China King — Restaurant in Longview

China king is kind of hit or miss. I've been here a few times and each time the experience has been way different. Let me start with the pros. 1. Large variety of food on the buffet to choose from. (Even potato salad) 2. Some of the items are really really good. 3. The service has always been really good. The staff is very attentive, pleasant, and our drinks were always timely refilled. 4. The ambiance has that Chinese restaurant vibe you expect. You notice it more when it isn't there. 5. The price is reasonable for a Chinese buffet. 6. The pieces of chicken used in the buffet items are huge! I have no clue where they sourced them from, but I was pleasantly surprised. 7. The place is fairly clean. (Every time I've been there I considered it clean except once, but that was also the day they were having A/C issues) And now the cons. 1. Some of the items on the buffet are not that great, especially the sushi. Granted, buffet sushi is usually a no go, but if you are bold enough to put the name sushi on the side of the building, you better have at least average sushi. The sushi lacked flavor, the wasabi was a weird consistency / color, and the ginger tasted weird. Please don't come here for the sushi. There are much better places in town for that. 2. One of the times I came in, the A/C must have been struggling, cause it was hot in there. They had extra fans set up to help, but it was still pretty warm. 3. Some major items were missing. No chow mein or orange chicken on the menu? 4. The ambiance is Chinese, but also very dated. The whole place could probably use an update. With all that said, I'm torn on if I can recommend this place. If you do decide to go, maybe get it to go? The best items on the menu (and this might surprise you), are the enchiladas, the hot wings, the tamales, the jalapeno chicken, the General Tso's chicken, and the sesame chicken. Believe it or not, in that order. Like I said in the beginning, very...

Warning: this is going to be a long review.

While the atmosphere is pleasant and the staff is friendly, the food is not worth the high price. I guess the reasoning for charging customers so much is it IS a nice restaurant, relatively clean, with good service and a variety of food. I appreciate all of these things but they are basically what one expects at any restaurant. My total was around $26 for two sweet teas and buffets at around 4:30 pm on Friday. They make you pay before they seat you.

I am not a picky eater by any means but I usually stick to the same dishes at any chinese buffet. And nearly every buffet has them so I assume most people do as well. The food was mediocre at best and some of it remained untouched the whole time I was there. I even sampled other things but they left me unsatisfied as well.

There are also signs posted asking not to waste food. I can understand that but I'm not going to force myself to eat food that doesn't taste good. The other person in my party didn't like anything they tried (again, dishes that are standard and of similar flavor at any buffet). We ended up not eating about a plate full of food each.

I AM a stickler for cleanliness. As they kept the buffet and eating areas acceptably clean, the restrooms could have used some attention from the numerous servers that did a lot of standing around. The stall doors were covered with residue from people's hands and the tiny trash bins (for feminine product disposal) were filthy. Toilet paper all over the floor. Hand dryers only. No paper towels (which I use to open doors because there are a lot of people that don't wash their hands after relieving themselves) nor a trash can to dispose of them in. The one under the changing table might have held two dirty diapers. If the thought was to keep them small to reduce and remove waste more often, they failed.

Needless to say, I do not recommend...

I was so excited to revisit this place after a 10 year period of living out of state. I was disappointed to say the least. We ordered the buffet, I got a plate and visited the sushi bar first, then the hot buffet bar of peppered chicken and low mein. I sat down and the first bite I took was of the fried sushi roll slices that I couldnt wait to try. I started chewing and felt a few small pieces of something hard on my tongue (thinking possibly it was uncooked hard rice). I looked at my son and motioned for a napkin. I spit the contents into it and was beyond shocked to see 3 small wavy pieces of metal shavings! Upon closer inspection, I realized them to be pieces of a metal scouring pad! I know this because I was a sous chef you 12+ years and I'm familiar with what restaurants use to clean pots & pan. I took the napkin and it's contents along with the other 2 pieces of fried sushi roll over to the nearest waitress, then she went directly to the manager. He walked towards me, I explained my experience to him and said I understand that mistakes happen in busy restaurants and told him my restaurant experience, but that I believed the entire large plate of fried rolled sliced sushi needed to be pulled off of the sushi bar for his customers safety. He nodded and said "I give you discount".. I said "that's fine but my greatest concern is the safety of your patrons!" He just glared at me then walked away. My son and I sat there another 15 minutes while he finished his noodles, as I watched to see if they were going to pull the unsafe food tray. They never did, it was still sitting there when i walked out of the restaurant. I walked to the checkout counter to pay, the manager gave me a %5 discount off of our buffet check, I paid and walked out. I won't eat here again. I'm very...