Buffet Star — Restaurant in Town of Vestal

They have a big variety of (very Americanized) east Asian food and some country-style American food. For buffet food it's pretty good. The food mostly tastes relatively fresh, save for a few items (seaweed salad, mushroom salad, glazed banana) that tasted like they'd been sitting for a while, but nothing was bad. I tend to avoid the fruit bar, though - it seems like most of the fruit comes out of a can, and the pudding is pretty bland. Their basic sushi can be a little underwhelming, but the more complex rolls are good, and honestly all are better sushi than I'd expect from a buffet. From this visit, the dishes that I really enjoyed were the flounder with crab meat, shrimp cocktail, Japanese-style tofu, and egg custard. The staff is nice and they're very attentive with refilling drinks and taking away plates that you're done with. Some of them don't seem to speak English super well which might present a little bit of a language barrier, but nothing serious - someone I was with tried to order a drink that they didn't have and confused our waitress who didn't know what he was saying, but she called over another waitress who could understand and they sorted it out. I saw a few bowls with scrapes of food still in the corners at the buffet, and while the overall cleanliness of the place (besides the bowls) this time was okay, I've seen it looking a little dingy before. The interior design of the place is very cool - they've got a waterfall into a small koi pond, pagoda-like canopies over the salad station, a lighted floor in places, and the ceiling is painted to look like the sky. There are some elements of it that are very strange to me, though, like the glass (or plastic?) dividers that are filled with what looked like just crumpled paper, and the fish tank with absolutely nothing in it besides fish, not even pebbles in the bottom - it looked clean, but are you really supposed to keep fish in a bare tank like that? I also wish they'd do a better job of labelling the food at the buffet. Most items are labelled correctly, but there were a few with no labels or that were mixed up, or just confusing to figure out which label corresponded to which item. Anyone with any sort of dietary restriction can tell you what a headache it is to...

My family has come here 4 times in the last 8 months. The first 3 staff was not polite but we came for food so we looked past it. Yesterday I came to celebrate with my kids and I will NEVER return. First off the food was not cooked through and was spoiled (chicken wasn’t cooked and raw dough for some things and every pudding was spoiled one even had what I am almost certain was blood in it) second some food was mislabeled so some foods I thought were not spicy were and my kids were not happy. The staff was so rude and my son who is disabled was extremely upset by them. We did address the raw meat and they said it’s due to new staff but didn’t take any of it away. Raw chicken in the buffet line and all of our hibachi plates (got them all before we realized they weren’t cooked, obviously at that everything hibachi was undercooked) the hibachi grill wasn’t cleaned so our food had a lot of burnt debris on it (thought it was black pepper at first) ice cream has obviously been thawed then refrozen. I took puddings from areas not previously taken from and one had a red streak and this was from a corner so either the pan wasn’t clean and had some red stuff on it or it was blood, either way it was unsanitary. The cherry on top was when I went to pay they forced you to add a minimum 18% tip. They ask between 3 tip options 18% is the least before taking the card and they write it in. They don’t allow you to say none or I’ll put it in. I’ve always paid cash so I never had this problem before but my mom told me they did it to her (she is blind and wheelchair bound) when she went last time so it’s not a one time practice for them. My whole family is sick now and it was a heck of an awful experience. Again nothing addressed when we reported it to staff and staff was extremely rude. I’ve been debating how to address this and honestly being all but the spoiled food is a repeat problem and they didn’t take care of the food issues I feel the need to...

Man, what an experience Buffet Star is. Dinner price was only 16$ so I don’t know what you’d expect but we set out expectations low and we’re happily satisfied.

The sushi is sub par BUT you’re at a 16$ Chinese buffet so it checks the box for me personally. It’s like eating the essence of sushi. The components are there but there’s no love but I’m not complaining because I loaded my plate up too many times to count. The fried shrimp were… fried shrimp. No surprises. Sweet and sour chicken was kinda dry but the sauce was alright and as a pair it was edible, wouldn’t waste my time with it again though. There were these weird meatballs idk what they were made of but they were super sweet and kinda strange if we’re being honest. Steamed mussels, clams, and shrimp all were at least cooked all the way but I’m not sure they were seasoned. The classic American Chinese dishes are all here: fried rice, lo mein, beef and broccoli, veggies, general tso yadda yada it’s all here and it’s all fine. I personally don’t think anything here is going the be the best that you’ve ever had but that’s not why you’re here.

Overall I’d say this is a good place to spend a couple hours and 16$. If you want high quality, mind blowing food then either get your money up or eat at home. I AM HERE FOR QUANTITY NOT QUALITY. I AM HERE TO EAT UNTIL MY BODY HURTS. Do yourself a favor and get super blasted with your best pal before coming over, sit down, and eat until you can’t move. Enjoy the nautical decor, enjoy the screaming kids running around, and make sure to mix the chocolate pudding with their many flavors of ice cream. It’ll change your life.

The food, service, and atmosphere individually are not perfect but together they make for a great experience.

Enjoy pictures of our plates piled high with food. Don’t judge my gluttony based upon how haphazardly the food is arranged on the plate. I’m surprised I could even see straight by the time we got inside...