Are there any good Chinese buffets left?

It seems to me that the New China Buffet MegaCorp Franchise has pretty much taken over the Chinese buffet niche in Chicago. This is not a good thing!
I fondly remember Szechwan Palace in Evanston and Magic Wok in Rogers Park; both family run places with good food that could be outstanding on occasion. In particular Szechwan Palace had an amazing selection of really good stuff that you don't see anymore outside Chinatown. I'm talking jellyfish, cold appetizers, Northern style noodles, Peking Duck, all at a buffet. Plus their standards were really good. I still think about their braised chinese mushroom and tofu!

Are there any good buffets left? I'm willing to drive for a good one. And before it starts, I am not looking for LTH quality, just good non cafeteria style Chinese food. The buffet in the mall on Waukegan N of Dundee (where Trader Joes is) is pretty good, better than average dumplings.

Have you tried World Buffet in Niles at the Northeast corner of Milwaukee and Golf?

I looked at it once-- the Polish/Greek/whatever grocery store by it is pretty good-- but was put off by, I kid you not, a sign offering enchiladas in the window.

With Le Saigon de Manila and the Nepali-Indian place Himalaya in the next mall south, I've not been tempted back in my infrequent excursions to that area.

If anyone has any experience with it does the Thai Peppers in Evanston have Chinese dishes in addition to the Thai?At Howard and Dodge,Northwest corner.

World Buffet is a Korean Chinese place and while a couple of their things are good, I have encountered an off smell to the place that makes it hard to enjoy the food,

Just W of there is Senoya which was good several years ago but when I went last winter was abysmal.

Thai Peppers is all thai, and good for when I cannot go to PS Bangkok at B'way and Addison. PS has one of the better Thai buffets in town, unfortunately they removed the stuffed chicken wings that I used to love so well. I understand as they were really labour intensive but damn are they tasty.

I know that it isn't exactly Chinese like you are looking for but there is a Thai Buffet at "The Bangkok" on the weekends. The Bangkok is at 3542 N. Halsted (Halsted & Addison) and the buffet is only on Saturday for brunch and all day Sunday. They also have a scaled down version for lunch M-F.

DUH!!! I meant The Bangkok in my OP. PS Bangkok is on Clark St.

Taking all the usual caveats about buffets into account, I have to give a thumbs up to Szechwan North in Glenview.

Their 'lunch only' buffet is very good--especially for an americanized-style, Chinese place. The food is very tasty, the range of choices is wide, and the steam table is constantly tended so, in most cases, the food is fresh and in proper condition. The place is clean and the service is friendly and reliable. I go there for lunch a couple of times a year and always enjoy it.

Dinner, however, is another matter. I've only been there a couple of times for dinner and I found it somewhat disappointing each time out.

=R=

Szechwan North
2857 Pfingsten Road
(in Glenbrook Market Place Mall - N.E. corner, Willow & Pfingsten)
Glenview, IL
(847) 272-0007

This might not be exactly what you are looking for, but the Lao Sze Chuan outpost on Taylor St. has a buffet every weekday at lunch. I believe it is $6.95 for all you can eat. 5.95 for 3 items and fried rice, 4.95 for 2 and 3.95 for one item. There is not as large of a selection as one might find at other buffets, I would say 8 or so selections per day. But the food is good and so is the price.

I had no idea LSC had a buffet or even another location in additon to the two I frequent! I may have to go there today and check it out. I go to the Westmont location at least once a week, usually for fish in Szecuan sauce or the lamb with pure cumin.

Do you recall what type of dishes they have at the buffet? Is it decent stuff or the usual American General Tso chicken, veggie fried rice and egg foo yung? That would be a great disappointment.

Octarine wrote:I had no idea LSC had a buffet or even another location in additon to the two I frequent! I may have to go there today and check it out. I go to the Westmont location at least once a week, usually for fish in Szecuan sauce or the lamb with pure cumin.
.

I wasnt aware of their Taylor Street locatino either - but I thought they had
another one! Dont they have one out in the NW suburbs somewhere? That
is, near Schaumburg or Elgin or something? I wanted to drop by there
sometime, but wasnt sure exactly where it was. Does anyone know?
Has anyone been to that particular location? Is it as good as their
Chinatown location (the only one Ive been to)?

c8w

The Taylor Street location is kind of small compared to Chinatown and has a more limited menu, although the food is as good as the Chinatown location. I can't comment on the buffet (not being a buffet eater) other than to say it looks like there are about a dozen items and they don't look like the usual egg foo yong/chop suey type dishes.

The restaurant is located next to the White Hen Pantry on the North side of Taylor almost directly across the street from Pompeii (East of Ashland by a block). The name of the restaurant is actually something like Scechuan Express, but it says LCS Somewhere on the bottom part of the window sign.

We picked up a menu from Himalaya and considered trying the buffet.Does the buffet consist of any items not on the regular menu and how spicy is it?The group I will visit with have a lower tolerance for heat than I do.I am out that way usually once every weekend at Books-A-Million but have not had the chance to stop in the restaurant.

I like Himalaya a lot. Nothing I've had has ever been especially spicy, my kids have tolerated it just fine, in fact I feel safe in saying that it's Liam's favorite Nepalese restaurant. Now, could someone who has lived a sheltered life find it still too exotic to handle? Sure. But mostly it's pretty accessible, usually has one or two kind of new things on the buffet you haven't seen done to death elsewhere, and the folks there are very nice. I like it a lot.

I lead a sheltered life but am the only one in the family who could happily down a platter of jalapenos without any beer or milk to quench the fire.So at least I can request more heat for me or tweak the dish at the table.Thanks.

With a coupon in my pocket (which I managed to drop between car and restaurant and had to chase it across the lot). I tried out Flaming Grill and Buffet (aka Flaming Grill & Supreme Buffet), formerly in Rolling Meadows, now in Niles in the Golf Glen shopping center.

There must be a lot of unmet need for high volumes of ordinary Asian food in that area, with Senoya just a couple doors down, China Buffet next to Walmart a little further, and Ginza Buffet in Golf Mill. I've previously enjoyed Senoya, walked in and then right out of China Buffet, haven't tried Ginza.

Dinner price is (as of January 2014) $10.99, including soft drink.
High points:
* Lots of seafood: mussels, clams, sushi, baked salmon, fried calamari, mayonnaise shrimp, stuffed shrimp, fried shrimp, shrimp and krab on the hibachi selections, and the "seafood supreme" which is a melange of mixed seafood including snow crab. Generally, these were pretty tasty.
* Sushi selection: A Yelper had said they were all just California Roll variants, and while there is a fair amount of that, there were several nigiri, and some rolls that at least didn't seem to be just krab and avocado, including seaweed salad stuffed in a fried tofu pocket, which I thought was kind of clever. Most of it is ice cold, which is unfortunate, but expected on a buffet.
* Appetizer selection: especially with the selection of shrimp, which approached Bubba Gump levels, lots of snacky stuff
* Several bright stir-fried vegetables (greens of some kind and green beans both were quite good)
* Clean, well lit, service (drink refills, plate removal) was swift and friendly

Low points:
* Fried calamari was basically greasy breaded pencil erasers
* Hibachi station has a good variety of meats (including steak and chicken breast), but low on veg or flavoring (the latter being just garlic and crushed chiles). I was hoping for more of a Mongolian-style, but they're going more for a teppanyaki without the show.
* Steamed bun was filled with some sort of gloppy yellowish paste, not to my taste at all
* A lot of the buffet skewed strongly to western dishes (the aforementioned salmon and stuffed shrimp, mozz sticks and french fries, steak 'pie', salad bar...) compared to Asian -- stir fries in particular were slim, compared to fried things in a sweet sauce (mayo shrimp, General Tso, Orange Chicken...)

Would I go back again? It's got a greater variety, and cheaper (especially with coupon) than neighbor Senoya, and certainly fills a gullet, but I didn't love it.