Pan Asia Buffet — Restaurant in San Marcos

Food: 3.5/5 Service and Setting: 3/5 Value: 3/5

I remember when Pan Asia first opened and it was so hyped. The prices were really good and the food was better quality than other buffets we had. Eating here almost five years later, I will confirm that the food is pretty much the same as when I first tried it. The servers are not nice, but they are efficient and will help you with whatever you need. I sort of don’t appreciate that they didn’t tell me that drinks cost extra as they just ask what I wanted to drink, but for $1.99 I do not feel robbed. The overall buffet is clean but the open sauces have me worried a bit. Warning about the hibachi station, I saw a worker pick up a piece of beansprout that fell on the counter and straight up put it back in the container. Overall, I think that it is still worth it if you come during a weekday lunch. Anything else, I would say no. Overall, the food is decent but selection is small. What they do is a step up from other buffets for sure. Because of the amount of foods, I have arranged them from best to worst for your ease of reading! The ratings are done on a buffet scale, not a normal scale.

Stuffed Mushroom: 5/5 This is this buffet’s crowned jewel. Super savory, umami blast with a good amount of meaty filling. The main flavor is onion and the topping of mayo and cheese really heighten the rich flavors of this dish. I literally come here for this.

Baked Shrimp: 5/5 This is also one of my favorites but is sadly a dinner only item. The shrimps are well cleaned and cooked with a savory mayo cheese topping. I would say that it is a little on the bland side, but I much prefer this than eating a sodium bomb. Clean and savory with a touch of luxury.

Cream Cheese Wontons: 5/5 Can these be a little crispier, have some crab, and maybe more flavor? Yes, but something about these simple wontons are addicting and will make you think about Pan Asia in the middle of the night. Smooth, slightly sweet and tart, and delicious, a must get.

Fried Chicken Wings: 4.5/5 These are my dad’s favorite and super good. Not overly battered, generally very crispy, and well seasoned. To me they taste like an upgraded version of supermarket wings with a touch of Chinese seasoning.

Mushroom Chicken: 4/5 Super solid with a rich mushroomy sauce. I wish that they would put more chicken in it as it is hard to fish it out of the tray. Good flavor overall but a touch too oily.

Fried Banana: 3.5/5 This is a fried Thai banana I think? It was not too burned and had a nice cooked “green” banana taste. A good detour for the middle of your meal. Gives me Brazilian barbecue vibes.

Baked Salmon: 3.5/5 A Chinese buffet staple. This is pretty savory and they don’t load on the salt which is nice. They use a mayo topping to season the fish and it tastes good, sort of generally savory. The fish that I ate was a tad overcooked and dry, but not bad.

Fried Softshell Crabs: 3/5 This one disappointed me a lot. A dinner only item that is prized by all dinner feasters. To me, it was very bland and had parts that were soggy/tasted like uncooked flour, especially in the joints. You can’t eat just the meat without loading up on batter and shell.

Coconut Shrimp: 3/5 This is like a toned down honey walnut shrimp. No real coconut flavor and is overall bland. Try to get this when it is fresh or it becomes soggy very quickly.

Grilled Squid: 3/5 This was okay, it just taste super old. If it is fresh, I remember it being better. It has a sort sambal/sriracha flavor.

Salmon Sashimi: 2.5/5 The salmon is not cut very well so there are a lot of sinews that get stuck in your teeth. It definitely does not taste the freshest and might get you sick. I would say that the quality is a solid step below AYCE sushi. Avoid if you are sensitive to bad fish.

Baked Scallop: 2/5 This one is meh. No scallop, just imitation crab and corn....

I went with my family it was five of us, i got charged for 6 maybe it was my mistake when they asked how many we were n i said 6 but regardless they should've counted or just plain simple understand there was a mistake. But no hell broke loose when my mom caught the mistake and i let them know that there was a mistake. They made such a big scandal they took me back to the table where we ate they were asking the servers how many of us were we, and how come they didnt count right they wanted to check the cameras they gave such a hard time to the guy upfront the one that attended us. I felt so terrible for him i felt embarrassed for him, they were practically yelling at him, "did u count, didnt u count , how come u didnt count, did u count wrong!!!!!. The guy apologized to me under his breath, I said it was okay. It was a misunderstanding, these things happened. They straight up started looking at the cameras, at the end they said okay they'll fix it.... n they did. At first i gave them a tip, but the second time honestly I didnt. When i gave my receipt back to pay they were like, "oh on the last bill u tipped us, she was pointing in the last receipt of how much, i had tipped them at first. ... she was pointing at it a little too aggressive, and I said sorry but you practically ruined my day now.... and the other lady said its okay she apologize. But the main one there she gave everyone hell!!!!! I wanted to slip a tip to the front guy but so much was going on, i didnt have cash on me. And I just didnt want to deal with that lady..... I am so sorry for the guy you could see that he was embarrassed. He was yelled at and the rest of the staff infront of everyone, for one silly mistake. How hard could've been to see how many of us was standing there or just be like let me check the cameras, honestly maybe still i would've been like "wow really" but i would've understand, it wouldn't have been so embarrassing for both parties And mainly the guy upfront..... i just didnt like this place because of...

The food wasn't bad- it was typical buffet quality- the price a bit outrageous in my opinion. Here's why they got 1 star. Our table wasn't cleaned off when we were sat- even though we waited for "tables to be cleaned" then we saw how they cleaned them, which was the typical wet rag on the table, but the guy doing it couldn't even get all the crumbs off the table and just wiped napkins on the ground and left. The service was horrendous, we had to flag down someone despite people continuing to pass by us constantly- they completely avoided eye contact and ignored us when we would say "excuse me" to try to grab their attention. I ended up standing up and waving someone down after we sat for 10 minutes. Then, when we did finally get someone to come over, she didn't bring out the soda- which I get maybe she had a task to complete first, but we waited 10 more minutes and then I flagged her down again and she looked at me confused when I asked for our drink. I had to explain that she took our empty cups to get more soda and that was over 10 minutes ago. She said she dropped off our cups at a different table- which means someone else is now drinking from our cups- which then means, what if we got someone elses cups too? and they were unsanitary? Now, I tried to look past this as it was busy and she might have a lot on her mind. But, then my son had to go to the bathroom. The bathrooms were HORRENDOUS. It was worse than going in a port-a-potty. I won't be going back here because I am too nervous to see this place again. The unsanitary bathroom was beyond gross, the fact that drinks were misplaced - it happens, but also like YIKES, then there's the lack of service. This place is too over priced to be considered a place to ever go to again and I really don't recommend anyone go here if you want to keep your health. If the bathrooms can look that bad, imagine the kitchen where you can't...