Grand Buffet — Restaurant in Knoxville

We returned here, 3rd time. Everything that was wonderful before is still wonderful, a year later. You have to try the salmon here, and the other baked fish which was unlabeled was also exceptional. The only disappointments were a lack of hot mustard and they added prepackaged ice cream which was not local and boasted an unstated bioengineered ingredient(s). All the food was every bit is good and nothing else was disappointing.

Original review: After some discussion, I talked my wife into allowing me to take her to this relatively new establishment. We were glad of it. The price was reasonable, especially compared to the Golden Corral which was previously in this building, and the food was beyond wonderful. For one thing, that was the best salmon I can remember eating. While we are aware that many Asian restaurants include a few American dishes to keep the kids from screaming, this restaurant was quite nicely balanced between Asian and American cuisine and both were done quite well. It can also be said that it is one of the increasingly rare establishments which serve Pepsi products, for which I am grateful. The mashed potatoes looked good enough to eat without gravy, and I'm pleased to report that they were. They had another steamed fish over in the more-or-less Asian section, and while I do not remember the name, I will not forget the flavor. The vegetable fried rice went very well with the broccoli chicken, although for my taste the broccoli could have been more cooked. Mind you, I haven't had teeth for a while, so overcooked broccoli is my preference, but I'm sure most toothed people would be quite happy with the state of the florets. One down side is they did not have fresh hot mustard, and the packets of mustard they had were "heated" with capsicum, not horseradish. The egg drop soup was actually tasty, not like the out-of-the-can flavor of many local Asian restaurants, and they had plenty of chives available to float in it. I ate far too much, and all of it was, at worst, quite good. I even had a piece of their pizza, and while they only offered one variety (pepperoni), the crust was soft and chewy and the sauce and cheeses were excellent.

They could improve mostly by setting up the foods in a less combined variety -- the main table had a little bit of everything, from a chewy taquito to perfectly done steaks and chicken with a few Asian items mixed in. And the lemon slices were only to be found all the way at the end of the sushi area -- I'm quite old now, and it made for quite an expedition when my wife asked me to get her some.

I am also pleased that, like most Golden Corrals (thanks to the building's roots) but unlike some other local buffets, the tables were not crammed together and there was plenty of room for diners to walk around without running into each other. As I am also autistic, I appreciate the lack of crowding.

I am sorry to only have one photo to share. I was so busy eating all the wonderful food that I barely rememberd to take that one.

Don't listen to the Karens in the comments. This place is a great buffet with a little of everything and a lot of good items. Just as an Asian restaurant alone -- which is less than half of it -- it's one of the better restaurants in town, but the American dishes are at least as good. And there is room for improvement, mostly by increasing the selection even more as they have plenty of...

After reading all of the mixed reviews, my wife and I decided to try out the dinner buffet. The food we had ranged from good to excellent and I was particularly surprised at how good the Ribeye was. It was very tender, cooked perfectly (medium rare), and had the perfect seasonings (and I am pretty picky about my steak.) As expected, this comes across mostly as a Chinese buffet place but there were some other items (like the Ribeye, grilled shrimp) that were done well. We had a 10% off coupon but it still ran around $45 for both of us with tip. If I could give 3 1/2 stars I would. Anyway, I figured it might be better if I just listed my pros and cons on it:

Pros: Ribeye was excellent Grilled shrimp was very good Grilled sausage was good Chinese food items were all good and they had Wonton, Egg Drop, and Sweet and Sour soups) Wait staff was very friendly Nice variety of items

Cons: Little pricey (for what we got I probably would've been ok with $30 - $35 range, but not $45 - $50) The non-Chinese items (macaroni, desserts, etc were a little bland.) Crab Legs were basically just very small steamed/boiled whole crabs. I was really looking forward to good crab legs but I didn't even try them because they looked like a pain to eat due to the size - my wife didn't want to try them because she didn't want to see their eyes and full body when trying to eat the legs. Restaurant has no control over this, but a lot of the clientele were... um...less than "clean". By this I mean, a lot of open coughing, no respect for personal space, no awareness of germs, letting their kids run around, etc.) Speaking of, there were so many kids (seemed like each family had 4-5 kids so not sure how in the world they afforded that.) At one point a kid jammed his hand into the container holding the fried wonton crisps for soups...and proceeded to eat them. The parents saw this...and of course ignored it.

After trying it out, my wife and I decided that the price plus the clientele would probably be enough to keep us...

So I went for the first time on this last Thursday and seriously I don't understand the negative reviews. I went there for Asian food and didn't really try any of the more American dishes but the pepper steak and Mongolian beef have to be some of the best I have ever had. The sweet and sour sauce was delicious. General tsao was very good. My daughter loved the coconut shrimp. The wonton soup was a little watery would have been good with a little stronger broth. The dessert bar was nothing spectacular but adequate. However, they had a great salad bar and lots of seafood dishes to choose from. It was clean and delicious. Edit** So I went a second time and now I know where the bad reviews came from. It was a completely different experience. The food honestly was almost disgusting this time around. The Mongolian beef was the same but everything else was a huge disappointment and I mean huge. The only thing I can think of was different cooks. The wonton soup literally tasted rancid. The sweet and sour sauce was nasty with a funky aftertaste. The pepper steak didn't have any flavor at all and the first time it was so full a flavor. I could go on but seriously it was like going to a different restaurant. I didn't like the inconsistency and probably...