Eat Well Modern Buffet — Restaurant in North Plainfield

First time here, and here’s how it went:

Service: Hands down, the service was excellent. Staff were attentive, constantly checking in, refilling drinks, and clearing plates. The restaurant wasn’t at full capacity, but the attention to detail was still impressive. Our waitress was a sweetheart and made the experience more pleasant.

Selection: There were plenty of options—not the largest buffet I’ve seen, but enough variety to satisfy most diners. That said, a few items didn’t look appealing. The mac and cheese was dried out, and the snow crab legs looked like scraps—also dry and uninviting. For a Friday at 5 PM, right before the dinner rush, everything should’ve been fresh and fully stocked. This didn’t feel like a “10 minutes before closing” situation.

Food Quality: Some items tasted fine, but nothing really stood out. The few snow crab legs I managed to get tasted oddly like an egg omelet—not what you want from crab. The garlic lobster was a major letdown: no flavor and unusually dark meat in the claw, which didn’t sit right with me. I stopped eating it out of caution. Sushi with avocado had visibly darkened avocado, suggesting it had been sitting out too long. Sushi rice was typical for buffets—dry from being on a cold table.

On the bright side, the chicken wings, salad bar, cold shrimp, and dessert table were all good. I didn’t try the cook-to-order station, but it looked promising. Overall, you’ll need to pick your items carefully.

Cleanliness (Buffet Area): Very clean—no complaints there.

Overall: 3 out of 5 stars. Hit or miss on the food, but service was top-notch. For $25 (full price), I expected better quality snow crab legs and lobster claws. At the weekday special rate of $18, it might feel more worth it. I understand it’s a buffet, but ingredient quality and freshness still matter. I wouldn’t accuse the place of using bad seafood—but as someone familiar with good-quality seafood, I’d advise caution.

Final verdict: One and...

I forgot to take pictures, though my plates weren't the prettiest but the food was delicious. According to comments, this is a bit more than your average buffet. It is definitely a bit higher quality. It is spacious, well lit and ambient, not too harsh or distracting. The area is a bit smaller in terms of the food aisles but the quality is higher. Sushi rolls are about 25% bigger than your average buffet sushi rolls, they serve good quality sashimi and nigiri, although the riceball under it is a bit too much. They had steak, which was surprising, I did not notice if there was steak sauce around, but it was delicious, on the chewy side, medium well to well-done. They had delicious hot chicken in the same section as the steak, ribs, and pork meats too. I loved their Trio of chicken dishes, it was General Tso's, Sweet and sour chicken, and Pepper and jalepeno chicken. Drinks are not free, they will charge you for it, more so, in bottles. I'm more accustomed to requesting a beverage and be charged for it. My family enjoyed the seafood a lot, stone crabs, snow crab legs, steamed oysters, etc. There are two different things however, Seafood boil with Corn only, and there's crayfish boil with Potatoes only. There is hibachi grill but I didn't see anyone manning the station. There's a decent variety of ice cream cups, love the orange sherbet one. Not sure if it was because it's a sunday, but the fresh seafood (oysters) was a bit empty. The only sad part was trying to see if they had birthday promotions where on their instagram, they promoted if someone had a birthday, and proved that day was their birthday, they could void paying the fee. But due to language barrier or misinterpretation, we just got some boba drinks at a discount. However, I'd like to come again and try out more foods without touching the sushi cause i'd get...

I would like start this review by saying that we have visited this place since it opened, maybe once or twice a month. At the beginning, the food was fresh and well made. The food stations were kept clean and stocked. The last 3-4 visits we noticed a decrease in the quality of the food, a decrease in the cleanliness of the bathroom as well as a decrease in the service such as cleaning the dirty dishes off the table and dirty utensils wrapped in napkins ready for the customer to use. Today was the day that ended our wasting $40 for lunch that included inedible COLD hot food, cold salads from the sushi section that were positively disgusting. Shredded sea legs with thousand island dressing was the best of all cold salads. The other salads were absolutely flavorless. The hot foods....burned egg rolls, a chicken dish that half was nearly black and the rest of just a mess of soggy pieces where the coating just fell off. I watched a kitchen worker with a coffee pot filled with hot water. She was scraping the dried remnants of mashed potatoes off the sides and mixing it with the hot water. The bathroom was filthy and this was at 2:30 pm. The sink was dirty, the urinal looked like it was not cleaned in days and the floor was disgusting. I told the woman behind the counter but she barely understood English and barely spoke it as well so that was 2 minutes I will never get back. She did understand after I pointed to the mashed potato lady and showed her the mixing motion. She screamed at her which I thought was just rich. This business will not survive if they do not start taking pride in it. Save your money people. Anyone remember the buffet at the Blue Star center in Watchung? I do...and also remember the cockroach videos from that place too. No roaches today and not going back...