Master Buffet

This will be the last time…
I have had numerous bad experiences at places, mostly based on service and not so much food quality. Aside from seeing a monthly post about people finding a tooth in their sushi, a wax worm larva in the rice, a dead bug in the sugar holder (which actually happened to my parents) today’s experience left me very uncomfortable and uneasy.
We were running short on time before my son had to be at preschool (we live in town) and aside from fast food there are not alot of choices to have a ‘quick’ bite to eat. I am also 6 months pregnant so that factors in heavily to food choices. Anyways, we usually get the build your own stir fry from the grill area as I like alot of vegetables and spice with a little meat. The zucchini bin was one of the first choices and I notices a few different stages of mold that was growing on the outside yet they sliced up and served anyways. The spots were not small, they were definately bigger than a half dollar. There was nobody around to even grill my food, so I had to go hunt down the owner (whom is usually almost there) and tell her «hey you have some moldy vegetables» She yelled at some man to come switch out the zucchini and then stood behind me and yelled at the other waitress (probably about me or the staff or whoever, in her native language) and made me feel weird for saying something.
Then the grill guy comes back with a new wrapped pan of zucchini, throws it down in front of me and unveils it, like «here you go complainer» and when I went to go and pick from that new batch I noticed even more mold growing on it from the last pan he was angrily whacking against the garbage can. I said to him «hey man there’s more mold in this one» he replied «so sorry, you don’t want?» At this point in time I just turned around and hollered for my boyfriend to try to explain to him what was going on. I tried turning our backs to the chef because I wanted some privacy but then the owner walked past and stopped and just starred at us. Then I told my boyfriend to come over to the corner so I could just speak to him on what am I supposed to do, and she followed us, I said «excuse me I’d like to talk to him alone please» and then she continued on with her yelling at the chef and they did not remove that batch of zucchinis.
At this point in time we should have probably left but my boyfriend and son had already gotten full plates of food and fearful of them making us pay we decided to stay. I had my order cooked without zucchini, and maybe I am being paranoid but everytime I ate green pepper I could have sworn I tasted mold off the pepper as well. Which completely made me lose my appetite and i stopped eating.
The other thing that completely bothered me about our experience was the senior couple sitting across from our booth.
A group a young black girls came in and this old couple just eye raped them from head to toe as they walked by and then continued to talk about their «appearance» the entire time we were there up until we left. They had their heads turned the entire time and focused little on their food and continued to make foul and disgusted faces at these women. They had nothing better to do than racially comment on those girls the entire time we were there about their smell, habits, how many must live in their house, blah blah blah. It was just sickening. I’m well aware of the racial intolerance that exists in my area but I for the life of me can’t understand why you think it was acceptable to trash those young women. As I got up to get my son ice cream, I walked by the girl’s table and they all had just gotten their food and we’re praying. PRAYING! All had black pants and two of them button down shirts. Really? REALLY?! Racisim, in a chinese resturant. Classic. They were dressed like they just got done from church and this bitter old couple with matching tye dye howling wolves t shirts and greasy hair were picking on them. Absolutely made my blood boil. I did everything I could to just contain myself and not get worked up because I’m pregnant.
I really hated the food here and pregnant, left half of my plate uneaten and sat there with my water waiting for my boyfriend and son to finish their food. After the multiple shutdowns and name changes this one place has had, we had the personal experience that will keep us from coming back.
If you’re going there today, please keep in mind they did NOT change the zucchinis and check your skin tone at the door for fear of persecution of other customers in this great year of 2016, it’s still alive and well.

THIS PLACE IS DISGUSTING
Came here with my family for dinner and most of the food looked like it had been sitting out for days. The rice and noodles were dried up, there was NO SUSHI left, and the hot and sour soup tasted like cleaning detergent. ¹⁄₃ of the dishes were empty, and the servers seemed annoyed when you asked them to bring out more food to refill the dishes.
The bowls and plates were dirty, and the newly washed bowls they brought out even had soap sitting in them. The servers were also really rude and disrespectful — my mother asked for some more crab legs, and every time they brought our more crab legs, they were stingy and only brought out 6 – 8 crab legs at a time, not even enough to fill an entire plate. When my mother asked the 3^rd time, they told us that we were NOT ALLOWED to eat anymore crab legs!
I did not realize that buffets contained LIMITS ON HOW MUCH YOU CAN EAT. Do NOT come here! its a waste of your money, and you are likely going to leave with diarrhea.

Master Buffet is just off the Interstate Highway, and a bargain for lunch on a weekday under $ 7 per person. There is a wide selection of food on four buffet stations plus the Mongolian grill at the back. Diners should not have any complaints about finding something to eat.
The venue is a freestanding store, with lots of parking outside, visible through large windows. There are many booths, and then cleaning staff does a good job.
The Chinese food leans towards American favourites, with a few surprises (e.g. sesame balls for dessert). The luncheon price could be justified on the desserts alone.
The quality of the food was good, although it would obviously be better if cooked to order rather than on a warming table. Service was efficient, by a large staff of Chinese women.

I thought the food was just fine. The service has been quick and reliable when i have gone here. Just what i would expect for a ”buffet type” restaurant.

Food looks like its been under heat lamps for months. It was cold to the touch, someone is going to get sick. Nasty, would never eat again. As soon as I ate a bite of beef that was room temp off the buffet we just walked out after telling them that’s illegal and informed them of proper temps.

I came here for lunch with a few older Caucasian friends of my aunt and they have been to this place a few times before. I am Asian so I am exposed to delicious Asian food and buffets all my life. When I ate at the buffet here, boy, I felt like I was gaining five pounds after every plate. Everything was very oily and greasy.
Their selections are about 3 rows of stir fried/​fried stuff, sushi, Mongolian noodles (where you pick with you want in your noodles and they will immediately fry it up for you on a large flat pan), and 2 rows of fruits and desserts. They also have 8 selections of ice cream flavors!
Some of the stuff were a bit dried/​overcooked — like the wontons I got were super dried that I couldn’t finish eating it. My favorite would be the stir fried veggies that they offered. Granted that it was oily and probably wasn’t as healthy as I wanted and who goes to a buffet to just eat veggies?
Sushi has about 10 different selections but most of them are cooked stuff so you won’t have to risk nonfresh fish. They did have raw salmon but the color didn’t look to fresh so I avoided it.

This place was a little bit better than House of Hunan which is in downtown Peru. This restaurant was very nicely decorated, very clean and very close to our hotel. It is a very American Chinese buffet, but the food was good. Slightly more choices than at H. of Hunan. Much more enjoyable experience. If you go to Peru and want buffet, I definitely recommend Master Buffet over House of Hunan.

I like coming here. The people are very friendly and the service is good. They always keep your drinks refilled but sometimes they bring the check a little bit early. Don’t go too late because then the food is old and they don’t bring out new food when they are going to close in a half an hour. They remodeled the place and are now calling it Master Buffet but it is still most of the same people working there. They have a large selection of food and my only issue is that they charge more on Sunday and for dinner because of crab but I don’t agree with that because I never get crab legs because they are too messy for me. I think you should get the option of paying a little less if you don’t get certain stuff but I guess you can’t do that. Other than that I have no problems with the place and I probably come here once every week or every two weeks.

This place has the largest Chinese buffet in the Illinois Valley. However, the food is not the greatest, and I always end up, how do I say, needing the necessary room within an hour of eating here. House of Hunan is a better choice for local Chinese.

This place is particularly foul, even for a chinese restaurant. Mostly the customers come here for a the buffet. Well, if you like your food old, hardened by heat lamps even mold found on some items, then this is your place. The booths are sticky and the food is gross. You get what you for in this life and in the Illinois Valley, they love it cheap and easy. Did I mention they don’t seem to clean?
What a disaster of epic proportions. Who would ever eat sushi from a chinese buffet? They use spaghetti noodles in their lo mein. They serve such a large variety of food items, that it’s difficult to describe the overwhelming disgust.
Gosh, I’m grossed out just writing this review.

This is a buffet of Americanized Chinese food to appeal to the Midwestern masses – haute, authentic cuisine this is not. To expect anything more is to be greatly disappointed.
With that said, my friend and I have been regulars here since they opened. The selection always has something for everyone, but the real advantage is the Mongolian stir fry station. If you want fresh hot food, do like we do and go there first. Load up a plate of meat, vegetables, and noodles to your liking and pick a sauce; the cook will prepare it on the flat top grill right there. The sushi, while average buffet-​quality, is also worth a look and the selection has been improved upon over the years. Again, this is not top quality sushi, but if you’re not picky and enjoy sushi, you should be able to find something to your taste.
Their waitstaff has always been very nice and friendly. The lady at the register, on the other hand, seems to hate her job and pretty much always has for as long as I can remember. Since you only pay her, though, it’s definitely not a reflection of their service if you dine at the restaurant. She’s likely the one who takes phoned in orders, too, so just beware of that ahead of time and don’t take it personally.
I think the price is very reasonable, even at dinner time, considering you can also get crab legs if you so desire (I don’t). Even then, they regularly offer coupons in the newspaper inserts (typically 10% off and commonly in blocks of 3 – 4 at a time), so keep an eye out for them.