Chen's Buffet — Restaurant in West Bend

First time eating at Chen's in West Bend. Was really excited to eat Chinese food BUFFET STYLE since most restaurants with buffet's closed down d/t Covid.

PRICE: $12.99.Beverage NOT INCL. Buffet Prices higher & start at 2pm. Senior discount $11.99.

BUFFET: MINIMAL VARIETY of choices considering we were now at the higher priced ""dinner"" time. FEW SELECTIONS.

FOOD: Most of our selections were AWFUL! Twice my husband asked if they'd be bringing out MORE food as the selections were practically GONE, AND WHAT HE WAS ABLE TO GET WAS COLD! Exception...rice. The overall selections looked to be from frozen food....definitely NOT FRESH. I noticed several pans of food just left sitting near the buffet, but not added to the dish they were replenishing....these were getting cold, and just looked unsanitary as diner's had to reach over these pans to get their selection in the buffet. Overall....food tasted bland, was cold, processed/pre-pkgd. Soggy/brown overcooked veg. Sparse selection; tough, VERY TOUGH, meat in the few dishes that had meat. Chicken was from frozen....not fresh. Ribs.....uhhh!!! Barely able to get a FORK in them.....SO TOUGH....INEDIBLE! Did not eat from their dessert buffet.

STAFF: Most VERY FRIENDLY. Food servers, however, unable to understand our requests.

PRICE: VERY UNREASONABLE.

CLEANLINESS: Restaurant is huge & somewhat outdated. RR clean...old. Overall the restaurant looked tidy. Ceiling fans clean! S&P shakers clean, not greasy. Utensils wrapped in napkins. Booth's clean; floors/carpet ok but old. Cool/drafty air. Didn't feel any warmth on this cold November day.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Would NOT return. LOVE the WEST BEND area (we came from Brown Deer) but what a "let down!" To be fair....IF there was at least a couple tasty thing's to eat, lower prices FOR THE MINIMAL SELECTIONS & I could eat without needing my coat on....I'd consider giving Chen's a second visit. At this point.....it's a DEFINITE THUMBS...

Went there lastnight with my BF (as we do a lot) and as we were finishing up one of the ladies was sweeping the floor next to us. I has not noticed but Steve did, he pointed out that the lady had swept up a fortune cookie off the floor and was carrying it in her hand! Pick it up AFTER she had swept it up with ALL THE DIRT she picked it OUT OF THE DIRT PILE and KEPT IT and continued to sweep 3 more tables. I watched with him to see if she would throw it away but she took the long handled dust pan and lend it in the corner and took the cookie with her and came back out from behind where they get the drinks and she had no cookie in hand. So I got up and walked over by the soda station and there was 2 boxes of fortune cookies, 1 open and 1 closed and no trash bin. So I am pretty sure she put the cookie BACK into the box to give to ANOTHER CUSTOMER. So someone is getting cookies that have been reused or been on the floor for no telling how long and swept up in dirt and if they have ANY small tears in the pkging there is DIRT inside the cookie! Or given a cookie someone else. So People i thought you should be aware of there NASTY DIRTY UNHEALTHY PRACTICES cause we will NEVER eat there AGAIN! EVER! And I will be calling the Health Dept. to see if something can be done. This was over a 5cent cookie?????? And the this woman NEVER washed her hands after digging around on the floor and was touching food, dishes and...

The food is best if you go when they are busy as any buffet would be. We experienced quite a fiasco last time we went. They have a kids buffet price that is for ages up to 10. I have a very tall 10 year old, in the past they’ve billed us for an adult so we always tell them ahead of time she’s 10. When our bill came they charged her full price again and when we corrected them this time I felt like we were treated as liars! We explained she’s tall (dad is 6ft4in mom is 5ft 8 in) and they loudly questioned us about what grade she’s in and made a big deal about it. I was very embarrassed because other people eating began to stare due to the employees challenging us. This also made my daughter feel bad and she already is very sensitive about it and is teased by friends at school because she’s taller than some teachers. I’m sure it happens all the time that customers say their kids are younger to get the cheaper price so I think that is just part of what you’d expect to happen occasionally but with no proof otherwise you should not treat people as liars. Today she turns 11 like we told you this week when we came in so we don’t need to worry about it going forward. We will now gladly pay the adult price. We always tip very well for a buffet and will come back again but just wanted to let you know we were not happy about the treatment...