Buffet King

Buffet King
5451 N. IH 35
Austin, TX

I was looking for a Chinese Buffet that wasn’t too far from work, and I found Buffet King. I had noticed Buffet King a few months ago, before they open while visiting Office Max at Capital Plaza but never found the time to try it out. The restaurant is quite large and well appointed. That may not last (that being the way of buffet restaurants IMO) but for now, in its first year of operation, it looks nice. It is very bright with a lot of dark wood paneling. The price is about on a par with other large buffets, $8.00 without drink, and I had my buffet with only water, because they have made the awful decision to serve Pepsi and their only diet offering was Diet Pepsi…bleah. So, with one strike against them, I approached the buffet.

I was in the mood for Chinese, so that was where I started. For me, Chinese food means Sesame Chicken, Fried Rice, Egg Roll and Hot and Sour Soup. As I searched, I discovered that the buffet is huge. There were two long salad bars I one with green salad and the fixings, and another for fruit, pudding and the like. There were also two long buffets of Chinese with fish selections, various beef and chicken choices, eggrolls, won ton…well, all the usual Chinese buffet suspects. There were also enchiladas, pizza and sushi.

Well, as I said before, Chinese, for me, means Sesame Chicken and I had no trouble tracking it down, and that is where the first chink in the armor appeared. The Sesame Chicken sauce was red, and thin. Next to the Sesame Chicken was General Tso’s Chicken I which was closer to the right color for Sesame Chicken, but also very thin. The fried rice was nearby, but full of large chunks of onion, which I am not fond of.

Well, so they aren’t doing so well, but I find the egg roll and the Hot and Sour Soup and head back to my table. The sauce may be a bit thin and the color isn’t quite right, but it tastes okay, and the Hot and Sour Soup is good, not great, but good. The fried rice tastes good, but I have to fish out the onions. The egg roll is surprisingly good. Steam tables and heat lamps are not the best friends for an egg roll, and most Chinese buffets are plagued by semi-soggy eggrolls. These were above average on two different trips to the buffet.

On my second trip to the buffet and I tried some of the battered chicken that goes with sweet and sour, and I found the cream cheese wontons, which gets a big thumbs up from me. I tried a slice of soggy garlic head, and a Chinese donut, but for most of my eating, I stuck to the Sesame Chicken.

Two more things that I didn’t really try, one end of the restaurant is a big Mongolian stir fry bar, and the only thing I got from the desserts was a small bowl of ice cream. The seemed to have, large selection of cookies, but they looked store bought.

I walked out of Buffet King very full. I wasn’t the best Chinese I’ve ever had, but it was good. Nothing that I picked up was inedible, though most of it could have been better. I’ll probably try Buffet King again.