ChinaTown Buffet

Went there last night for a family dinner. I use to really like this place but over the years it keeps getting worse and if I could give it a negative star I would. The food was very poor quality and and with all the other choices for Asian food in this town it will be another 5 years before I step back in this place. You have to chase down a server to get a drink refill and I was pushed out of the way several times as employees were walking around shouting into radios about what need to be refilled.
While I was there I walked into the bathroom and it smelled like urine and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months. All the stalls were broken and graffiti everywhere. Both paper town dispensers were out and the sink area was gross. Makes me wonder if the employees ever wash their hands.

11.99 for Sunday dinner buffet. I did not see any nigiri sushi. All of their sushi is 1 piece of imitation crab and 1 piece of egg with either avocado, more imitation crab on the outside or tuna. The fish was not fresh. Sushi bar as seaweed salad.
This place has a hibachi grill where you can make grilled shrimp or ask for a piece of steak. The steak was not flavorful, took a bite and tossed.
I made a noodle stir fry at the hibachi grill, this was my least favorite dish, no taste to the noodle, very poorly executed.
Decent fried rice OK lo mein. Good green beans, good mushrooms.
Terrible deserts, call the cakes were stale and rock hard. Worst egg tart I had in my life.
Amazing egg drop soup, not sure what is in it, maybe overload of MSG. Either way, gets the job done and I definitely had two cups. They also have chicken soup here which I’ve never seen at any other chinese restaurant or buffet, did not look enticing enough to try.
They have an ice cream machine here but my ice cream melted immediately after dispensed, too watery.
Good spring rolls and good crab ragoon. Overall, you will find something you like here because there were at least 7 isles of buffet plus 1 more sushi isle and a hibachi grill. Don’t come here expecting anything more than what you can expect at any buffet and you will be fine.

Came here for Valentines Day when it was busy, and honestly the food was extremely fresh given that there were a lot of customers coming in and out. The sushi was the best part of this buffet, including rainbow rolls, spicy salmon, ahi tuna rolls, and California rolls, along with the BBQ Chicken Wings, Crab Rangoons, and made to order Rib Eye Steaks that are fresh never frozen.
Come here when it’s busy, and you won’t be disappointed!
There aren’t much Asian buffets in Champaign, but this one made one of my favorites after visiting here for the first time. We expect to come back here every Sunday for our weekend dine-​out meal. Keep up the great food!

Good price for an abundance of food. I went there for their Christmas buffet. It’s normally $ 12 which is a good price, but, without asking he only charged me $ 11 for the senior price, must be my grey hair. Thanks, sincerely. I also got a Lime Margarita, (I’m thinking the bar service is kind of new,) Quite tasty. They have a nice variety of food, which includes crab legs. Having to fight for the crab legs, I did manage to get my fill. I tried the frog legs, just to say I tried them, but did not try the pickled chicken feet. They have an attractive variety of sushi, but, I overheard it wasn’t anything special. I stuffed myself, and will go back soon. There is no way you can try it all.

Please see the photos I posted to see what exactly what happened. My friend, who is a nice, shy international student was eating here with three of us. She went to get some soup and when she poured the soup into the cup, it split in half (probably due to prior stress crack) and the scalding hot soup spilled all over her hand. I immediately asked her if she’s alright and she said no so I took to to the restroom to rinse cold water. Then I went to inform the front desk. The front desk lady just said I’m sorry and then brought a first aid kit. She didn’t offer any help. So after searching for burn medication, I can’t find any. I hurried out to Target next door to buy some burn medication. When I came back, I found my friend’s hand all red and burnt. I asked for the manager. She came and said, «Oh I’m sorry but it will be ok. There is no blister now so you will be fine.» She then made a half ass effort to explain herself and said it’s cause of the humidity and sometimes the soup bowl cracks. I was just shocked at how cold she was, as if it was ok. Maybe this happens in China on daily basis but here to see such inhumanity was shocking. We went back dried her hand, put on the medication which I bought then sat back down and tried to forget about it and enjoy the holiday. Five minutes later the waiter brought us the bills (not even a courtesy on the house even for the burn victim). By then I was angry at how she was treated so I went to the front desk and ask the manger if she was kidding about the bill. She was like, «well it’s not like it’s our fault. You can call our insurance if u want to seek medical attention». All we wanted was just a sincerely apology, at least pretend you care for your customers. Instead, we got this callousness. Where is the humanity in this. No offer to get any medication (I had to run next door to buy it), just a simple sorry it happens and then precede to offer an explanation and then say it’s not their fault (which I agree but please show some sincerity, my friend was burned by scalding hot soup!). I will never eat here again, and if you read this, please see the photos and not come here either! Happy holidays. Enjoy it elsewhere!

It’s my favorite place to eat other then the fact they rush you the whole time until your out and expect a tip .like seriously first of all I’m not small I love to eat Chinese food an its rude to stand over someone and star an rush them like you have no sense

I have read the other reviews after I had started eating here. Some were pretty harsh and some are right on the money.
First things first, folks it’s a BUFFET. When reviewing buffet places, you are not going to get a fancy 5 star restaurant experience. You are going to get many items to choose from at a set price. Which means that the place is going to have many dishes that are really cheap to make so they can make a profit. Yes, this place has crab legs and steak but at the same time, its not porterhouse steaks and king crab. The steak is really thin and seems to be more like over tenderized flat iron steak. As for the crab legs, they are from crabs but are not of the highest quality you would get at real seafood places.
They so carry sushi which is most of the time fresh, the only complaint I have against their sushi would be that sometimes it isn’t kept as cold as it should be. As for most of their other dishes, they are okay. Rice is made and kept in a rice steamer, and the Lo Mein is really good. I usually have beef pepper steak on my Lo Mein and you can tell that the beef in this topping is not a prime choice cut of beef. Once again, I keep in mind that their dishes are going to be made as cheap as they can so the restaurant can make a profit.
As for the restaurant being clean, I usually see someone always sweeping under tables and wiping down the tables. My concern would be about their bathrooms, which never seem to be clean. Toilet paper on floor and their sink area seems to be failing apart.
Three stars out of five. One star off for their dirty bathrooms and one more for the overall quality of service. Overall, you get what you pay for. This place is a buffet, which means low quality food in mass quantity. It is what it is, if you want high end food then go down the street to high end restaurants where you will pay more than you pay here.

I have had my fair share of Chinese buffet. This was definitely the worst among all. Over the last four years, I went to this restaurant four times at an approximate interval of one year. Each time I went there, I felt that the quality degraded compared to the previous time. This time I felt like puking. The food was gross, stale and full of soy sauce stench. Remember it’s a buffet and I found not a single item to be edible. All of the food items seemed to be recycled from week-​old leftovers. Horrible, slam dunk horrible. I would probably try to report this restaurant to the corresponding food inspector. Please avoid this restaurant at any cost for your own good.

Normally a great place with wonderful good that I go to regularly, but don’t go within an hour of closing because they start to strip the buffet then.

The man on the barbecue bar really sucks, though the food on the whole is good at this price. It really sucks to see him when I was eating. Never try it if you want to have a good lunch.

absolutely disgusting. arrived for lunch on a Sunday. not only were they not prepared, the food they did have available was lukewarm and disgusting. warm drinks… this is by far the worst sushi I have ever seen in my life. I managed to stomach one plate of stale, cold chicken and they had the absolute nerve to charge me about $ 15! I would rather eat a pile of dog dook than eat here again, it would certainly be a healthier, safer alternative.

As far as cleanliness, choices and prices, this place is really good for a buffet. Our waitress was very sweet as well. However, we brought a coupon that we printed out TODAY off of their website. We didn’t see it had expired, and the manager argued with me. She kept saying, «we won’t honor the coupon. Print out the one that is updated on the website.» THE ONE WE USED WAS THE ONE ON THE WEBSITE! She was so rude. We won’t be going back.

Restaurant review:
Another restaurants make the DNV list in Champaign. I was hungry and against my better judgement decided to go to this AYCE buffet for dinner. It was a weeknight so luckily there was no line. At first glance I was super excited by the variety of food offered here and 10.99 this is a lot cheaper than the sushi/​asian seafood buffets up north. This is where Chinatown buffet took a sharp u-​turn from other restaurants that at least feign cleanliness. I watched as they were preparing food from a white bucket on the floor by the grill. I have no idea what sort of food was being prepared, but it should neither be stored in a white unmarked bucket, in a unrefrigerated area, or anywhere near the floor. Let me tell you about the food I ate:
1. Sushi– yes they had salmon nigri. I was excited that there was 4 fresh pieces of it when I arrived and 4 other pieces of an unknown fish. I took the 2 pieces of salmon, not fatty at all very thin cut. Not cold either… I didn’t think much until the end of the meal when I went back outside and the same 6 pieces were left. I guess other people were smarter than me. I also had a few pieces of the rolls. The fried roll was somehow ice cold and the one that had some sort of seafood rolled was warm. This is bad news
2. Chinese food crab rangoon okay nothing exciting with this, chicken okay nothing exciting
3. Crab legs– these should be exciting and super expensive, but for some weird reason they are dark colored and very dirty. Even the water that they were boiled in looked like no one washed the crab legs and the dirt or sediment was cooked with it. The meat was slightly firm, but not mushy which you would except with dead crabs
4. Clams– stir fried in black bean sauce. Okay but you always worry what quality is being served as they are a filter organism that can harbor hepatitis A, bacterial, etc.
5. Grilled «ribeye” — how would you like it done. medium rare. 5 minutes later I get a minute steak that when I cut into it, the meat is well well done. I eat it and go back for more because I like meat. Again same thing. It looks nothing like the steak in the pictures and I question whether this is really ribeye
6. More asian food egg rolls, salmon, green beans, and ribs. Most of this was over cooked and very greasy. Just check out the shininess in the pictures I took
7. Crawfish– another seafood item that looked good but not clean with dark dirt material. Ugh
9. Corn, fried chicken, chinese donut. Well you can’t mess up these basic items so no complaints.
10. Dessert– The only POSITIVE thing was the red bean fried sesame balls. I ate 6 these were tasty. The brownie looked disgusting with the sprinkles losing color into the brownie. The peanut brittle was burnt and not edible. The soft serve ice cream is served without cones. It did not appear to melt as it sat on the table and the «hot fudge» that was used basically deflected off the ice cream. I have no idea what was in the fudge but it tasted very artificial.
There is a lot of other things I did not try including make your own stir fry, soups, etc. If you want quantity this is the place to go. Quality is way below acceptable levels both in quality or hygiene in my opinion.
FINALLY to make matters worse, at 3 AM I had rip roaring abdominal pain. No other symptoms so I don’t know if something was not prepared well or just too greasy. I am glad this experience is over.
Pro: Run away
Cons: Poor hygiene, seafood that did not look clean, below average quality, you can get food poisoning especially based on there preparation of food
Hidden gem:
Go to
and print out coupons for lunch and dinner if you dare come here
Lunch Buffet 6.99
Dinner Buffet 10.99
Weekend Buffet 11.99
Sunday Buffet 10.99
Soda 1.99

I was visiting the Champaign area with my family who just recently moved there. And they suggested that I try this buffet. When I got there was amazed how good their food is. It is far better than my regular buffet in Lansing. If I ever return back to Champaign I will be going back, even though it is a little pricy.

Wills right this place is disgusting. The food is not kept hot. This not only does not taste good it can also be potentially life threatening, and I will never understand why you need a waitress at a buffet. The dining room is ran down. The one thing I cannot tolerate in a restaurant is a dirty restroom and this place has one of the dirtiest restrooms I’ve ever seen. If what you can see is dirty just imagine how dirty that kitchen is. There’s no way I will ever go there again.

I’ve gone to Chinatown buffet more time than I’d like to admit — This is your run-​of-​the-​mill Chinese buffet, with lots of Americanized Chinese food and dishes containing Krab (with a K). The food isn’t very good, but the only redeeming quality is the all-​you-​can-​eat snow crab legs and Chinese-​style crayfish you get on weekend nights. I’ve been there for lunch once and the quality of food was very different from what you’d see around dinner-​time… The worst part was the clams, which were full of sand.

Nasty. First time I’ve ever felt DIZZY from eating something. I discovered that the crab rangoon was acceptable, and the red-​bean filled donuts were actually kinda good. Otherwise, nothing else even tastes much like food. And that’s my opinion after trying one plate of the least unappetizing things I saw. Both my partner and I had seriously uncomfortable stomachs afterwards.
If I had to go here again, I’d just eat a million red bean donuts. But I’m pretty sure we won’t have the misfortune of being invited here by someone again.

In general, I am not a fan of Chinese buffets. They start out amazing, but then as time goes on, they become a mess and the quality of their food turns sour. However, this is not the case with Chinatown Buffet. No, they are not amazing, but their food quality has been pretty consistent.
You can get a good selection of Chinese foods and be a patron of their mediocre sushi bar. You can also create your own stir fry or ask for a steak to be grilled for you. There’s plenty of seating here and you generally know what you’re coming here for — quantity, not quality. If you have that as your mindset, you won’t necessarily be disappointed.
Overall, Chinatown Buffet isn’t bad. It’s cheap and you get your fill.

I was tricked in to going here for lunch by one co-​worker who said to another ‘we should go to that great Chinese place you like’. Then we arrive and damn… it’s a GD buffet!
Requisite deep-​fried things, Mongolian BBQ (didn’t try, but no scary smells and co-​worker #1 didn’t get sick after eating his) and sushi section (run of the mill buffet sushi, but I didn’t touch anything raw). Rows and rows of hot food plus a row just for salad bar (with OK veggies).
I loaded up on the sauteed green beans and pulled other cooked veggies out of various trays. Not all of the chicken was breaded mystery meat — I liked the Black Pepper Chicken.
All in all, this was a decent Chinese buffet. Don’t get me wrong, I still felt like crap afterwards and needed a nap…

As far as a buffet goes, Chinatown is one of the larger ones I’ve been to. As I recall they had 6 buffet bars, with maybe 40 things to choose from. They have your standard fare of various deep fried mystery meats, hidden in thick sauces to cover their low quality. Finally, as you’d expect, they have a large desert and ice cream bar.
Interestingly though, they had a whole section where you could make your own bowl of food and have them cook it for you. There were lots of veggies, meats, and various sauces to choose from. Simply put everything in a bowl and the staff tosses it onto a huge grill, similar to places like Mongolian BBQ. This might be your safest bet, as you know exactly what your eating.
I’ll admit it, I’m not a huge buffet fan, so I’m a little biased. I give it 3 stars based on size alone.