Lai Lai Chinese

The best Chinese Buffet in the area. They also offer a sushi menu which we ordered from this last visit. BEAUTIFUL presentation! We had the Cherry Blossom roll and salmon roll (name?) Fresh and attractive — the high point of our meal.
Buffet is above average — my favorite is the creamy shrimp. Not usually any changes to the offerings but there’s plenty to pick from. The dumplings weren’t as good as usual — somewhat dried out and the hoisin was extremely vinegary. The spring rolls are good. The salad and dessert portion has a nice selection. If you’re a hot tea drinker, order the oolong — very nice.
Our waitress this time left a little wanting in the service department. Not horrible but not extremely friendly or attentive, and hard to catch her eye. I asked for «not sweet» tea and my husband asked for half-​half tea. They both tasted the same to me — sweet. I thought she was having a little trouble understanding what we wanted (no she wasn’t Chinese).

I don’t know why the negative reviews. The food here is first class, service is great by friendly employees. Went twice in the last two weeks and it’s a 24 mile drive for me. My wife is Chinese and raves about this place. Give it a try, you will not be disappointed.

staff is rude doesn’t smile. And who the heck closes a Chinese restaurant at 230 in the afternoon? Seriously? DO NOT GO HERE. plus food isn’t that good.

We don’t do buffet, and the server seemed a little miffed at first when we asked for the menu. She actually gave us a stained, creased printed-​on-​copy-​paper menu out of her pocket (one to share), along with a more presentable-​looking sushi menu… but the restaurant looked so nice inside and out, and there was nice music playing and good smells coming from the buffet. Even our server was great by the end. More importantly, the food was great. My fiancé and I shared an order of veggie fried rice which was fantastic (and a plentiful portion). We also had a great salmon roll and a bowl of hot, delicious miso soup. It was an inexpensive meal and the perfect summer lunch with great ambiance. Obviously they’re more of a buffet place… but we were very impressed overall!

This place is the bomb. If you want great Chinese food this is the place. This is as far as you can go with Chinese food without expecting PF Chang’s. That being said, they just started serving Sushi! Not buffet Sushi, I mean made to order Sushi. Like most every Sushi restaurant their Sushi is pricey but definitely cheaper than driving all the way to Springfield to get some. I sampled about 6 different Sushi rolls and they were all good except for the California roll which was obviously frozen and had just been thawed. Their buffet is amazing and because they are so busy is constantly being changed out. I’ve never had to worry about food that had been left on the buffet for a long time. About 1 year ago they moved to a new building next to Wal-​Mart and I’ll have to say it was a MARKED improvement. The building is new and the inside is just gorgeous. The inside will remind you of a brighter PF Chang’s actually. The staff is friendly and the food is good! What else do you want?

Lai Lai’s is a pretty good place to get some Chinese in Monett. It is buffet style and they also do take out by weight. I have eaten here a couple times and the new location seems to have better food then when it was at the storefront location. Décor is nice and promotes a good atmosphere.