Buffet City — Restaurant in Winter Haven

This is a review not only solely reviewing Buffet City but also comparing it to lings Chinese buffet in Lakeland as I have heard and the two were comparable. Both restaurants were visited multiple times on a non-holiday Saturday at roughly 12:30 PM

ATMOSPHERE: buffet city was in the need of some deep cleaning and repair especially when traveling to the restrooms which was very foul smelling. Lings was much better lighting and was for what could be observed well maintained with care shown in regard any doors people pass through. Someone there is rightfully conscious about the fact that doors are contact surfaces where peoples' hands may become contaminated by cross-contact, which is why they have a waste bin right next to the restroom door on both sides so to encourage the use of paper towel when contacting the door. I counted hand sanitizer in at least four different places throughout the guest area.

SERVICE: to be short Check and drink service at the Buffet City were noticeably better.

FOOD VAREITY: Given that Buffet city has a significantly smaller footprint and dining capacity the food variety is also a bit smaller. This is not saying Buffet City is lacking in variety generally but more so that Ling's just has more variety with exception to frozen desserts. Buffet City does not have a soft serve ice-cream machine as ling's does but has multiple other frozen ice-cream deserts and some dairy-free frozen desserts.

FOOD QUALITY: Unfortunately this is where Buffet City falls significantly short. At Buffet City there were some items on the hot buffet that were not only old but so old that they were unforgivably inedible. I being a fan of steam buns found that even though both places obviously were making the same type of steam buns the ones at Buffet City on two occasions had been on the buffet so long that the bottoms were rock hard. One other even more extreme example was the hot shrimp which was on all occasions literally spoiled and the entire party had to spit it out. Other seafood option were also exhibiting an overly fishy smell and were avoided. I can tell you from working at restaurants for over 20 years that seafood should not taste feel or smell this way as it is a sign that it is either turning or gone bad. Either way if considering or not consider the seafood items Lings food was of a much better flavor/quality.

PRICE: From first appearance Buffet city is cheaper and it is cheaper under most circumstances, but there is one exception where this may not be true. As mentioned, the times my party visited each establishment it was on a Saturday during lunch hours. On Saturdays and Sundays at Buffet city the dinner price is the all day price making it more expensive for lunch on day of the week, but at lings they only charge the dinner price during lunch on Sunday. This means for Saturday lunches it is more expensive to eat at buffet city. this said any other time other than Saturday lunch it appears Buffet city is a few dollars cheaper per person and children qualify for a reduced price up to age 12 currently where at Lings the age limit for children's pricing is 9 years old.

CONCLUSION IN MY OPINION: Despite a few places where Buffet City beats Ling's in south Lakeland, the food quality and general variety for the most part at Buffet city is lacking compared to Ling's buffet. Due to the issues with the seafood a Buffet city and the lack of general upkeep of the customer area specifically the bathrooms where I had to hold my breath a much a possible I will be avoiding the place in the future. Ling's on the other hand I will be going back to...

This evening I went to Buffet City in Winter Haven with my wife and liked it VERY much. At the conclusion of dinner I asked my wife if she would com here again, and she said yes, which echoed my thoughts.

Although the place was crowded we were seated right away by the smiling hostess.

The variety of food was small to choose from, but adequate enough. I saw they had a large slab of roast beef, and a ham you could carve for yourself. They had multiple sharp serrated knives and carving forks to use. I started with some roast beef. Since I was at another buffet the previous night, which I despised, I decided to start my dinner with the same foods to contrast and compare.Conclusion? Buffet City was the hands-down winner!

I had a small chicken drum bone, some green beans, a small portion of fried rice, and an egg roll to share with my wife (since moving to Florida three years ago we have been on the search for the perfect egg roll--unfortunately we didn't find it here, but everything else was really good).

Anyway, I started with a very modest plate.

The roast beef was tender and tasty, the chicken was tasty and tender, the string beans were a little greasy, but had a nice garlic taste to them, and the rice was fair. Over all it was a good start.

I also had Roasted chicken, General Chou Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Crab, Ham, Broccoli, Mushrooms an Onion Ring and more! I was only unhappy with the onion ring (soggy) and the ham (too salty). I am not sure about the crab being real because of the presentation--regardless it was tasty and I even had seconds. And the Sweat and Sour--seemed like it was made from ground chicken with filler and then coated with the batter--yet it was good.

I also had Hibachi Chicken--there were a lot of chicken dishes that were good, but the Hibachi Chicken truly the best. It was perfect!

I finished with a variety of desserts that I shared with my wife. Some were good and some weren't. For ice cream they feature Hershey novelties and I enjoyed the little I had.

And I used the bathroom, so I can report it was spic and span clean and fresh smelling!

BTW, my wife liked her dinner as well. She had some fresh stir fry, and other dishes I did not have. And she a;so said the bathroom was nice...

This is our second time eating here. The first time was great. The place was decent looking but is starting to look a bit run down. There was a distinct but unidentifiable odor coming from the drink area as our table was close to it. Every now and then we would get a whiff of it and it smelled like garbage or something rotten coming from the drink area. The food was good and had a lot of choices and everything was fresh. The second time however was not so hot. The food was not very fresh and didn't seem to have much of the choices that were there last time. Make sure you check your change from the servers if you pay with cash. We paid with $100 bill and our bill was $46.00 and the server shorted us $15.00. Fortunately we counted it in front of her because she brought us back a $20 bill, a $5 bill and a ton of $1 bills. When we showed her she shorted us $15 she grabbed the cash back and went to the front cashier and then walked back behind the drink area and was there for an extended amount of time. Then she walked back up to the cashier and then walked back to the drink area a second time. By this time my daughter walked up to the cashier and told her what happened. At that point the cashier walked to our table and apologized and walked away. The server eventually came back to our table with the $15 she shorted us and apologized and thanked our friend who had a separate bill for his tip. Weird. Anyways, needless to say, be extra cautious when...