No 1 China Buffet — Restaurant in Lexington

I went there because I knew they offered raw oysters on the halfshell, and people let me tell you, THOSE WERE THE BEST OYSTERS I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. BETTER THAN THE OYSTERS FIVE STAR RESTAURANTS OFFER! I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT! AND THEIR BAKED MUSSELS? OMG! DELICIOUS! PERFECTLY SEASONED AND COOKED! THEY TOO WERE UP THERE WITH THE BEST I EVER HAD! THE ONLY THING THAT KEPT ME FROM GIVING THEM FIVE STARS WAS THE REASON MOST CHINESE BUFFETS DON'T GET FIVE STARS! I went there on a Thursday. Everybody knows the offerings on a weekday chinese buffet are slightly different than what they offer on the weekends. On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays NO 1 China Buffet offers crab legs and other more expensive items on their buffet. For just $19.00! $19.00! Tax and all! Who does that? On Thursday my tab was $15.00! $15.00!!!! Chinese buffets weekday buffets aren't as busy as they are on the weekend, so their food is left on the buffet tables without being eaten by any customers for longer periods of time! Customers just aren't coming in there to eat it! We've all experienced that. Going to the table to get our favorites that are looking like they have been there longer than usual. They are still fresh enough to be delicious, but they tend to have that "I'm drying! I'm drying!" Look. The food is out there exposed to the atmosphere. Sitting on top of simmering scalding tables of water that's used to keep everything hot. Unfortunately, they also continue to cook already fully cooked food. And that sometimes slowly takes the moisture from the food. It sits there looking sad. BUT MOST OF THE TIME IT STILL TASTE DELICIOUS! IT JUST ISN'T FRESH OFF OF THE STORE OR OVEN PRETTY ANYMORE! That was what kept them from getting five stars. They can't toss good food out for appearance sake. I get that. The fried items like shrimp, chicken, and frog legs were hard to eat. They had sat out for too long, and they tasted like it. There were other items that were suffering from buffet tables over exposure. BUT I UNDERSTAND THE REASON WHY, AND I'M OKAY WITH IT! I SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN THERE SOONER THAN 7:30 PM! ON A WEEKDAY AT THAT! YOU SEE! THAT WAS ON ME! EVERYBODY KNOWS YOU NEED TO GO TO CHINESE BUFFETS HOURS BEFORE CLOSING TIME! BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT GOING TO PUT OUT ANYMORE FRESHLY COOKED ITEMS CLOSE TO CLOSING TIME, BECAUSE THEY MIGHT SIT OUT THERE ON THAT HOT TABLE UNEATEN, AND END UP GETTING TOSSED OUT! Having said all this, I love this place because the quality of those big, fresh, juicy oysters knocked me off of my feet! It was like I was back in Louisiana at a five-star restaurant, eating the largest freshest, juiciest, most flavorful oysters I have ever eaten in my life! They were huge! I couldn't believe it! They tasted like they had just been harvested minutes ago! And big! Wherever they came from, the water they were harvested from was the cleaness water on the planet! PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT RAW OYSTERS ARE GROSS WOULD LOVE THOSE OYSTERS! GET YOU SOME LEMON SLICES, SOME COCKTAIL SAUCE, AND A SALT SHAKER TO HIT THEM WITH A SMALL SPRINKLE OF SALT, AND YOU WILL HAVE HEAVEN IN YOUR MOUTH! AS LONG AS I CAN GET OYSTERS OF THIS QUALITY FROM A CHINESE BUFFET, I WILL BE VISITING No 1 China Buffet every week until they disappoint me!😄 BRAVO ON THE OYSTERS AND THE MUSSELS! THOSE TWO ITEMS ALONE TURNED A $15 BUFFET INTO A...

In the past I have loved this place. If I am in a hurry it is a solid quality food, good variety, and decent service (they don't say much, but they keep my glass filled and take away old plates.) Yesterday changed all that. Normally when I go I am either by myself or with another adult, yesterday I had my family. We come in and are being seated and my three year old tries to take silverware of the table next to where our "hostess" is attempting to seat us, she tells him "no your table is here" ...perfectly reasonable. Then she screams it at him as I am picking him up to place him in the booth. "YOUR TABLE IS HERE" I figure that was a little overkill but hey I have kids and I get wanting to scream at them...then she walks away cursing in Cantonese and grumbling. Hey lady, i might not speak Cantonese, but I can curse in 20+ languages and I Google translate with the best of them. But hey, I don't go to a buffet for the service, right? So we continue with our meal and for the first time ever I encounter what the other reviewers have recently said, The Sentinel of the Buffet. She stands at maybe 5'2" and is posted in front of the buffet and is staring arms crossed at my family, for me this means fun times are about to be had. I begin to walm back in forthe in front of her as I criss Cross the buffet in search of that tasty morsel and she stands still as a the terracotta warrior that she is. Silently evaluating every plate that passes beneath her gaze. Then it happens...I am at the Sushi/Mongolian BBQ table when right by the sushi I see a ROACH, a big glistening COCKROACH right by the raw food. I blink, clearing my vision assuming I imagine it and it is gone. I say nothing and return to the table not believing this could be true. Moments later my wife returns laden with once was tasty goodness with a frozen look of horror on her face, she too has encountered the roach by the raw food. Ladies and gentlemen, i am a realist, i do not expect restaurants to be pristine. I am no fool, but for gods-sakes, keep the roaches of the buffet and away from the raw food. Roaches are an indicator of other problems, in this case the problem of a health inspector dropping by...

TLDR; read the carry-out menu on the wall very carefully and put items sold at a higher rate in their own separate box from your "normal priced" food. Use as many containers as you can. I have often picked-up self-serve carry-out from here to take hot food home to the family. Tonight the family had eaten, but I was coming home late. Their carry-out prices are based on weight: $5.99/lb; but higher rates if you have 1/2 or all seafood. (I wrote an earlier review complaining that a single Crab Rangoon would put your meal into the seafood category, so I since have avoided them).

Imagine my surprise when a 1.5 lb meal rang up as almost $15. I did the math twice in my head to be sure: $6/lb times 1.5 lbs = ~$9, not $15. Hmm... I asked the woman and she said it was because I had egg rolls and dumplings and "K" (which I later figured out was meant to mean cake) so it was $9.99/lb. She pointed to a post-it hanging on the price sign. I had one egg roll, two fried dumplings an a couple of coconut macaroons out of a full container of other food. I replied that even with the sign, I didn't have a whole container of those things. But there was no compromise -- when I said I wasn't sure I wanted the food at that price, she proceeded to drop my carry-out container into the trash can.

I had seen the guy I knew to be the manager earlier by the serving area, so I went back to at least give him the opportunity to correct the issue. I explained that with one egg roll she had charged me $9.99 per pound. She then began explaining in an Asian language with much back-and-forth. I waved goodbye and left with them still arguing.

I've figured out the solution for any other (however unlikely) visits. Take three take-out containers and carefully study their price rules. Anything they charge more for -- keep in one container; normal priced in another, and seafood/sushi in a third. Then you are charged the correct rates for what...