FLAMING GRILL BUFFET (Malden Location) — Restaurant in Malden

It was a disaster from the very get-go. We had a group of 7 people. We told them that the group would be divided into 5 separate tickets. 6 of us got buffets with a drink. The last person just got a buffet cause she didn't want a drink with her meal. The waitress ignored her and brought her a drink anyway.

The food was all old. You could tell that it had sat for a long time. When it was time to go, we were made to sit for 45 minutes waiting for our tickets so we could pay and leave. When the waitress finally showed up, she had us all on one ticket. When we told her that she needed to divide the tickets, she left. We waited another 20 minutes, and she still hadn't shown up. We were all forced to go to the main desk to get our tickets so that we could pay.

Our friend who didn't order a drink, they tried to charge her for the drink that she didn't want nor drink. Then, when she refused to pay for that drink, they got upset with her. She refused to pay a tip claiming bad service. The waitress demanded a tip yelling at her to give her a tip. The husband of the group of 3, that was with us, didn't give her a tip either. When he went to get a copy of his receipt, he caught the waitress trying to change his ticket and mark a tip on there that he didn't approve of. He told us to take pictures of our receipts cause she had all of them in her hands, instead of them being with the cashier after payment, trying to add...

I visited here for dinner early on a Thursday evening. Asian buffets are my guilty pleasure. Please don’t tell my Chinese mom ; ) Maybe I caught them on an off night, but it was disappointing. The good: large selection of Asian entrees and some not-so-Asian offerings too (including cheese pizza, mac & cheese, and tater tots). The roasted meats were solid. Duck was surprisingly good. BBQ chicken and pork ribs were also solid. Sushi was good too. Mostly assorted rolls, but everything was well prepared. The other seafood dishes were also tasty. They were fresh and nicely sauced. Desserts were cafeteria quality, but there was a big selection of ice cream bars and cups in a freezer nearby. I didn’t try the hibachi, but it looked good too. Server was friendly and efficient. The not-so-good: pretty much all of the fried foods were limp or soggy, including the fried shrimp dishes, Gen’l Tso’s chicken, calamari, potstickers, eggrolls, etc. I think this could have been because it wasn’t too busy when I was there, and they were bringing out lots of food. So a lot of the food was sitting on the steam trays for long enough to loose its crunch. But that also meant that the food on the top of the piles got kind of cold. So my recommendation would be to either visit when they’re really busy and replacing the food quickly or get a seat where you can see when they bring out the refills and make your choices...

The food was solid, especially for the price, but the real standout was the surprisingly attentive and cordial service: Thank you Nana!

The only food item we didn't enjoy was the steak from the teppanyaki. It was a big slab of tough meat: it should have been sliced against the grain in strips to make it edible. I'm a guy that will force any food down as long as it is edible, but I simply couldn't chew through the meat. Every single other dish we tried was solid. Big steamed clams, cheesy stuffed mussels, salt and pepper shrimp, hot and sour soup, chicken skewers: all very fresh and well cooked. Nothing was the wrong temp or poorly seasoned.

Again though, the standout was the service. We saw Nana going above and beyond for every table in our section. She noticed a birthday party that hadn't informed her of the event, consistently checked on empty plates, refills, and the enjoyment of food. She made the meal so much better than just decent food at a good price. My wife and I genuinely want to come back, when we're in the area, specifically when she's there. She handled non tipping tables with grace and turned around and was entirely personable and professional with us the next second. She's an asset and the restaurant should genuinely be proud to have her taking care of their guests.

Tl;Dr come for the food, come back for the surprisingly...