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| - I've been coming to China Buffet for approximately 10 years now. When I first moved to Pineville in 2001 this was just somewhere close to eat cheaply. At that time they did not have the sushi chef.
The Chinese Buffet:
Nothing to write home about. Nothing here is truly worth mentioning. Just your standard Chinese buffet fare mostly covered i thick, syroupy sauces and probably very unhealthy. Nothing is particularly good but nothing is particularly bad either.
The Sushi Buffet:
This is why you want to come here (unless you're a sushi snob because no matter what you''re just not gonna be happy)! All you can eat sushi for around $10 (which also includes the Chinese buffet portion but let's pretend it doesn't for the heck of it). This is pretty unbeatable given that the sushi is freshly made throughout the day. Yes, I do agree that the presentation plates could be wiped off between servings on the fried pieces with heavy sauces but not all their offering has tick coatings of sauces. So, in my case, I don't eat those. I like them... but I chose to eat the ones that are not covered in thick sauces and look more presentable.
Tony, the sushi chef (I don't know the other guys' name but thank god he's rarely if ever there) is really cool. He's very engaging with his customers, he remembers your name and your family. He greets you openly and warmly and is always ready to offer suggestions on new things to try. Remember to tip him well even if you don't touch the Chinese food (I usually don't, except for the egg drop soup)
The staff is very serviceable and are constantly refilling your glass and cleaning your table. They speak very little English but enough to understand what you want should you be the pesky customer who needs everything customized in a buffet style restaurant. Unfortunately, as someone else say, they do have the very rude tendency of always getting in the way and NEVER giving the customer the right of way. They cut in front of you and make you stop or go around them instead of them doing so for the customer. This is what knocked one star.
Obviously the staff has changed through the years. I remember a couple of waitresses throughout the years that were really nice and helpful. They got to know my little girls and tried teaching them how to eat with chop sticks. So, my, and Becky's, kids all love it here. This is definitely a good place to take children since they can pretty much try a bunch of things without worrying about not liking it (This is, after all, where my, at the time, 5 year old fell in love with Ikura). The owner, although in all the time I've been going has never once acknowledged that I am a regular (sometimes twice to three times a month) regular, seems rather unfriendly and, actually, kinda sour. I don't know if he is or not... but he doesn't seem very welcoming, warm or friendly. Not that it bothers me, I don't care, I'm there to eat... but I noticed it.
The decor is a mix of traditional chinese with some modern lighting and tacky foreign cluelessness (yes, I just made all that up but when you see it it'll make sense). And the place is very clean except for the ice cream machine which doesn't get enough TLC from the staff.
This is a great place to come and have lunch once in a while if you work in the area or have kids who want to try Chinese or have sushi lovers (not snobs) who want good sushi for free. But this is not the type of place that you will be making special trips to visit. Try to avoid dinner as it gets rather expensive without any appreciable additions to the buffet.
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