Asian Buffet 🇨🇳 — Restaurant in Watauga

Definitely not the best Chinese Buffet and definitely not the worst. It's an average typical Chinese Buffet. There is definitely room for improvement. I cook a lot at home and tried many different types of cuisine before. I want people to succeed in what they do. So here are my non sugar-coating ratings. I say it like it is. Food - When it comes to a Chinese Buffet, please keep it Chinese or Asian at least. I legit saw Macaroni and Cheese being offered in the line. Maybe they're out of ideas for a dish? Come on now. You're better than that. Do some research into Chinese Cuisine. Try YouTube. There are some dishes that are very under seasoned and some that are very over seasoned. And there are some dishes that don't taste like the way it's supposed to taste. Example: The Lo Mein completely missed the mark. I don't know what goes in that, but it definitely did not taste like the traditional Lo Mein. The classic Lo Mein must have the aroma/taste of dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sesame oil. Not to mention the wok flavor if it's cooked in a wok. The sweet and sour chicken dish was way too sweet. It's almost as if someone put an entire spoon of sugar in my mouth. Yes it was really that sweet and I'm not exaggerating. The batter that goes around it was very soggy. Then again it could've been that the dish was out for too long and no one touched it for a while. The Egg Drop Soup and the Hot and Sour Soup was at least decent. The Egg Drop Soup just needed a bit of more salt and sesame oil and it'll be great. The Hot and Sour Soup is definitely missing some ingredients. It's supposed to be "hot and sour" soup and it's definitely missing the "hot" portion of it. Sushi... Considering I've had authentic sushi before, I wouldn't suggest anyone touching it. These Americanized Sushi needs to go and completely disappear from the menu of every Chinese Cuisine. "Rolls" are NOT sushi people. It's a disgrace to Japanese Cuisine if you call that sushi. Complete abomination. Real sushi requires years to master and get right. If you can't master the rice, you already failed. If you're going to cook something for the customer, you need to ask yourself if you're willing to eat it and enjoy it. If the answer is no, then you failed as a chef. Service - There are a couple of things I would like to mention regarding service. Please don't be on the phone when you're literally in front of the restaurant greeting customers. I legit walked in and waited 20 seconds before they even said anything to me. Professionalism. I understand we can get side tracked from time to time. But the moment when a customer walks through that door, please put down the phone and welcome them. First impression matters. As for the waiters, they did what they're supposed to do. I'm very thankful that the waitress empties my table after I got up to get the next dish. Very appreciative of that. Atmosphere - It's an okay place to eat without the distraction. Not very noisy. Additional Comments. I'm not condemning this place to the ground. I'm giving them authentic reviews so they can improve their overall service to the customers. I want them to succeed and gain customers. I'm not a typical customer that just gives bad reviews and does not explain why. To the chefs cooking... I can instantly taste what kind of efforts you put into the dish. It definitely did not taste like you put "love" into these dishes. I doubt you cook like this for your own family. After cooking a dish, you have to ask yourself, are you proud of cooking this dish and are willing to serve it? As for the management, please don't harass your employees after reading this review behind closed doors. Use this as an opportunity to learn something and be better. Like I said before, I want you guys to succeed. Hopefully this long review will give better insights on what is lacking. I would suggest the team of chefs go out and try authentic Chinese Cuisine and gain more knowledge about it. The more you eat, the more knowledge and expectations you have for every cuisine....

Haven't been to an Asian buffet in years and I saw some great reviews for this restaurant plus it was close to home so we decided to visit.

Staff was courteous and nice, my waiter waiter always made sure our water cups were full. The restaurant itself is clean and tidy, there's always someone going by to make sure the food area was clean and empty pans were refilled. There was no shortage of food.

Here comes our likes and dislikes.

Likes: stir fry green beans are amazing, lo mein was good and the hot and sour soup fantastic.

We tried a little bit of everything that we normally get at a chinese restaurant. Rule of thumb when eating at a buffet that I go by is to try a bit of each food item that I'm interested in trying in order to not waste food.

Foods we tried that were just "okay": Orange chicken Sweet and sour chicken (tempura battered chicken with traditional red sweet & sour sauce) Fried whole shrimp (good but these have not been deveined so seeing it was a little off-putting) Lo mein Crawfish (sauce was excellent, spicy) Hot and sour soup (excellent except for the wonton "chips" that you typically use as a topping, those were stale) Chinese style green beans (delicious) Chinese donuts (good, again a little but oily)

Foods that did not meet our expectations: Clams, very gritty Mongolian beef, the beef was over tenderized, you could practically taste the baking soda it was marinated in Sushi (definitely a no) it did not appear or taste like it was sitting there for a while and very dry No steamed crab legs but they did have fried half crabs and it was OK, just a bit oily and tough to get the meat out and when I did get whatever meat I could out of it it was dark and dry and didn't taste good Crab Rangoon (stale wontons and filling was overly sweet and I did not see any crab so it was probably just a cream cheese Rangoon)

The reason for the 2 star and not 1 rating is because the greens beans were delicious and fresh and some of the desserts/fruit were good. Ice cream was mediocre, it tasted like milk and sugar with vanilla and chocolate flavoring but that's at all buffets so I didn't expect that to be any different.

We were very disappointed and more than likey will not be back and I hate that I wasted $60 (for 3 adults) but for those who do enjoy this buffet location,...

Wow was this bad! Walk in and it's a little warm inside. That's not a huge issue but I'm thinking man food is sitting out... staff was nice enough. The food was terrible. All of it looked to have been setting out for long periods of time. Nothing was fresh. I didn't try any of the cold items on the buffet. Again it was warm inside and it looked like things had been sitting for long periods I felt like it might not be safe to eat. The food that I did try again was soggy and had been sitting and was way too salty. I tried the black pepper chicken, some teriyaki chicken, the honey chicken as well as several other things. Just was not very good. I would rather drive out of my way and go to a Chinese buffet much farther away than return here. Which is pretty disappointing as this is convenient to where we live...

Tldr: food was not fresh and did not taste very good. Go somewhere else.

Update responding to Owner: You asked for more detail. I really don't understand what more detail you need. It was warm inside like the ac wasn't working. Food looked like it had been sitting out for a long time. Food didn't taste fresh and didn't taste very good at all. Much of if was too salty. All of that was mentioned in my review. If you want to do better then make sure your Food is fresh. Throw out food that has been sitting and put fresh food out. Stop being cheap with the food serving soggy old food. Stop being cheap with your air conditioner and maybe your food might last a little longer. Hope this clarifies any confusion you might have in why I had a poor experience at...