CHINA BUFFET — Restaurant in Jacksonville

The only thing resembling good here was all the patrons seemed to be in good spirits. As for the food omg where do I start. As many of you that follow my reviews it's not easy to get a bad review from me the proverbial BUT #1 the place was disgustingly filthy the walla, the tables, the advertisement placards at the tables just completely filthy. I don't mean hustle and bustle Buffet dirty but some of this as you can see in the pictures (even worse if you zoom in on them) was nasty filthy been there for days and weeks type filthy. Now every single item you see on my plates I tried. The chow mein I could cook better half blind, using a trash can lid and a blow torch for a wok. The smaller thinner noodles were sticky and pasty, every type of fish I tried was super bland and so watered down and over cooked you could barely taste fish flavor and this included the shrimp and crab. Like how do you get crab wrong (they figured out a way). Every type of chicken was dry and overcooked to where some might as well have been early stages of jerky. The sushi was not very flavorful (I tried every type) and the batter dipped fried sushi had zero flavor but 100% greasy. The raw tuna fish was tolerable. The kimshi was barely passable but how do you get rotten cabbage wrong lol. The Wasabi was out too long, dry and crusty. I mean as filthy as the place was considering they deal with so much Raw fish I'm very surprised a state health inspector doesn't shut them down for I don't know how many health code violations. The waitress pretended to be folding napkins but played on her cell phone most the time and acted upset I asked for a tea refill 20 minutes in. As a tourist knowing Jacksonville is on the Ocean their seafood should have been on point or at least up to par. Even the ribs were overly dry and under flavored. The bathroom was a pig sti. The Ice cream and desert area was so very filthy I just tried to get pictures of the filth and bypassed the desert this trip. I for sure would Google search ANY other Buffet in the area and go there before this one. Just sad and disappointed people don't put more care into their work ethic top to bottom in this Buffet. From hiring and firing the slothful employees, to the cooks and the people that are supposed to clean the place. The waitress/host should be inviting, welcoming, and attentive but none of this...

My Jacksonville family come together every Saturday night for a dinner out and unfortunately we had chosen China Buffet for this past weekend. We also had extended family from out of town so we were a party of 17. First we were placed at four tables in the very rear furtherest back corner of the restaurant, past the bathrooms, although there were plenty of empty tables available together elsewhere. Then we had the rudest server who, halfway through dinner, begin slapping the check down on each table for payment. (Now we have been coming to this place for years and always paid at the cashier on the way out). I had just sat down with a bowl of soup when she slapped the check down next to me and my husband was still up at the buffet line. She came back three more times for the check while I was still eating my soup. I then went up front to talk to a manager and the cashier looked at me like a deer caught in headlights. Apparently there is no supervisor or manager. The cashier looked at a couple of the servers who were chatting at the front entrance and pointed me toward one. When I explained how pushy the server was being about the checks to all our family, I was just told twice, "you can take all the time you want". Obviously I could not get anyone to understand the situation. Meanwhile the rude server was even more angry I had said anything and proceeded to tell me and my party that we can go and don't come back. Needless to say, we were not served any more drinks and while the rude server was huddled together with a group of other servers, I assume talking about her unreasonable table, when we walked out to leave after dinner she again proceeded to point us out to her friends and tell us, once again, not to come back. Well no worries on that account. In all my years, I have never had such rude, nasty service and to a party of 17...

My husband and I enjoyed eating there as long as we could get there before 1:30 p.m. Almost every time we arrived later, the food that was supposed to be hot was not hot, some barely even warm. A lot of food items were dried out and chewy when they were supposed to be hot, soft and easily eaten, not chewy at all. The employees were friendly and after getting your drink order out to you they would check on you a couple of times before leaving the check with you. We stopped going a long while. They were under a new manager, but had most of the same employees later when we went back. We had purposefully went after 2:00 p.m. Hot food was hot, cold food was cold, and nothing looked dried out. We decided to go again, since things seemed to be going well. On our third visit, we went about a month after the first try again, we found things the same as before. At 2:00 p.m. hot foods were not hot, and again barely warm and dried out. Cold food was room temperature. I ate some cantaloupe, thinking room temperature would not hurt it. I got food poison and stayed in the bathroom for several hours before getting some relief. I pray they have improved a lot since then! I don't intend them any harm, but I want good and safe food at the right temperatures and not dried out. We may try them again, though we have found another Chinese restaurant that has the temperatures right on each food item, and nothing is dried out. Their food quality dropped for several months. Then, after new management, they are good again, even after 2:30 p.m. nothing is dried out, with foods at the right temperature! We frequently recommend this place to family...