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Lol did you just send me a Reddit cares suicide outreach message?

Does anyone know if they plan on opening the Hunan East buffet back up? I think that’s the highest quality one around (no jello or beef sticks tho)…

I’ll settle for excessive water refills in lieu of the jello

Alright. This isn’t the best recommendation but this post looks a little dry.

Chinamans Buffet in Colonial Heights near South Park mall. I realize it’s a drive and honestly this place is a gamble. Stay away from any time they are doing crab legs as it’s a madhouse. But it definitely has all those items and like 70% of the time is a damn good experience…

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Hibachi buffet at Broad & Parham. Teppanyaki makes me sad.

I’m always curious about hibachi buffet. The reviews seem meh. But then again Teppanyaki is meh.

The food is waaay better than Teppanyaki.

I was reading up on some of them recently to go with a friend, since I haven't been to one since 2019 or maybe earlier, and the recent reviews were really bad for several. I didn't cover all the buffets out there, but the ones I saw had lots of recent reviews about cold food, half the spots on the bar being empty, mostly only having fried foods, etc. One place had only 1 star reviews the past several months despite having fine enough reviews (for a cheap buffet) previously.

Weirded me out about going to one for a while. I imagine their price/profit economics are all screwed up right now.

I did the same analysis and reached a similar conclusion but I also recognize there is inherently a bias in online reviews. Outside of people who routinely review restaurants online most people who have satisfactory experiences aren't running to make reviews whereas the likelihood someone would leave a bad review over a cold item in the buffet is far higher leading to potentially an overrepresentation of bad reviews.

Kinda why I started the thread.... in any event they're always a bit of a gamble.

I have friends that rave about this place but the one time I went it felt pretty ran down to say the least. We should have walked out the second we were seated at a dilapidated booth and given plastic forks. The Hibachi station was fresh and good but most of the other food looked and tasted like it had been sitting there all day. The dessert bar also consisted of stale off brand Oreos and pans of loose cereal. Hunan East really needs to bring their buffet back it really was the best in the city!

plastic forks? aye karumba

weird coincidence then. I got a reddit cares suicide message at the exact same time you posted and this was the only post/comment I had made on reddit in like 24 hours leading up to it.

damn, appreciate the tip!

Right, I'm down with all that. That explains why buffets tend to not get really high reviews in general, not so much why they got worse recently. Doesn't automatically mean it's an issue with the buffet in the case of the latter, sure. Could be people have way higher standards and bitch more about perceived issues now; customers have been particularly awful as of late. Still, there's SOMETHING going on recently. This is one of the few times I've taken online reviews seriously, because of the timing. Just wasn't worth the risk since my friend can't get out the house a ton with a new baby. I'd risk it for myself though.

>This is one of the few times I've taken online reviews seriously,

I also think people tend to think, whether based in reality or not, that buffets are more prone to food safety issues... and at the very least food quality issues - maybe a touch of prejudice for some folks as well.

Learn to love Indian food because it's got the best buffets in town