Shang Hai Buffet — Restaurant in Statesville

This place is under new ownership and has sadly fallen. It used to be my favorite buffet but now it seems that everything has gotten worse. The food is often very cold and much of it had so much meat taken out that you're basically eating cold hard chunks of fried dough in whatever sauce of your choice. The fried dumplings used to be the absolute best but now taste like something that'd come from a tv dinner box. The shrimp is now always dry to the point of making you choke. The fruit bar has virtually no fruit and once they run out of melon from lunchtime they don't bother refilling it for dinner. There really isn't an excuse for this when it's 5 o'clock and the dinner rush is coming in. The food was plentiful but it was as if they made everything 3 hours before and just let it sit and cool for hours. The waitresses have improved from when the new owners first took over so that is a plus. The restaurant is also decently clean and bright. I feel as though the new owners have little restaurant experience and are trying to cut corners to save costs but the reality is they should have just kept things as they were and slowly implemented changes rather than doing so much at once and failing. I hope they improve in the future.

Edit: I returned another day at around 6:30pm and the food was much better. The fruit was stocked as well. But just to nitpick I can suggest some improvements: The chicken teriyaki sticks taste weird and have an odd tomato aftertaste... It's not very good. It's pretty dark in the dining area at night, uncomfortable. Perhaps try frying the dumplings until they're soft rather than making them crispy (they harden faster if cooked too much). The dumplings the previous owner made were always perfect. During the slower hours perhaps it would be better to try and cook smaller batches of food and replace them faster, that way the food left out is fresher and hotter. Once it becomes busier go back to cooking full...

JUST DO NOT DO IT! This review was from weeks ago! I was so upset when I wrote this I had misspelled where. So I just fixed it! This was my review still angry just thinking about it again! 😡 Just went, I have never had to leave a bad review till now, so trust me it was that bad! I had the buffet, got spring green beans, egg roll, scallion chicken, ect went to sit down tasted the scallion chicken it was mushy like three days old mushy, the egg roll was ok, tasted the green beans cold like it came out of the freezer. It is suppose to be hot Mr Health Inspector!!!!!! Didn't even eat just tasted those things lost my appetite, my husband didn't like it either, he didn't eat really either just tasted a few things didn't like it. I told the waitress about the food and we would pay she ran ahead of us to the register. I told the lady at the register about the beans being cold her response was no one else has a problem. WELL I DID! Then I said well I am not eating cold beans that feel like they just came out of a freezer when they should be hot she said arguing with me they are the same temperature as the room , that was freezing by the way , and she said again no one else has a problem. Made me mad!!!!!! Then I said we didn't even eat it she said waitress said you did which was a lie it was to awful to eat! I paid she told me price i said for food we didn't even eat she stated well if you had not had a attitude and yelled at me , I never treated her badly by raising my voice until she accused me of lying about eating our food. She tried to make me mad. They could have offered to reduce my meals but instead wanted to argue and make me mad. Bad, bad staff knowing I was right that food had been out to long. I paid full price $29.00 and change for two buffets and tea and water left with still no dinner. Wow! Not to mention Mr Health Inspector don't fall on the slick as glass floors where we...

• I want to edit this review and update it. After a few more months, we decided to try it again. It was ON POINT. I’m not sure what changed again, but the food is even better than it was previously. The food on the buffet is very good, and I half expected if I ordered something to go that I knew they served on the buffet, that they’d just scoop from the buffet (which I was ok with) but the first to go order I got, you can tell it was cooked fresh. Their butter potatoes are amazing from the buffet, but cooked fresh to go are even better. The lightly breaded chicken in the chicken dishes is perfect and has a good texture. Shang Hai is now my favorite buffet AND takeout Chinese. I’m not sure about the few months that things were off, but they’ve rebounded and gotten even better. Also, if you order on Uber eats or other delivery services and include “special instructions” such as adding ingredients etc, they actually DO IT instead of ignoring it. Overall, 10/10. Statesville is lucky to have this buffet.

This used to be one of my favorite buffets, but something is not right the past few months. Food tastes different and not as fresh as normal. Whole new crew of employees it seems. Server was efficient at removing plates, but not as friendly as the previous servers. Overall the whole experience was...