Chow King Grill & Buffet — Restaurant in Smyrna

Our IBM Atlanta Quarter Century Club (QCC - for IBMers who have had at least 25 years of services with IBM) has hosted our Chinese New Year and Veterans Appreciation luncheons for our QCC members at Chow King Grill & Buffet in Smyrna since January 2018. We normally have had between 64-80 people attending the luncheons in the past. The last time we hosted a luncheon here was in January 2020.

We have not had any issues with the management there in the past, but we had a very unpleasant experience with the new manager and one of the owners yesterday when we had 64 IBM QCC members attending the Chinese Mew Year luncheon. First, the manager did not open the door for us to set up our party until around 10:52am. He was supposed to open the door for us at 10.30am so that our QCC members could come in at 11:00am. He also was not happy when I asked him to pick up some trash at the restaurant entrance.

When I started picking some vegetable items for the chef to cook the hibachi grill. I noticed that the bean sprouts were not fresh and very mushy with water in the tray. Looks like the bean sprouts were left over from last night. I brought this issue to the management nicely for the sake of our QCC members and also for their regular customers. They got very ugly and started yelling at me; they said I complained too much. They then asked me to leave the restaurant. I would definitely do so if I was not hosting the luncheon for 63 other QCC members. I told them that we have been here several times in the past and have never had a problem; I also told them our IBM QCC won't be back to here anymore. They did not care and then took away the busboy service (since the restaurant was not able to provide us with any servers per our earlier agreement) which was agreed upon when I talked with the manager in October, 2022. So we did not get any services at all from this restaurant yesterday. Our members had to take their used dishes to the tray cart on our own.

Also, in the past our QCC members could stay in the restaurant after 2:30pm. Yesterday, the manager said we could only stay there from 11am-1pm because they were not happy with my complaints. He came to our room at 1pm and pointed his finger at his watch, meaning we had to leave now, even though there was no other reservation for this room.

Although the restaurant did not deliver what the manager had promised us, we still paid the price per person that we agreed on. I also told our 63 QCC members that we will have to find a different Chinese restaurant for our future annual Chinese New Year and Veterans Appreciation luncheons.

It is hard to believe that the management of this restaurant reacted so unprofessionally to their loyal customers. They have lost the future business from IBM Atlanta QCC organization and also from 64 of IBM QCC members...

June 11, 2022 5:15pm I finally went back to see if things were the same before Covid 2020. It did not several sections of the buffet were closed off. They no longer offer silverware instead its wrapped plastic ware. Plates are cold not like 2 yrs before covid hit...plates were in warmers.

Selections are your typical Asian Buffet. I found the Beef Broccoli to be flavorless and the beef is not real beef almost scary to eat! However other dishes were not that bad but not that great!

I felt I was treated unfairly when the server placed my check on the table...within 10 minutes I heard and saw the manager telling my server something in their language then looked at me and walked away. Minutes later that server came to my table took my check and returned with a new one. I suspect the manager did not want to give me senior citizen discount or Fathers Day Discount?

Anyway all in all I did not enjoy the change nor some of the foods...the only best was making myself a small cup of soup couple times.

For the price its not worth it if you have to use plastic ware! I've had a better experience at many other Asian Buffets i.e. Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet 419 Pike Blvd. Lawrenceville, GA 30046

Back in June 2019 I found this place from the internet. It was a Sunday when I went in to have lunch. It was busy and found it to have a good selection of foods, I noticed quite of few patrons made a bee line to getting a bowl of Pho made to order after they’ve gathered the food items they wanted, the cook would grill or boil your items and would pour a hot flavorful broth into your bowl and of course at your table there is a selection of condiments like hot sauce, soy sauce, etc to add to your bowl, even if you wanted to toss in a fried chicken leg, more vegetables or more garnish after soup was made you can, I often did filling my belly with a happy smile and satisfaction. At that time the broths were flavorful and had my taste buds dancing the Macarena.

When a new cook arrived after my third or fourth visit the broth lost its flavor letting me know the new guy did not know how to make a good broth nor was he taught in my assumption. The sushi selection began to get unappealing also, just because it seemed to be too much was being made and they were using it again.

Anyway I’ve found Chow King Grill & Buffet to have been an exciting meal time when I went the first couple times...Weekends and dinner I believe they would serve up fried half baby crabs seasoned with pepper and salt this item was a go to for lots of patrons and happened to be very delicious.

Anyway 4 stars out of 5 I’ll give them because its was a wow factor when I was a new patron.

Happy...

It was very dead when my husband and I returned for the second time yesterday. With that being said, the food that was out was clearly dried/drying out and hard. Selections this visit was scarce as well. But the real HUGE disappointment that ruined EVERYTHING was our waitress blatant attitude while paying for our ticket. I tapped my phone for payment and proceeded to sign my receipt (sorry no tip because we served ourselves as it’s a buffet and she was never around but twice to refill our waters). As I finished with my signature she then points to the tip area on the receipt so I did what I knew I had left on my card since she ASKED for one (you don’t ever do this as a server it’s a bad look and just distasteful) and she immediately got upset and questioned why I tipped her said amount. Trying to look past the awkward moment I replied “Yea I know, but it’s just hard out here right now” and she dismissed me with an obnoxious and annoyed “uhhhhhhhhhhh” as how you’d say “yea yea yea, whatever!” to someone you no longer want to deal with and shoo away. My husband loves Chinese buffets and this was the first and only one we’ve been to since me moved here from VA earlier this year and it’s sad they will NO LONGER be getting our service. I personally expected way more during this trip to Chow King considering the “incident” that happened the first time we went that I won’t speak further on because the Manager gave us a discount to not leave a bad review. And I didn’t, but I will not remain silent on this. If that waitress is always there with that type of attitude I see why it was so...