Buffets

[goodeats]

Sometimes, I get hankerings for buffets. I am not sure if it's a midwest thing or it's a having-grown-up-on-Ponderosa-and-Chinese-buffets-type of thing. Either way, for the first time, I am a fan of starting a thread on finding AYCE. Anything.

So, first off, we have a AYCE sushi places thread, which is a great resource.

I want to add to that, I guess, for those AYCE moments.

Tonight was one and I can't say I recommend Fortune Star Chinese Buffet on Nicholson Road in Rockville, but sometimes, you have to bite the bullet ($13.95 for adults, dinner -- to go option available).

Where else do people go for buffets?

How good are they? Places I think of are:

1. Peter Pan (Fairfax - have not gone before);

2. B. Smith's on Sundays ($36? Southern style);

3. Blue Pearl (don't know, posted because I found it in the threads).

[Heather]

As the parent of two 'tweens, I see lots of AYCE buffets in my future...

How about the various Indian restaurants that offer a lunch buffet? Woodlands, Haandi, Ghar-E-Kabab

[Escoffier]

Let's see:

Il Mee

Todai

Hee Been

Cho's Garden

Minerva

Chutny

Bamboo Garden

...and almost forgot...Peter Pan

(I'm sure there are more. These are all in VA because if I'm going to leave the Commonwealth, it won't be for a buffet).

[monavano]

I love this topic! That said, we don't get to Chinese buffets nearly enough. We've gone to one in the Kingstowne shopping center, which was OK, but...we had one in the Richmond, VA suburb (Glen Allen) that we adored. Great Taste Buffet-others just pale in comparison.

[TheMatt]

I'm a fan of Saravana Palace's weekend buffet. Loads of dishes, many southern Indian dishes (and a couple Indian-Chinese usually) that are different from the usual buffet...and all vegetarian. You don't miss the meat at all and the price is nice, $10 if I recall correctly.

If I want meat, I usually head to Jaipur Royal in Fairfax. It's smaller than Saravana's buffet, and more expensive (around $15...I think), but the dishes are usually high-quality.

The last buffet I've gone to recently is the one at Uncle Liu's. I like how they have unique (for Chinese buffet) cold dishes like Sichuan cold noodles, five spice pressed bean curd, and lots of other vegetarian dishes. I think it's $11 on the weekend.

[chaofun]

Delhi Club for lunch. A fantastic deal ($8.95 for lunch on weekdays, $11.95 on weekends).

Oh and Liberty Tavern has a good brunch buffet ($18) as well.

[Rieux]

Bombay Club brunch on Sundays -- $30 for all you can eat and all you can drink sparkling wine with a live piano player in a nice setting.

[Kibbee Nayee]

I must admit to being a buffet snob. I grew up in Lancaster, PA, and have eaten my through a few smorgasbords there. I still remember about 35 years ago when a few friends and me -- all four of us were on the High School football team at the time -- went to the Willow Valley smorgasbord when it was all-you-can-eat for something like $3.99. The manager's expression totally changed as we walked in the door, and about 15 full plates later, we walked out happy.

But the highest compliment for that kind of food in Lancaster is "That was very good, not spicy at all" and it remains true to this day.

I highly recommend a road trip to Shady Maple on the eastern side of Lancaster County (East Earl), about 2.5 hours away from here. The market next door is actually worth the trip, if you have a cooler in your trunk, and the parking area accommodates about a dozen horse-and-buggy Amish covered parking. By the way, this is a market unlike any in our area, with maybe a Wegman's as close as it gets for comparison, although this is bigger than a Wegman's and the prices are lower than a Wegman's.

They advertise 200 feet of food at the smorgasbord, and I'm here to tell you that estimate may be low. And the dishes change about every half hour, as the staff of what appears to be over 100 people keeps changing the food islands regularly. And they do breakfast, lunch and dinner. And they accommodate drop-in bus-fulls of tourists. And Wednesday evenings are all-you-can-eat prime rib. And this may be the only smorgasbord on the planet where you can get, on various days, chicken pot pie, stuffed pig stomach, schnitz & knepp, in-house made sausage, and real Pa. Dutch corn fritters, along with a thousand other items.

But as I alluded to, this is a testament to abundance, freshness and frugality, not haute cuisine. But it's certainly worth the trip once or twice a year.

OK....now back to the discussion of the puny buffets in our area....

[Heather]

They advertise 200 feet of food at the smorgasbord, and I'm here to tell you that estimate may be low. And the dishes change about every half hour, as the staff of what appears to be over 100 people keeps changing the food islands regularly. And they do breakfast, lunch and dinner. And they accommodate drop-in bus-fulls of tourists. And Wednesday evenings are all-you-can-eat prime rib. And this may be the only smorgasbord on the planet where you can get, on various days, chicken pot pie, stuffed pig stomach, schnitz & knepp, in-house made sausage, and real Pa. Dutch corn fritters, along with a thousand other items.

But as I alluded to, this is a testament to abundance, freshness and frugality, not haute cuisine. But it's certainly worth the trip once or twice a year.

I am going to remember this for when my son gets to be 15 or 16!

There seem to be a lot of reasonable, and reasonably good, lunch/brunch buffets, but not so many dinner buffets.

[wristband]

As for Indian AYCE, Minerva offers an extensive buffett in its various locations. I am not crazy about the flourescent lighting and bizzbuzzing around the wide selection (others love it). I greatly prefer Haandi in Falls Church - the flavors and quality of their lunch buffett items IMHO are terrific and reflect the high quality of dinner entrees (obv limited selection on the buffett). Cafe Taj in McLean serves a daily lunch buffett for $9.99 in a pleasant setting and parking is easy. Though the Taj's buffett items are good and the selection is enough to satisfy most area office workers, I think Haandi is superior.

[schulju]

I highly recommend a road trip to Shady Maple on the eastern side of Lancaster County (East Earl), about 2.5 hours away from here. The market next door is actually worth the trip, if you have a cooler in your trunk, and the parking area accommodates about a dozen horse-and-buggy Amish covered parking. By the way, this is a market unlike any in our area, with maybe a Wegman's as close as it gets for comparison, although this is bigger than a Wegman's and the prices are lower than a Wegman's.

They advertise 200 feet of food at the smorgasbord, and I'm here to tell you that estimate may be low. And the dishes change about every half hour, as the staff of what appears to be over 100 people keeps changing the food islands regularly. And they do breakfast, lunch and dinner. And they accommodate drop-in bus-fulls of tourists. And Wednesday evenings are all-you-can-eat prime rib. And this may be the only smorgasbord on the planet where you can get, on various days, chicken pot pie, stuffed pig stomach, schnitz & knepp, in-house made sausage, and real Pa. Dutch corn fritters, along with a thousand other items.

But as I alluded to, this is a testament to abundance, freshness and frugality, not haute cuisine. But it's certainly worth the trip once or twice a year.

OK....now back to the discussion of the puny buffets in our area....

While I grew up about 100 miles east of Lancaster, my parents loved the area and I have spent many hours in Shady Maple. I haven't been there in years, but they use to carry not just grocery items (many in "Costco" sizes) they also carried household items, small tools, fabric and sewing needs, and even some hand made furniture. We would often go up on Tuesdays when the Roots famer's market and auction was running. I remember coming home with tons of fruits and veggies that Mom would can, or use to make jam. Your post brought back great memories!

[Soup]

As I've gotten older, I gotten more and more away from AYCE and the more I know about a particular style of food, I tend to stay away from AYCE in the style.

Because of these two facts, I tend to stay away from most AYCE with a few exceptions. The exceptions are:

1. indian lunch buffets (for what ever reason, the steam tables don't bother me and I enjoy the better buffets around town).

2. hotel breakfast buffets (I'm a sucker for all the choices and fresh made waffles and the egg and omlett station).

3. I like italian and southern family style dining (I believe they fit with in the AYCE genre). No great ones in either category in the DC area but certainly in other parts of the country they are out there and I take advantage when ever I can (especially the southern family style dining).

Soup

[cheezepowder]

I haven't tried it, but I saw a sign for a thai buffet at Bangkok Golden in Seven Corners in VA (a few doors down from Hunan Palace).

[thistle]

I'll admit, my buffet weakness has been Blue Pearl in Springfield, I go about once a month w/ friend, & I think it's a good deal. It's always packed, so there is good turnover on the buffet items, some seafood-fish, clams, not wonderful s& p shrimp (but ok). I'm easy at a buffet, I like the cheap stuff-rice noodles w/ greens, fried rice, & a bit of protein-shrimp or chile chicken. They also have stuff like dumplings, soups, salads, american stuff-I like the little peppers stuffed w/ forcemeat?, limes to liven up the shrimp, oranges, amond cookies, little mocha cakes for dessert. They keep our tea topped off & let us stay for quite a while-I am completely satisfied (almost every time) w/ my lunch (a great value), now, dinner, not as much,,, I plan on trying Korshi (got a specialicious coupon) w/ my friend soon-we hit other places, but Blue Pearl is our mainstay....

[Soup]

Highly recommend the Thai Golden buffet. Next to Hong Kong Palace near 7 corners.

Really good thai. the heat is not dummied down. The keep the buffet really fresh. Have been twice. Both time a solid experience. some mediocre to outstanding selections.

[thistle]

I visited Korshi, a Korean BBQ buffet restaurant in Centreville, today with a friend & quite enjoyed it. I'd definitely go again, although I'm not often out in that area. It had a large AYCE sushi section w/ nigiri sushi, rolls, & sashimi. I tried mostly nigiri-shrimp, unagi, hamachi, saba, some sort of real crab wrapped in seaweed, 1 roll-don't even remember what kind, but I think it had eel, avocado, & tempura shrimp. No room left for sashimi, but it looked nice & fresh. There was a salad section w/ kimchee, edamame, something that looked like a salsa fresca, a soup & noodle station (didn't have any), cooked foods-several large whole fish-bluefish, croaker, mahi-mahi (yummy!), ribs, chicken, tempura shrimp (didn't have any, my friend said they were a bit greasy), bacon-wrapped shrimp (double yum!). Then there was the selection of meats to cook at your in-table grill-kalbi, bulgogi, spicy & mild chicken, squid, pork belly, tiger shrimp(do you see a theme to my choices here? I love shrimp)along with lettuce, garlic, jalapenos, bean paste & the more spicy sauce.

We got there at 11:30 & it filled up quickly, service was good, keeping our water & tea topped off, & grilling our bbq items. There was also a large dessert buffet, lots of fruit (I'm always happy w/ just oranges & pineapple,but they had several mixed fruit salads) little pastries & cakes. I used a specialicious coupon which was $20 for lunch for 2 (regular prices for lunch buffet are $16.95/weekdays & $18.95/weekends),but I don't think the regular prices are outrageous considering the scope & quality of the buffet. Nothing was mind-blowing (it IS a buffet), but it was above average.

[DC Deb]

I don't eat buffet as much as I used to but here are some of my favorites.

Korean BBQ--Il Mee in Annandale

Indian--Mayuri in Reston

Chinese--Tysons in Rockville

"take Mom to brunch" place--Mrs. K's Toll House or Normandie Farm--totally old school

For out of town guests--the JW Marriott breakfast brunch (before sightseeing) or the Roof Terrace at Kennedy Center.

[Ericandblueboy]

I've hit most of the buffets around Tysons/Falls Church/ Annandale.

I'll list them by cuisine and by rank

Chinese:

1. Uncle Liu's (has some dim sum dishes, generally decent food but it's pretty much the same stuff all the time)

2. Peter Pan (lots of variety, including seafood but not particularly good)

3. Harvest Moon (terrible)

Thai:

Bangkok Golden 3 (next to HKP) is the only one I know of, decent but not a ton of variety

Korean:

1. Il Mee (includes BBQ cooked at your table (but I've never had any), lots of banchans and other dishes, a decent selection of seafood)

2. Cho's Garden (lots of sushi, soups, and a decent assortment of dishes but not much in terms of BBQ)

3. Ega (not as much variety as the other Korean AYCA, has some sushi and some BBQ)

Indian:

1. Cafe Taj (McLean)

2. Bombay Tandoor

3. Haandi

4. Aarathi

[drsmoke]

Dutch's Daughter in Frederick has a really good Sunday Brunch buffet, $24.00 a head, includes a glass of Champagne, many entrees, cream of Crab and Maryland crab soup, Crab dip, the usual breakfast stations, great Roast Beef, Chicken dishes, salads, many other good eats, excellent desserts...damn good deal, great service also.

[Pool Boy]

For Indian buffet, I like Kadhai Indian in Bethesda - it was still pretty good last time I went about 5-6 months ago.

[arlingtonkabob]

London Curry House in Alexandria has a really great indian buffet. Their food is fresh and kitchen is spotless

[sandynva]

I love the weekend buffet at woodlands-- all vegetarian but both north and South Indian.  I also enjoy the weekend buffet at spice xing,  which includes meat dishes, and also often has Indo Chinese 

[Kibbee Nayee]

A few years ago, the now-departed Lucky Peach gave us a wonderful tour of buffet eating, which taught me more than I ever knew about buffets....like, how they make money, how they place certain items to drive maximum profit, and so forth. It's worth a read.

[Kibbee Nayee]

BYW, hands down my favorite buffet is at Sizzler Steakhouse. Unfortunately, they're all out west, save for a lonely outpost in Kissimmee, Florida.

When I'm visiting the west coast, I invariably have a meal at Sizzler, hot and cold salad bar only. That's all I need....

[meatwad]

As we all know te etymology pf the word buffet goes back to dirty peasant Frenchmen crashing castles halls demanding they be given more than pastry to eat. My favorite form of grimy luxury, besides Old County Buffet, in Minnesoooota is hiding in plain sight adjacent to 395.

Hee Been has fantastic kimchi, they inspired and helped with the Number 1 Sons recipe, a soft serve machine, a sushi display that’s equally bountiful and mediocre, orange chicken, kale Caesar salad and piles of meats to cook table while slugging watery  barley tea. It’s fantastic. I suggest soju before evening kareoke and tons of Cass beer at brunch.

 

 

KN, I don’t know you but I am damm glad you post here.