff member passing by. This second staff member repeated the same line about needing to add us to the waitlist again if we wanted a booth--even though one was already open and originally going to be ours.

I refused to wait another 30+ minutes for a booth we were already being led to. This place clearly does not value its customers or believe in a fair, first-come-first-serve system. Instead of accommodating us at an available table, they chose to cram us in the back and be inflexible about an easy solution.

They lost a paying customer today. My family was visiting from out of town and excited to try this place. We won't be back, and we won't be recommending it to others.

Poor communication, inattentive service, and a completely illogical...