Royal Bamboo Buffet

DON’T do it! My parents wanted to try this place, as it recently changed owners. We should have known better when we walked in and saw the the koi pond had skunky water and the place was virtually empty. Bad food, cold food, hello salmonella.

That’s it! I am done with Chinese buffets! Done, I tells ya! I’ve been coming here since it was Emperor’s Wok, and even though my now sophisticated palate has much disdain for Chinese buffets, I hate to see a place like this crumble.
My mom and I walk in and we see that virtually nothing has changed from the transition. The once gorgeous décor is now simply tacky and uninspiring. Same old crimson red chairs, matched up against a peach and green colored wall… ergh. OH, and let’s not forget the Kiyomizu-​dera or japanese temple at the corner of the restaurant. The more I see it, the more I realize it has no functional value, only to sit families with whiny kids that want to sit «there, the big thing with the Christmas lights on them.» YES! This huge temple is still furnished with Christmas lights. Total fashion fail.
As the sign says, dinner starts at 4pm. We were there around 6:30pm. However, the food has been sitting out for hours, almost as if they were transitioning from lunch to dinner and whoever came in between got the leftovers. All of the main (fried) traditional Chinese foods were dry, cold, and old– with the exception of the sugar rolls, but that doesn’t say much. It doesn’t take a world renown chef to fry up Pillsbury biscuit rolls and douse sugar on them. Yes, that’s exactly how you make them. Stuffed mushrooms were black and drenched in oil/​water; the «pizza» wasn’t even a bad pizza it was dough, cheese and ketchup… that’s not a pizza; fried rice was embarrassing– too dark, no flavor; the mexican egg rolls are a joke– you don’t make mexican rolls with lumpia (wonton) wrappers. I really could go on, but you can get how dissatisfied I was. I didn’t expect the sushi to be good from a Chinese buffet, but I expect them to be at least fresh. Sushi was falling apart and the avocados were brown.
Dessert? Unlike before, their dessert table was expansive and included a soft serve machine. Now, it is limited and serves hard ice cream with 5 flavors. it too was old as I can taste the ice on the ice cream. They had the basic toppings but the whipped cream can was in the smoking section of the restaurant… and replaced by croutons? Okaayy!
I was not pleased by this. Never again, Royal Bamboo, or any Chinese buffet place!

Eek! I went here Saturday after watching a movie across the street and it was horrible food. I couldn’t figure out if they just suck on Saturdays or they got a new cook. I went here a few weeks ago on the weekend and it was bad then too.
1) They didn’t have Spring Rolls which I am addicted to.
2) They had grilled octopus which really was freaky looking. No joke I put one on my plate just to scare my date! I am just not so sure about this place. It still is super clean, decent service for only having to fetch me a drink, and nice restaurant.