Emperor’s Palace

Horrible, food was lukewarm and some looked dried out. Place was mostly empty, and looked dirty. 2 years ago it was so good and full of customers. Must be under new management. The outside of the building is rundown and full of weeds. Very unkept. 20 bucks a person and it was terrible. Do not waste your money.

We just finished lunch here, it was terrible. I can’t make that clear enough. The service was bad, the food was disgusting and over cooked. It was over priced and dirty. We tried to talk to someone about it, but that was not helpful. The salad bar was the worst I’ve ever seen! Please trust me and avoid at all costs! My husband actually just left the restroom from throwing up… Very sad and hazardous. If I had the option to give it zero stars that is what I would give it.

We stopped by with the kids for lunch ⁷⁄₁₄. The food wasn’t fresh at all. It tasted like leftover then re-​cooked. We used to go to this place few years ago, long lines and food was good
but not anymore. Restroom was smell and warm. Good location but bad food.
I will not recommend

Emperor’s Palace is a Chesterfield Valley institution that’s been around since the mid 2000s with a reputation as the most all-​inclusive fake Chinese/​Asian feeding trough for West County types. Sporting a mongolian BBQ station, a disgusting chocolate fountain, soft serve, sushi, and even «dim sum,» this place exemplifies the maxim of quantity over quality.
Even back in the day it was never good, just not bad and barely tolerable. Today the quality of food and service is absolutely abysmal. Old favorites that made it somewhat worthwhile to come here like Beijing duck are nowhere to be seen. The formerly extensive dessert selection has been cut down to a few moldly looking slices of cake. Their main attraction– the mongolian BBQ station, never gets restocked with fresh vegetables and the bowls that you’re supposed to use for raw materials are nowhere to be seen. be prepared to just grab a random buffet plate and use that instead.
The rest of the selection is just as terrible. The softserve fountain is now completely gone, replaced with a freezer of ice cream that one of my dining associates said is the same brand served at the St. Louis city lockup when he was there. Their bulk Americanized chinese portions are poorly done, with cold chao mein that tastes rubbery and watery. Employee morale is awful and that place is well on its way in terms of the restaurant death spiral. You’re better off going to the Hardee’s next door and getting some thickburgers and curly fries.

This buffet was really bad. The food was stale – especially the desserts. We arrived 12:30pm on a Sunday craving for good Dim Sum, but the only thing left in the steamer was 6 pieces of shrimp dumplings. We had to request from the nice waitress to refill the steamers. The cooks were inattentive, looked mad, and were on their smartphones the majority of the time. In the Japanese food section, the cook was eating lunch while rolling sushi, which our party found absolutely disgusting.
What happened to this restaurant? This was once the best restaurant buffet in Chesterfield area. Even the customer next to our table was complaining because there was nothing good in the middle section except a few leftover clams and over cooked bok choy. The only good thing there was the sweet and accommodating waitress and her twin sister. It’s just a shame that she felt she had to spend so much of her time apologizing for things that were beyond her control. It wasn’t her fault.
I’ve seen this restaurant when it’s busy and they used to be able to keep up with the customers. The restaurant was ¼ full during the Sunday lunch shift and they couldn’t put out any fresh food? Unacceptable.
BAD BAD BAD !!!

Absolutely awful. The food tasted like it had been sitting around for hours. Not one fresh item in the buffet of 100 choices.

I had a pretty bad experience a little over a week ago here. My boyfriend and I arrived just before lunch ended. The visit was fine up until the end. They put out crab legs and there was absolutely nothing to indicate it was a dinner item. As soon as I sat down with my four legs of crab, the waitress hurries over and rudely tells me they’re for dinner patrons only. I told her I didn’t see any signage and that I wouldn’t eat what I had. She refused to take my plate and said something along the lines of «Well, no more.» and proceeded to walk to the table behind us to yell at them too. We were supposed to pay her for the meal but headed to the front to pay the manager instead. She tried yelling at us to pay her. Extremely unprofessional. The manager apologized and gave us 10% off our bill. She said they need signage.
I won’t be going back. I don’t enjoy driving from South City to be chastised by a waitress for taking something from the buffet that had no indication of it being for dinner. The food was okay, nothing special. Lots of the same flavors. It was warm though.

Emperor palace was used to be good. Now the qualities is bad. I used to call this my happy place for shear assorment of good food. Eat at emperor at least once a month. The food is not cook new even in Sunday lunch. Steam fish is not soft but hard because of oversteaming.

It’s been awhile since I’ve reviewed a place on Unilocal,but I had such a bad experience here that I thought it was my duty to warn people off this place!
Firstly, the food… it just wasn’t good. It was quite… how shall I put this…‘meh.’ Quite bland really, very stale, everything tasted much the same and had obviously been sitting out too long. Also, their selection was quite uninspiring.
However, my main complaint was the service. My girlfriend and I went ages without our drinks being refilled. Also, when it came time to pay we chose to split the check. It should have been a simple request for the restaurant to manage. It was just the two of us and the only difference between our orders was that I had water and she had tea. Simple, right? Apparently it wasn’t so simple for our waitress. She let out a huge huff of disgust, said she’d have to get manager approval to do that, and stormed off.
Quite simply, I would not recommend this place to anyone.

Overall, the food is good and the selection is excellent. However, I have noticed that the quality of the food and the overall ambience of the restaurant is not nearly as good as it was 5 years ago, when I went here back in 2010.

Oh my. Last time we were here, it became my favorite Chinese Buffet in the area. This time, the place must have changed hands because the food was so terrible, I joked to my wife that on the way home we should swing by the hospital to have our stomachs pumped. None of the yummy stuff is on the menu any more and even the crab rangoon ran was terrible. The cream cheese mixture literally ran out of the thing like it was part fluid and the outside was still doughy.
Run screaming from this place… How sad. If it’s not closed by the end of Spring I’ll eat my laptop.

We used to come here a lot when I was in high school (ten years ago) and we loved it. I recently took my boyfriend here since we were in the valley and I kept raving to him about how it was my favorite place. Unfortunately, a lot has changed since I’ve last been here. While the spread was still vast and offered a wide selection appealing to many cultures– the food was definitely not as delicious. We came at a busy time so I can’t use the excuse that we just came at an off time to explain why things were so cold and left out for so long. After my experience with my boyfriend I wanted to give it another shot and came here with my mom a month later… We had the same lackluster experience. Neither of us could believe how bad the food has changed. Total waste of money now :(

What a disappointment. When this place first opened, I would make it a point of making trip here and telling my friends how good they were. I had no problem paying the 40 bucks at all because the food was just so good. Now, it’s just not the samw, the food was cold. Some of it wasn’t prepared correctly
The bathrooms were atrocious and it just seems like emperors palace has just had the sails knocked out of it. So sad to see.

Recently had dinner here and the food was stale. We arrived around 7:30 PM and they close at 9 PM. The buffet selection is okay but nothing special. The food quality is typical of the Chinese restaurant and nothing more.
The customer service and the staff were friendly and the men’s bathroom was clean. I don’t think I would be going back to this place.

What a gem! Our cousin told us that we must try this place out! I was a little hesitant since it is a buffet, and typically buffets are hit or miss. When we walked inside we were stunned by what we saw! It felt like we were at a Vegas buffet!
You can try it all… Japanese, Mongolian BBQ, Chinese, Dim Sum (YUM!), and of course American fried food. I have NEVER seen an Asian buffet this large!
My dad loved the frog legs, my brother tried chicken feet for the first time, I had my favorite… BBQ pork buns, and our daughter loved the Chocolate Fountain!
If you are fan of Chinese food in general, you will not be disappointed here!

Came back here with my sister, her boyfriend, and my son to show them just how WONDERFUL this place is! The food is ALWAYS OUTSTANDING and flavorful with a HUGE selection of items of this forever long buffet! Not to mention the sushi selection is fabulous!

I’m not going to go as far as saying this is the best Chinese or buffet place I’ve been to, but its definitely in my Top 3. I’ve been here a few times, mostly once or twice a year if I’m ever that far or when I go to Six Flags (I live in Glen Carbon). This place to me is definitely worth my drive for a great meal.
Overall, its the selection. There’s several items in eclectic fashion. Even their vegan/​tofu food is great too! Their stir-​fry, appetizers, plus they have a few items I can’t get anywhere else have done me great. The last time I was there (August ’14) they even had a performer do a dance routine on their stage! This was the first time I’ve ever seen such thing at a Chinese buffet place! It was great, by the way.
My only complaint is not enough items in the dessert area. But… you can’t have it all, right? I really don’t understand why several people are complaining about this place
(must be locals who can’t get enough, as if there isn’t anything better in the yuppie part of St. Louis County). I’d give anything to have a place like that near where I live! So what if its Americanized. Most Asian buffets are anyway. There was never an empty spot on the buffet whenever I was there.
Highly recommended!

This is one of my absolute favorite places to go. They have wonderful sushi wonderful stir fry great desserts and it’s really fun
One of the best things is it very authentic.

This place used to be great. That is no longer the case. Went last night after not having been in about a year, and couldn’t believe it.
1) 1 waitress who was outside smoking half the time.
2) Large empty gaps in buffet line where they used to have food (thus, variety).
3) Food that was out was either old, over cooked, or there was barely anything in the pan and it wasn’t being refilled.
4) Dessert area-​A handful of gelatinous looking pies, a pot a crappy melted chocolate, some marshmallows and some melon.
In short-​Awful. Couldn’t believe we were were charged $ 12 per person. We will never return. I should have left within the first 3 minutes and that’s my fault.

Décor was nice. Foodwise, not so good.
Truthfully I feel like the food was… americanized. A bit too americanized. It looked as though half the buffet was american food rather than chinese. So much garlic, fried, etc. I ended up appreciating the other buffet places I had experienced in my lifetime. And the ones that looked similar to the chinese food that I have grown accustomed to eating, barely was up to standard.
Sushi — just the usual california rolls, nothing special. Occasionally spicy mayo sauce on top, and other random stuff.
Chinese dim sum — I am not even sure that was chinese dim sum… the skin on those shumai seemed olden.
Hopefully I shall never go back.