Garden Buffet

Oh, Garden Buffet. How the mighty have fallen…
I used to really like this place when it opened about 12 or so years ago. I’m pretty sure it was called the Bamboo buffet or something along those lines. My family and I would frequently come here while on a trip to the movies (when the Alamo Drafthouse was Market Place 12) and it was always consistently good. Nothing really worth raving about, but good.
Then something seemed to change once it’s name was changed to Garden Buffet. I have no idea what it exactly was, but the quality of the food slowly began to drop. It wasn’t BAD, but it just wasn’t AS good as it used to be. Unfortunately, the quality only began to drop more and more. The food just doesn’t taste «right» to me anymore (well as right as a typical Chinese buffet can taste). The sweet and sour chicken is so tough and dry, and the soups are just bland.
It’s a shame, because this really used to be a decent little buffet that my family and I would frequent. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone, purely because the quality just isn’t the same anymore.

Great selection. Seems clean. Its a buffet. Just eat people…. …

This place was horrible
Cold food, rude staff.
Save your money!
I recommend chopsticks in San Antonio

I saw the 1.5 star rating but since I’m now living in New Braunfels, I wanted to experience this for myself, fully aware that if I eat bad food, I could be prescribing myself many trips to the little boy’s room.
It’s a bit over 8 bucks for the buffet without drink so that’s not bad. The place is pretty clean and the food was pretty well stocked. The staff wasn’t pleasant but they weren’t rude either — pretty much just being robots doing their jobs it seemed. They weren’t there to please anyone for sure.
I got there around 11:30 so for sure I’m probably getting the freshly stocked food with maybe one round of refills on the buffet table. I started with their salad. Very crisp and green. No wilted lettuce or anything. So far so good.
I then moved onto the food. I’m not going to dare eat seafood on my first trip to a badly rated place so I skipped over the muscles, fish, etc… I tried the sweet and sour soup, general tso’s chicken, japanese chicken, Mongolian pork, green beans, something called Hindu chicken (which looked like chicken and broccoli w/​jalapenos in it), pot stickers and finally some fried rice.
Soup was meh… It was overwhelming spiced with black pepper. I could almost not even taste anything else. I had only a little bit and moved on to the plate. Pot stickers were pan fried it looked like and they were cold but tasty and the sauce was good. The general tso’s chicken was soggy and nasty. The taste was way too sweet. I took a bit of one piece and moved on. Then here’s the rest of the dishes. The pork tasted like chicken. The chicken tasted like chicken. The dishes all tasted the same and were quite bland. Every once in a while I would have a jalapeño and feel some heat and have a bit of taste, but that was about it. The fried rice had a kind of funk to it, certainly not very good.
Oh and they did have pizza there too. It was hilarious. It looked like those kid’s one serving pizzas by Totino’s that I used to eat as a kid, but these were all sliced up into small pieces. I can understand that they have to have it for the kids, but jeez, this was like the worst looking thing this side of the equator.
Their music was horrible elevator music and it was too loud. I found it annoying. They had some daytime judge shows on TV too, but either the TV or the signal coming to the TV was all busted and there were horrible vertical lines all up and down the TV. The reason I bring this up is that this is a business place where the public come to eat. If the owners don’t care enough to have things running in proper order for their customers, what can we expect from their food? Cost cutting signs are all over the buffet tables as well, which is a huge turn off to me. If they need to save money, and publicly state that, then they are cost cutting on the quality of meats, ingredients, etc…
I wanted to wait a few hours after eating there to see how my stomach felt after eating. I have a pretty good stomach. I can eat pretty much anything and not get food poisoning. Here I am just a bit under 2 hours after eating and my stomach isn’t feeling great and I’ve already made one trip to the restroom and the noises and feelings I’m getting from my stomach are loud and uncomfortable!
I would not go here again based upon this experience. The reviews are accurate.

Alright here this place sucks the dang ladies couldn’t be understanding my son asked for a soup not a buffet and I guess after he went and got a ice cream and when we went to pay they made us pay full price for a ice cream then they started arguing with us about the price and we had to pay full price for a freaking ice cream I mean come on I have 3 kids and the ladies couldn’t be understanding I know it is not right cause I said I was getting just egg drop soup but couldn’t they make us pay full price for just a ice cream I’m sure I would of had to pay extra for the ice cream but I would never expect to pay full price anyways hopes this gets fixed soon other wise I’m never coming here again

Ok they are somewhere between 3 & 4 stars for me. Today was my first time to try them out. I have always heard from locals good things and decided i was hungry enough for buffet today. Being within a mile from Golden Coral they have some competition. Deciding which food was spicy vs not and the temp & taste of the food could have been a little better but incredibly affordable for a lunch buffet and MANY options. Their fresh fruit and dessert as well as their back grill made up for my mistake of trying something extra spicy without my intentional choice to do so. Labeling spicy vs not would be nice but my second go around i just asked the waitress. Nice staff. Great location. Honey Baked Ham is next door. Unsure who will win out next time.

It has been several years since we have gone to this establishment. We did not go for a long time because the food was not good the last time. We tried it again today and it proved to be poor again. We live in New Braunfels but will not go again.

My wife and I ate there yesterday. Most of the buffet food was cold. The stir fry selection of veggies were not refilled. The sauces were not labeled so I had no idea what I was getting. The meat selection was just beef and chicken. What about the seafood? More Veggies? The buffet food looked like it had been sitting there all day. Even the pizza looks like it had been there for over 3 days or something! Then to make matters worse, I’ve made several trips to the restroom ever since then. Never again will we go there.

The food looked appetizing on the buffet but the flavor was absent! The only thing I liked was the spare ribs. Would not go back.

This place sucks! The red spare ribs were ice cold, fried rice was old and stale and looked like they threw some frozen veggies in it, just an flavorful mess. Pepper chicken was good, Mongolian grill unstocked, just chicken or beef, Chinese cabbage only had throw away cabbage, no leaflets. Dirty, sauces were not labled correctly.. waste of money. Then they have big signs warning against wasting food, well if it tasted good, folks wouldn’t be throwing away sooo much of it, duhh!
Food is not worthy of being called Chinese. The bitter hostess threw our utensils on the table, just rude. Had to ask for moisture on my glass of ice.
If nothing is open and Wal-​Mart is closed, eat at home. Oh, they have good ice cream.

I ate the stuffed mushrooms then when i returned to the buffet where the employee, who was cleaning the steam pans under the entrees, poured the actual drip pan water in to the mushroom pan!!! I was right there watching exactly what she did and was astounded. We did not eat anything else and left immediately. We will never go back there!

The awkward part was walking into the restaurant and being greeted by a giant fan before being greeted by the hostess. We almost walked out because we thought the a/​c was off.
The only good thing about this restaurant was most of the food. I haven’t been here since my freshman year of college and it was ok then. I can see with a name and restaurant design change that the food and service really haven’t changed much. The egg rolls tasted rancid, and my bf got a delicious looking piece of chocolate cake which turned out to be dry. Other than that the food was ok, a little bland. Wish I had chosen Alamo Drafthouse next door.
The service was not so good. We saw our waitress maybe twice. I wish I could say there has been improvement in the 7 – 8 years since I’ve been here, but I don’t see much improvement other than cosmetic change.

The pits. Go to A-​Tan! That place rocks and it is here in town!

The food: Got seated super fast and saw plenty of food selection. Sushi bar had a lot of different rolls with some octopus, tuna, egg. It was nice to see some variety here. Mongolian BBQ that can be cooked to order (didn’t try because we were so full from the regular dishes). Got seated super fast. Some dishes were too salty: egg roll, fried zucchini and stuffed mushrooms stood out as mega salty. Rice noodles were gross oily and with a spec of fried scrambled eggs — just plain boring. We tried so many things and no one complained the good was bad, it is just not the greatest. It certainly does not taste «Chinese». It’s more of a combination of dishes most people like and then blandified. There are 4 serving stations with a huge variety so I suggest you grab one tiny piece of each. Dessert table was nothing to write home about. Cakes included chocolate, yellow, white and something that probably attempted to be carrot all with white icing that looked like a 5 year old decorated them. Several trays of cubed jello, fruit, ice cream, some cookies with almond on top (these were tasty)
The weird: hostess walks you to your table, and before you even get seated she asks you what do you want to drink. Ummmm can you gimme a second! And don’t expect them to come back to check to see if you’re low on your beverages. They won’t ask at all. Even after coming to pick up the number of used plates. So just raise your hand and ask for more… Good luck finding a server that makes eye contact with you.
The downright ugly: the women’s restroom handicap stall has a HUGE leak on the flusher thingamageegie. I mean, it’s a cascade every time you flush. The leak must be so old that there’s a «caution — wet» yellow sandwich sign inside the stall by the toilet. Like you couldn’t see the water. You know the ones used when mopping. Then there’s a puddle of water and water marks on the floor from when the water evaporates. Thankfully there’s a drain hole right next to it. How convenient — riiiiight? There was no toilet paper in the other stalls. Our luck, I’m sure it never happens.
Final verdict. We aren’t coming back. We were fed and that was it. Nothing memorable and certainly I don’t want to deal with the waterfall toilet again or double extra salty food.
If you crave Chinese food then go to China King on Hwy 46 W.

I have been here many times because is a buffet. The quality seems to some how always be worse. I actually had to go inside the kitchen once. for reasons I can’t get in to I had to its was work related. I will never return. What I saw in there would turn your hair white. I worked in restaurants for 5 years. I have never seen such filth. I will not eat here again. This place changes is name every few years and says new owner, guess what, that’s not true. It’s the same owner. Do your self a favor and don’t eat here.

Mid quality all around.
The makizushi (sushi rolls) on offer are terrible. Just skip that.
Not enough chicken or beef offerings that aren’t breaded. It’s an inherently unhealthy joint.
The lunch price is okay, especially considering they’ve got no comparable competition in town.

Horrible, salty, salty, and very salty food. Don’t know why i ended up here today but its not worth the pain on your blood pressure. Why do these people oversalt everything?
Not great, but my stand by for Chinese food. Don’t come between 130 – 330 as food is not fresh; best times to come at 11 – 12 when they first open and right after 330 pm when the night buffet comes out. My favorite items: hot and soup soup, fried chicken wings, Japan Chicken, Hindi chicken, fried zucchini, the salmon (when Fresh), any of the desserts, and fresh fruit bar.
STAY AWAY FROM THE SUSHI. Unlike the fresh sushi at the Grand Buffet in Seguin, this place’s sushi always seems sticky and there is a smell of fish. This sushi is never fresh.
This is not my standby place anymore I just don’t see any reason to come here. I wanted to try Pei wei, have never been there before.

The food is bland and it seems that most of the obese people of New Braunfels eat here … The food though is hot and is always full the staff is awkward at best they seem to know little English … my wife and child like the place but I can see now why I stopped coming here almost 2 years ago, so much for a second chance …

Do not eat here!!!
We ate here tonight. For dessert, I had two crepes. When I bit into one, it was filled with mold. All the manager did was blame it on the delivery driver (I think) and only gave us 10% off our meal. We will never eat here again.

Wow. Most people give this place a bad review, BUT this is a regular place for me!
Let’s get the cons out of the way: it’s huge, so it gets busy! Very Busy! The only food items That need some work are the cheese wantons– they can be a little rubbery occasionally.
The Pros: (and there are plenty) location– right by movies, Hastings, pet store, jewelry store. It’s huge– I think I’ve seen wedding parties there. Clean.
Food: SUSHI! mongolian grill. Cheese cake. And. On weekends coconut shrimp is insane. I’ve never had a bad waitstaff experience.
Chinese. Buffet.