Empire Buffet — Restaurant in Lenoir

This was absolutely the worst dining experience I have ever had. It's an all you can eat chinese buffet that I had been to a couple times before and although it wasn't fantastic, it certainly wasn't the nightmare this visit was. From the atmosphere to the service to the food, I would give them zeros across the board if it was an option. The food was hard, dry, tough or had run out. There was no tea, sweet or unsweetened. While my companions and I were coming through 5 buffet bars trying to ferret out enough edible items to at least justify the price we paid (almost $60 for 3 adults and a tiny 4-year old) our drinks and silverware miraculously appeared on the table even though we never saw a server. Nothing was said when we came in. They require payment in advance and gladly took our money. Then a male employee barked, "We close 9:30." and it was 9:04. I personally prefer to chew my food rather than sucking it down whole like a vacuum. If it had been cooked to perfection, by the time we surveyed 5 bars and fixed our plates, it was almost 9:20 and chewing wasn't an option. We never expected the staff to practically throw us out. But an employee came out of the back and started mopping at 9:20. Other employees began removing the food from the buffet at 9:25. The final insult came when the barking man walked over to the table beside us, pulled a watch out of his pocket, looked at it, then looked at us and barked, "It 9:30) glared at us a few seconds and then walked off. They should lock the door at 8:30 so that no one comes in after that if they want everyone out by 9:30. That way they have a chance to actually finish their meal and the staff could unlock the door to let them out. So if you're looking for a late dinner, this is not the place to get it. I'd suggest not going after 8:00 in order to avoid limited, hard, dried out food, extremely poor service and snarling staff. I know my companions and I won't risk going back at any...

If I could leave no stars I would! Never in my life have I had such a bad experience in this restaurant. The manager actually took food off my table that was already paid for. The chicken was spoiled that was in my off the menu sesame seed chicken. I showed them a man from the kitchen came out said it would replace it. I told them I did not want anything chicken he offered shrimp and I excepted. I ate maybe five shrimp before I felt sick, so I asked for a take away box. I also ordered a whole order of crab Rangoons. The bill was paid my children ate off the bar. The lady came over and said "you no can have this. You no take this" the man came out and they started fighting over my table everyone was staring at this point in time. I was so in barest she took the crab Ragan's that were not part of the order that she was arguing over. I asked her to hand those back and she could take the rest and she told me no that I had to eat everything in her restaurant and not take anything out. Even though I had ordered off the menu. She took the food into the back I heard loud fighting in the back and then she brought back the food and handed it to me but you could tell that it had been handled. I told her I no longer wanted those because I could not trust what had been done to them once they have been taken back into the kitchen. She said she would refund the cost of the food and went to the front of the restaurant and never came back. So I sat there while it felt like everyone stared at me feeling like a thief even when Everything was paid for. So I told the boys to leave everything as it was and we were leaving. the lady said "thank you come again" I told her I had never been so embarrassed in my life and may God Bless her because she would never see me eat there again. I tipped my...

I found this place after one of my mountain ventures and I was highly impressed. I came back several times in the last couple months but sadly will never return there. With the exception of the egg drop soup I think the food is excellent but the actions of a waitress the last time I was there is why I will never go there again. I had traveled two counties to go here paid for my meal and only had two or three dollars for tip for basically $14 meal. I took the tip money and handed it to the waitress who literally took two plates off of my table and that was about it and brought me my water but majority of the time set on a chair in front of the front register occasionally looking at her phone. As I was walking out after handing her the tip she made the sarcastic comment, "nice but not really," when she saw it was only three dollars. Like dear, you barely interacted with me while I was there and every other time I've came there I generally leave a $5 tip. However the entitlement and disrespect has come to my decision into why I will never go back there. I do think management or owner of this establishment really needs to sit down their wait staff and explain to them adequacy of waiting tables. Like I said she made $3 for basically doing a job she's already paid for and removing two plates from my table. I get waitresses don't make that per hour but the entitlement...