China Buffet — Restaurant in Marshalltown

When I arrived at about 6:40 on a Monday night I was greeted by a kind woman who seated me quickly and got my drink order in a very quick fashion as well. The decor was average with the seat upholstery and cushions being well worn and cracking.

Rather than the typical music one hears in these type of buffet restaurants, there was a large TV on in the dining area that caught the interest of the locals with loud discussion.

There was quite a selection of food available however I did find that some of the heat/steam tables were not as warm as others. This left some of the fully cooked items not as warm as others. But it was still tasty. I did find the food to be well seasoned and not as greasy as I have found other buffets to be. Another plus.

With a second return to the buffet, my plate was picked up quickly and my drink was refreshed just as quick! Bravo on the table service!!

There is also a display freezer on the floor that housed the ice cream. I found this odd as it’s located next to a heat/steam table and not with the desserts. There is also quite a bit of rust along and near the drain hole. There also appears to be mold growing (black in color) on the bottom outside metal of the freezer. Jon Taffer, where are you??

I also found that there are very few labels above the food. So, I hope you know your buffet items by sight.

The carpet is also well worn and does not appear to have been cleaned in years.

All in all, I feel this restaurant has a lot of potential to be great and to be a huge money maker with just a simple deep cleaning and making sure the heat/steam tables are turned up so that food is at a proper serving temperature. The food is the product you’re selling, so quality needs to be there to get repeat guests. Serving temperature is a huge part of food quality and taste.

Replace the carpet with some type of tile, wood, or linoleum flooring so that wear shows through a lot less and will be a lot easier to clean.

Cost of the meal with tax was $13.40 before the tip.

I sincerely wish them all the best, however I don’t believe I will return.

2.5 to 3 stars out of 5 stars. The table and check out service was good...

Nope. Well, kinda nope.

You can tell that this is a place that is trying hard to be a decent American Chinese Restaurant, complete with the little wavey golden cat, but seriously, it still rates ony 2 stars.

Food is ok, and seemed fairly fresh, but you do wonder about it. At the buffet, there was a very faint dead animal smell that I couldn't locate (old fish or shrimp maybe?). At the table I kept getting wiffs of that same smell which made me sniff at every bite.

Service was odd. Usually at most Chinese buffets, the servers are overly friendly and full of broken English greetings and smiles. This place was like death warmed over (Hey! Might explain that smell.) No smiles, and the sadness there almost brought me to the brink of suicide. Even the cook, when he had come out to add to the warmers, seemed very forlorn. I envisioned an Asian version of Jesse Pinkman, chained to a dog runner in a Chinese kitchen, forced to cook General Tso's Chicken. I tried to get him to smile by greeting him with a friendly hello. He just looked up sadly from his Snow Shrimp, and slipped me a note.

Good prices, and the floors and tables were clean. My drink was...

Beware. Omg never been so sick in my life after eating here. Was band enough that it was Tasteless, bland,.poorly seasoned and one note, but I spent the rest of the day sick as a dog. Worst Chinese food place ever. Have your insurance card ready if you eat here, you will need it for an er visit, if I could have crawled to my car from my hotel bathroom I surly would have gone. They need to be sued. The egg drop soup had no flavor, the salt and pepper shrimp were so bland it was laughable, the beef and broccoli was descent and at least had some flavor to it. Shrimp for cocktail has been out to long and had a mushy, not firm consistency, no seasoning on the fried chicken, bbq chicken was descent though, if you only want to taste bbq sauce and dry chicken. Peanut chicken tasted like burnt peanuts, no flavor at all to fried shrimp. Overall .... ick, ick, and more ick. Horrible. Beware. Run screaming...