| rev:text
| - I have this weird obsession with trying every cheap Chinese buffet in town. Really. It's a bad habit to invade my body with all of this processed food and possible copious amounts of MSG. But I keep going back for more! Must be the hunger from my poor college days of finding the most amount of food to put down my gullet for the least amount of money. Because who knows when my next big meal would be!
I have been curiously been wanting to try this place for a while, after constantly passing by here on Decatur on my way to work everyday. Finally, after trying almost every other cheap Chinese buffet in town I gave in. And wow, what a surprise!
Now when I say surprise, I don't mean the food was beyond all comparison and it deserves multiple stars for being heavenly. I was surprised because for it's very unassuming exterior and surrounding area (there's graffiti everywhere outside on walls and the next door building...a CLOSED restaurant) Jumbo Super Buffet was jumbo packed! The place was full to the gills of people for lunch!
My guess is because they are running their special of all-day-dining for only $5.90 a person (M-F), drinks not included! That is some super cheap eats! I mean, even a combo at McDonald's runs more than that so of course you can see the appeal. The BIG FAT banner they have going across their restaurant advertising the price probably brings in quite a bit of traffic as well.
Jumbo Super Buffet is not the prettiest of places I can tell you that much. It reminds me of a car that's tattered a bit but still gets you where you need to go. The decor is old, yes it is a bit dusty, the tables and chairs aren't new, and yes...the place isn't the cleanest by Martha Stewart standards. And yet, this place is full of people.
On to the food. If you don't have a particularty strong stomach and a non-sensitive sense of smell...THIS PLACE IS NOT FOR YOU! If you don't like the look of unfamiliar animal parts...THIS PLACE IS NOT FOR YOU! It is bordering on the super-ethnic! The types of food offered by Jumbo Super Buffet surprised me the most. It's like something you might see in an Andrew Zimmer 'Bizarre Foods' packed lunch. Me, I don't mind these types of foods because I'm Filipino and was raised on 'weird' foods...dinuguan, bagoong, and tripe stew anyone? But for you non-initiated types you might be taken aback a bit.
Jumbo Super Buffet of course has your typical 'Asian American' style foods to appeal to the masses: fried rice, noodles, beef & broccoli, sweet & sour pork, orange chicken (that poor panda), fried shrimp, fried eggrolls, wonton soup, miso soup, and egg drop soup. Then there's the food for the less Asian types: fried chicken wings, french fries, greasy pizza and the like. It's all there and it all tastes the same...salty but somehow satisfying.
But turn a corner and you're in some definite bizarre foods territory. This is the first Chinese buffet I've been to here that serves:
-Chicken feet (not bad by the way)
-Pigs feet (ooh...so sticky sweet)
-Fried fish heads (meh...I've had better...head...nyuk nyuk)
-Whole steamed tilapia (not really that bizarre unless you eat fish in fillet form only)
It was crazy! And I am glad that most folks were sopping it all up! Talk about taking it back old school! There were folks that had nothing but half a plate of chicken feet and hot rice on their plate...and were totally happy. I don't eat too much of the random parts often these days but I appreciate the cultures they come from and agree that a lot of these not so common animal parts deserve some respect. Wasting parts of an animal can't always be a good thing, right? I enjoyed my servings of chicken feet and pigs feet with a small (squeal) of delight. The fried fish head would have probably been better with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, vinegar, pepper, green onion, and cilantro.
Fair warning, stay AWAY from the 'sushi' bar! Did not look good at all! You are better off eating some fish heads and feet, avoid that salmonella station at all costs!
Other than the extra salt content (lots of these Chinese buffets do), the only complaint I had about this buffet was there was no kim chee! WTH? I wanted my kim chee fried rice! And you guys need to get rid of that big vat of tapioca pudding you put on the line...looks like a bunch of fish eyes staring at me and it freaks me out. But on the plus side, you do have three different kinds of Jell-O!
Not the best buffet I've been to, but it exceeded my expectations by not being the worst either. Take it for what it is folks, frugal eats for frugal wallets! And my wallet is pretty empty after the fiasco that is Black Friday!! Happy Holidays all!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)