Suburban Chinese buffets in decline?

So, as is traditional when MrsF is away for the evening, the boys and I went out for Chinese. With Thing1 finally recovering his appetite after the flu, a buffet sounded like a good idea.

Our #1 buffet choice at Rand and Central in Mt Prospect, China Coast, is gone, after replacing Wang's Chinese Buffet about a year or so ago (in fact, we allways called it Not-Wang's. If it gets replaced with another, it'll probably be Not-Not-Wang's).

So we headed over near Golf Mill, where kitty-corner there are two: World Buffet and China Buffet. We've eaten at WB before, so perhaps the other would be a nice change. We ducked our heads in, and Thing2 decided he didn't like the looks of the place. They did a circuit of the buffet while I was in line, and passed on the place, so back to World Buffet.

This place has really gone downhill. The selection of entrees is slim, there's an awful lot of fried chicken chunks with sweet sauce, and that's about it. I saw people eating crab legs, but there was never more than a couple of leg segments in the tray when I passed by. They never did bring out more Mongolian Beef, even though I heard a manager yelling into a phone for more of it at least twice. Many things were oversalted, the steamed buns were hard, the tea was like mud... a real disappointment.

The one good thing was I avoided overeating.

So is this a trend, or did we just have a really bad night?

HI,

My local Chinese buffet is 'New China Buffet' on Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville. This one is pretty good with salt & pepper shrimp, flounder (sometimes fried, sometimes braised), snow crab legs, blue crab (two ways: cut in half then fried. the shell (head) is filled with a crab mixture and mayonnaise, then broiled) almost always available. This one seems to do consistently good, though we make an effort to come during high traffic periods when the food is being exchanged pretty rapidly.

If the crab legs look a bit over the hill, then we take some anyway to our table and don't touch them. This forces them to replenish, which is when we take what we will really eat.

We have been to other New China Buffets, which have been pretty dismal. While this is not as good as a la carte made to your order, this is pretty good for a Chinese buffet.

New China Buffet
1161 South Milwaukee Avenue
Libertyville, IL 60048
847-362-8488

Regards,

Is this an outpost (or vice versa) of the place at Addison and Elston? And, if so, is the place at Addison and Elston also recommendable?

Is this an outpost (or vice versa) of the place at Addison and Elston? And, if so, is the place at Addison and Elston also recommendable?

Don't go there. You will be hopping mad if you do! This is one place where it is beyond dismal.

Regards,

The last really good buffet I went to was called Osaka on Hwy 13 in Jacksonville FL. Good Chinese entrees and amazing sushi and oysters.

Here in Chicagoland I like the buffet at Szechwan North in Northbrook (corner of Willow and Pfingsten). It's an old school type Chinese buffet with no more than 12 or so different dishes out.

I really miss Szechwan Palace in Evanston, that was the best buffet I ever had. From the Peking Duck station where a waiter would make it to order to the great selection of hot and cold vegetables, everything was top notch.

My parents used to take us to Magic Wok on Touhy a lot when I was young and I have fond memories of the place but I think it might be clouded by nostalgia.

Cathy2 wrote:If the crab legs look a bit over the hill, then we take some anyway to our table and don't touch them. This forces them to replenish, which is when we take what we will really eat.

Very crafty.

Cathy2 wrote:

Is this an outpost (or vice versa) of the place at Addison and Elston? And, if so, is the place at Addison and Elston also recommendable?

Don't go there. You will be hopping mad if you do! This is one place where it is beyond dismal.

Regards,

I could not have said it better. There are some pretty bad Chinese buffets, but the one at Addison/Elston is really bad -- decor and food.

On the other hand, I often go for lunch during the week to the Chang Jiang buffet at the corner of Manheim (Lee) and Oakton in Des Plaines. It's the best of the Chinese buffets I have visited. Sure, they have a few strange items (french fries, pizza for starts) but I like a lot of their food including the bbq pork, jalapeno chicken, chicken w/ broccoli and Singapore noodles. They also have a good array of appetizers (fried and dumplings). I really like the little fried sesame balls (although they're not as good as the ones filled with red bean paste). The food is remarkably fresh, and at about $6, you can't go wrong (I think it's $9-10 for dinner).

Cathy2 wrote:Don't go [to the Chinese buffet at Addison and Elston]. You will be hopping mad if you do! This is one place where it is beyond dismal.

That's sure the way it's always looked to me from the outside, but I thought maybe the inside would surprise me. I will say this: that location was a "cursed" one for years, with one restaurant after another failing. Yet the Chinese place there has set new endurance records. Maybe only the customers who go there are cursed!

Diamond Buffet in Glen Elleyn is the worst! We came in around 8pm on a Friday night and I think the food had been there since 5-6pm and had not been replaced. Ewhhhhh!

The best we have been to in Illinois are the ones out by Downers Grove... and I'm blanking out on their names.

Riddlemay wrote:That's sure the way it's always looked to me from the outside, but I thought maybe the inside would surprise me. I will say this: that location was a "cursed" one for years, with one restaurant after another failing. Yet the Chinese place there has set new endurance records. Maybe only the customers who go there are cursed!

My maternal grandparents lived in the immediate area. Wasn't this location once a Wag's? I never went to a Wag's, which I believe was associated with Walgreens, but I clearly remember the commercial: kid with tongue hanging out, which seemed to get longer with anticipation, as they rolled various entrees and desserts past him.

Wag's, the experiment, seemed to have a fairly short life.

Regards,

I'll second Chiang Jiang. I liked it enough to take a card so I could remember the place.

A pretty good buffet is called Senoya in Niles on Golf just west of Greenwood. Very clean, and the selections actually tasted different from one another! I find at a lot of CHinese buffets a lot of things taste the same.

My parents love the Super China Buffet at the old Brickyard. I have never been , though.

Cathy2 wrote:

Wasn't this location once a Wag's?

Yes, that location was a Wag's. Wag's was a division of Walgreen's and was a play on their stock's ticker symbol: WAG. They also had the Robin Hood on Monroe Street directly across from Harris Bank. Management eventually woke up and got out of the (crappy) restaurant business. Some of these restaurants went back far enough that Walgreen's still had lunch counters in some drug stores.

JeanneBean wrote:A pretty good buffet is called Senoya in Niles on Golf just west of Greenwood. Very clean, and the selections actually tasted different from one another!

I went a few times with a friend of mine when they first opened. They had all you could eat snow crab legs, which later they began charging a la carte by the pound. When so many other buffets include crab legs and Sonoya doesn't, then we started going to New China Buffet in Libertyville.

Zim has had a theory related to Indian buffet restaurants that they are at their best when they first open then they are months later. I will guess this may apply to a lot more than Indian buffet restaurants.

Senoya Fine Oriental Buffet Restaurant
8750 West Golf Road
Niles, IL 60714
847-299-7717

Regards,

Now for Indian buffet's, I'm still fond of Indian Cuisine at Oakton and 83 - $9.95 for dinner, pretty good selection including Tandoori Chicken, naan and dessert.

JoelF wrote:Now for Indian buffet's, I'm still fond of Indian Cuisine at Oakton and 83 - $9.95 for dinner, pretty good selection including Tandoori Chicken, naan and dessert.

I'd also suggest checking out Himalayan Restaurant in Niles for Indian food. It's very good:

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.ph ... &himalayan

New China Buffet in Darien. Reputed the 'best' of the buffets in the surrounding burbs Was there for lunch/dinner, had crab, duck, salt & pepper shrimp, fruit smoothies, bad sushi, lychee and green tea ice cream to tie it all together. 6 hrs later, I'm still stuffed (and oversalted)

Wrote about it a few months back

~$10 on weekends, 10% discount on the next meal printed at bottom of every receipt.

Tony thats it!!!!

BR wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:

Is this an outpost (or vice versa) of the place at Addison and Elston? And, if so, is the place at Addison and Elston also recommendable?

Don't go there. You will be hopping mad if you do! This is one place where it is beyond dismal.

I could not have said it better. There are some pretty bad Chinese buffets, but the one at Addison/Elston is really bad -- decor and food.

I ate at New China Buffet on Addison only once nearly four years ago but I remember it clearly. This is the sort of place that makes you want to give up eating. Forever.

New China Buffet
3246 W Addison St
Chicago
773-279-8889

In my opinion, even the New China Buffet in Darien is slipping in quality. It used to be better. There is a new one, called Royal Buffet, just across the street from there (between Cub Foods and Toys R Us). It was good when it opened about 8 months ago, but it is also slipping in quality. Both these places are extremely crowded on weekends, and I think they are not able to keep up the quality when cooking in that much bulk.

Oh, my. I made the mistake of going to New China Buffet on Addison once. Even my husband felt it was some of the worst food he'd ever had. There was nothing redeeming about this place. And he used to eat French dressing on Saltines for dinner in his poor college days, and didn't mind.

Come to think of it, I've never had a good Chinese buffet. They always add more oil to buffet items so they don't dry out, and it ends up very unpleasant. I used to work at a Chinese restaurant in the South Suburbs that normally had pretty good food, but the buffet was offensively bad.

Right there with you guys - we used to frequent the New China Buffet on Howard, a great place for my son to try new foods, but they raised their prices and simultaneously reduced their quality (which was fair on a good day) I think the issue is turnover; it must be difficult to figure out the right balance of price/quantity.

Maybe this is one area where cheaper is better, in that a cheaper place may have more customers and therefore more turnover.

I think the "good" Chinese buffets have been long gone... namely Szechwan East on Ohio (with the Peking Duck, or Duck Burritos, as I used to call them) and Schilla which used to be on Lincoln. That one was Chinese/Korean, but still really good quality food and interesting selection.

^ peking duck burritos can be had every Sundays at:

House Of Hunan
1233 E Golf Rd
Schaumburg, IL 60173-4877
(847) 605-1166

its buffet proffering is weak, but the salt and pepper fried crabs are addicting.

i haven't been eating Chicago's Chinese buffets for long. but again, $ for $, i don't see how one can beat New China Buffet/Darien at $10:

New China Buffet
7511 Lemont Rd Ste 188
Darien, IL 60561-8915 View Map
(630) 985-6788
(keep your eye out on the crab tray, they often pull the disappearing act)

Tony, my sources in Darien agree with you. I have not yet been, but I hear it is a magnificent race to the bottom.

Also, I'm told takeout is a big deal there. Not sure how all-u-can-eat translates to takeout.

Cathy2 wrote:.

New China Buffet
1161 South Milwaukee Avenue
Libertyville, IL 60048
847-362-8488

I second this place. In fact, my mother will only eat at buffet restaurants because she is such a picky eater and cannot "commit" to one entree. We have taken her to pretty much all the asian/chinese buffet restaurants all over Chicagoland and Milwaukee, however the only one she will go to is the New China Buffet Cathy mentioned above.

This has actually become our family's second dining room simply because my parents eat here every week and has become a family gathering spot. They like the cleanliness of the place and the fresher selections. We even hosted a few family parties in the back semi-private room a few times. The staff is great and very personable.

Definitely ours and my family's favorite chinese restaurant hands down.

What's the deal with the Libertyville location??? My parents always go there as well and have thrown a few parties... same with their friends. If you see a bunch of filipinos there, its most likely someone we or they know. Odd.... if only I can drag my parents to a really good Chinese restaurant up there, they'd know what their missing out on. BUT they insist on going here, which isn't bad but I've had better.

mby385 wrote:if only I can drag my parents to a really good Chinese restaurant up there, they'd know what their missing out on

Where is this really good Chinese restaurant up here, which I presume is the northern suburbs?

Whenever people ask for advice for good Chinese restaurants in my immediate area, I don't have any place I strongly endorse. I tell them I go to Chicago to Argyle or Chinatown. So I am very interested in your suggestions.

Regards,

Cathy I had actually meant there weren't really any up there. Their cater more to the American palate. I didn't know what good Chinese food was until I met my hubbey! But of corse it helps that he's Chinese. As for my parents... its a task to drag them to the city and when they are there they get the typical stuff.

mby385 wrote:Cathy I had actually meant there weren't really any up there. Their cater more to the American palate. I didn't know what good Chinese food was until I met my hubbey!

In one respect, I'm a little sad because it would be nice not to have to travel hill and dale for Chinese. Though there is a small exception at Szechuan Kingdom whose Chinese menu is not really intended for non-Chinese. If you know of it and order from it, they will serve you though they once isolated us to a remote corner. We estimated they didn't want our choices to influence their other (American) customers.

If the western suburbs can be another locus for excellent Chinese, then there is some hope someday the same can be said for the northern suburbs.

Regards,