This was my first adventure to a Chinese buffet in the city vs suburbs of Chicago. We went at 4p.m. for dinner on a Saturday thinking that it would be less crowded around this time… wrong! Somehow everyone in this neighborhood knows that dinner at the buffet starts at 3:30p.m. and that the freshly cooked food comes out then. I had had no idea! I was just hungry early… But there is a moderate sized parking lot so we didn’t have to worry about parking on the street like 99% of Chicago restaurants.

It might have been the lighting or the location or just the arrangement of the place, but I must say it did not carry the same cleanly (if that is even the right word choice) aura as the buffets in the suburbs. Given that, the food was pretty decent, it had the staple mixed beef, chicken, seafood and veggie dishes found at all Chinese buffets. No name tags on most foods so I’ll never know the names of these dishes, but I definitely come to buffets for portions anyway. Instead of those king crab legs, they have fried whole crab which was unusual and kind of difficult to eat – tasty, nonetheless. But then again, I adore crab.

Some favorites? Steak potatoes (these were reeeeeeally yummy), fried bananas, mixed shrimp/veggie dish (it was irksome to see people literally digging out just the shrimp for 5 minutes, leaving a full container of imitation crab meat), rice noodles (not the fat noodles, they had thin rice ones), egg drop soup, and fresh DRAGON EYES!! Ok, it’s actually called “longan” or “dragon eyes” and they’re fruit that taste and have a texture like lychees. They were fresh unlike the canned stuff I’ve tried in the past, and they were a good way to end the meal.

Not sure if I’ll come back anytime soon but if I do come back, I’ll be sure to come at 4p.m. again. By actual dinner time, the place had almost cleared!