Great Moon Buffet — Restaurant in Maplewood

🚫 Please stop supporting Great Moon Buffet in Maplewood 🚫

I’m sharing this to raise awareness after a deeply upsetting experience at this restaurant during what was supposed to be a joyful celebration.

Last night, we were celebrating my niece and nephew’s 9th birthday. They chose Great Moon Buffet. Despite past experiences that made us sick, we decided to give the place one more try.

We had a party of 20. My family of 5 arrived first, paid, and were seated. While my husband stepped away to the restroom, the manager came by, checked our receipt and the receipts of two other groups in our party who had arrived and moved them to the head of the table. We believe his name was Lee.

As more guests arrived, others in our party came in, asking if we had a reservation and questioning whether we had space. Meanwhile, the birthday kids ran up to hug us, and that seemed to cause more confusion.

The manager then told everyone arriving to keep their receipts visible, as he was unsure who had paid. We offered to show all of our receipts and he reiterated he would check the cameras. We later learned that he said similar things to others in our group while they were in line to pay, before they even entered the restaurant space.

Then he said, twice:

“If you don’t like what I asked, I’ll check the cameras.”

My husband called him over and calmly asked: Why speak to paying customers like this? Why treat us like we’re trying to get away with something?

His response:

“Fine. Leave. I don’t need your money.”

So we asked for refunds and decided to go elsewhere. As he struggled to issue the return, (maybe due to an outdated card system), my husband expressed his disappointment: • “This is your fault.” • “You’re bad at your job.” • “You treated us like we were scamming you, we weren’t. We have money, and this could’ve been resolved easily.”

Then he called the police and said:

“This man threatened me.” He continued to reiterate that he was threatened multiple times.

That part didn’t even surprise me. It was just another reminder of what it’s like to be a Black man in public spaces—how your presence, your voice, and your confidence can be seen as a threat.

Police arrived. No threats had been made. Multiple guests were recording the entire interaction. It was a complete waste of everyone’s time—including the Maplewood officers, who were respectful and professional. Once told the situation Officers confirmed all of us were issued refunds then told us to go ahead about our day. We left feeling disrespected, profiled, and deeply disappointed.

I share this so others know what kind of service and treatment they may be supporting. Ask yourself: Who are you giving your money to? How do they treat people who look like my husband, my family?

There are plenty of other restaurants in the area that know how to treat their customers—with dignity and respect. In fact, we all took our business to Chili’s and had a great time, had even better food and were treated wonderfully.

Thanks for reading. I hope it makes you...

So far!!! 2 of us are in this buffet doing a review right now!!! We will put a review up when we are done!!!

First plate with clams- Clams cold Sushi was fresh and great!! Tilapia- cold but good

2nd plate Potatotos tasted waterlogged and packaged not real potatos Corn- sweet and good Steak- cold and not to much taste Tilapia- cold but good

3rd plate- Bananas tasted old and squshy and tried not to get to many brown ones Coconut shrimp- old, the outside is soggy and shrimp was hard and chewy Grapes- fresh and crisp Salad- good options and fresh

Other staff misc plate- Mac and cheese was bad Seafood pasta not very good

Bowl- cookies, ice cream, chocolate sauce- Cookies- taste fresh and crisp Ice cream- very good

Sushi bar— Looks very fresh, cream cheese is even fresh. Many different types of sushi great selection

Hibachi grill- very busy Other critic says it was a great!!

Staff- were busy, saw a few walking around sweeping, and cleaning Waiters/waitresses were also very busy.. Our waitress was awesome!!!

Shocker… we were at a long table a staff decided to split our table and we werent asked. We understood. I was going to bring out my laptop to do the review and realized with the 3 of us at a 4 person table i couldnt. So doing another review on my phone..

Salad bar- looks fresh and lots of salad options!!!

Fruit area- bananas were brown with glaze, rest looked and tasted good. Grapes tasted fresh..

Disappointed on how alot of food was cold and old on the buffet. And it is busy in here! Also surprised not as much seafood as i thought. We have been to even small buffets that have more seafood.

Our critic decided to message we were here before this review was here to see what would be done. We then saw more staff and fresh...

Take out review: Due to the pandemic, this place is now takeout only place. My review is related to that. I have been coming here for years. At least once a month. Not that difficult as I live a mile away. I ordered the Large Combination (1 side + 3 Entrees). Size is fairly large for about $13. The taste is the same as before when it was served as a buffet. Which was good. Instead of 1 size, you do have an option to do 1/2 and 1/2 from the options. They got one of my sides wrong, but I could have easily checked that and I am sure they would have corrected it, but I don't bother with this. The signs are everywhere and very clear. However, because the lobby area is limited in size, if there are too many people, this could be an issue in the confined space. I ran into 2 customers that ignored the face covering signs, but you can't enforce this as people can be belligerent so it isn't the restaurant's fault. They clearly indicate what is expected of its customers. I used the online ordering system and it was a breeze without a need to setup an account. While I was waiting, I ran into the usual type of customers here that are very slow to order and can't read the menu ahead of time....even though there are menus all over the walls posted. I actually prefer this for my Chinese food cravings. I don't know what it is, but the food tastes fresher than some of the other takeout places I have tried out while this was closed. I like how they are handling this situation and they are getting 5-star review as I feel that the change they have made is suitable. Staff are very...