I really feel like this should be 2 star review. But I'm not giving it 2 stars. I've voluntarily gone here so many times that giving it a 2 star review would make me the fat kid who keeps touching the stove, despite continually getting burned. And I am NOT that fat kid. So back off.
I am, however, the fat girl who happens to live nearby the China Olive. And sometimes I get really, really hungry. So hungry, in fact, that in my deluded, nutrient-deprived mind, the only thing that will be able to adequately satiate me would be eating plate after plate of mediocre Chinese food until I either pass out in a food coma, or they close the place for the night. There is NO WAY just one plate of food will do. That is what my hunger tells me. And I listen to my hunger.
However, once I get seated, and have my first egg roll (which are okay) and hot and sour soup (pretty good), I realize that my hunger is fading, and I still have 4 buffet rows of mediocre chinese (and italian, and cajun, and mexican) food to eat. That's when I start to get pissed at my hunger. Because I could have spent the same amount of money elsewhere (about $10 for dinner) and it would have been just as filling and much more enjoyable than the 4 rows of "meh" I'm working with here.
In all fairness, the food isn't that bad. It's just not that good. Their water, however, is fan-freaking-tastic.