California Buffet

Just drove by here yesterday, giant pile of dirt! The restaurant is no more :(.

Good one! But it closed. what happened?

I would have to say it’s an okay place to eat but there’s so many other asian buffets that this place is somewhat okay. Not a first choice place for me but the food is edible but the price is bleh compare to the portions you can shove down your mouth

It gets too crowded in special occasions. Unless you like to mingle. They have violation signs for not finishing your food. I think they make you wash dishes or cut your finger off (joke). Korean Beef and Japanese Sushi, and lots of steamed green veges.

My family and I always go here whenever we’re in town! =) I JUST LOVE THEIR JAPANESE SECTION… I can’t get enough of their sushi. They have a lot of different dishes from Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and American too. Somehow as the years go by, the dishes gets more bland and bland. It’s pricey, but it’s worth it at the end. Just try to go to the bathroom when your taking a break and eat again. =)
I miss going here, but after reading all these horrible reviews, I guess I’m not too thrill to go here anymore…=p

I like this buffet… yes its a lil pricey some may say… but i like it! MMMMcravin it totally.

Went here for a birthday and how can you go wrong with a Asian buffet, but in this case yes you can. The food was cold and there really isn’t that much selection in the little tiny pieces that they serve. I never been to a buffet where I didn’t really want to go back for seconds. I’d had better Asian buffet experiences, not a good idea to come back here.

This used to be the place to go for a good seafood buffet in the Asian community…
The last time I went there, I was NOT impressed. It didn’t look the way I remembered it. With the weird wooden beams, and one of the sides of the building burnt? Wtf? Haha.
It smells weird, service sucks. and I can’t even say the food stayed the same. The selection wasn’t all that big, and I’m usually not even a fan of big buffets.
All in all, the place has dug itself into a hole. =(

wow this place is not you typically would think of when you think of Asian buffet. It is quite clean n the seafood is very fresh. They have a lot of variety to choose from even if you are a vegetarian. The baked spicy mussels were quite tasty and the snow crab legs were full of meat. They also gave a lot of different types of soup. One that was real good was their pumpkin soup with tiny mochi bits inside which gives da soup sum gd texture.
They also have an udon bar where they cook made to order for you. Cuz what is worse than having mushy noodles? Hehe
I highly recommend you to fast for a day before going here because for 15.99 it really is ALL you can eat

Um yea, after some arguments, ended up here for dinner with my buddies…
As soon as we entered the half-​empty parking lot, I knew it was a bad sign for a Saturday night…
We walked into a horrid smelling restaurant… and I wanted to leave right away…
We were shown our table and went to get some food. I saw some «SASIMI»…not sure what that was… looked like chopped pieces of raw Tuna…
The sushi was pretty bad, their clam chowder was from the can obviously… Their Korean short ribs were super thin… wtf?
All their plates were like um 25% filled compared to their serving plates… kinda weird.
The place is extremely tacky… won’t ever go again…
Please see the pics that I posted…
Dinner buffet is $ 15.99/person on weekends…

Um, I wouldn’t send someone here unless they were absolutely determined to be unsatisfied with their dinner.
The atmosphere is rather strange considering the place doesn’t have any windows. Our table was quite dirty and the staff seemed that they couldn’t care less if we ate there or not.
The selection of food was OK. I must admit, the Korean spare ribs were quite yummy. Otherwise not impressed. At all.

I agree with all the reviewers here. It’s really disappointing how this place went tragically downhill, since it USED to be «da bomb» (term used back when this place was «in»).
Though the exterior was exactly as how I remembered it, the interior had dramatically changed — unfortunately for the worse. The décor used to be unique and comforting, but now it had transformed into all the other typical Asian buffets (crowded tables and tacky neon lights across the walls).
My big «WTF?!» moment was when I reached over to pick up a plate and noticed remains of rice and chow mein still on it! WTF?! As noticeable as it was, they did nothing about it!
The food looked so unappealing and was obviously made with the poorest quality of ingredients. Sooooo not worth my $ 12 (lunch).
8 years ago, this was THE place to be… now it’s THE place to stay far, FAR away from. How sad.

this place used to be good when i was a little girl. i used to love going there for the chinese menu and the sushi.
over the years, the korean bbq (galbi) has declined in taste and in size. i swear they’re the thinest bbq i’ve ever seen before.
everything seems to taste too dry, or too saucy. never a good balance. the sushi rice is dry and hardly seasoned the way it’s supposed to be.
the only GOOD thing there is the fruit, but you can’t go wrong with fruit.
it’s too bad hella koreans have their wedding receptions there, i feel sorry for the guests.
the price is not worth it.

This place used to be a lot better. The quality of their food has declined over the past 10 years or so. My dad used to love coming here, but now they don’t serve anything to make it worth going, let alone forking out $ 25 each.
I don’t really have anything to say that hasn’t been said already, but I will echo, do not come here!

Why can’t I give 0?
The place itself is clean and the people were okay, friendly. Slow to refill drinks, quick to clear plates (and not refill cokes).
The thing is — it started okay. I went down the line, put a little something of each on. Then it was done. I was at the sushi, and that was all there was.
At least Crazy Buffet has crab rangoon. This place, nothing. Even the vegetables tasted funny.
And if you like BUTTER FOR YOUR CRAB LEGS, TOO BAD AS THEY DON’T GIVE BUTTER TO YOU. PERIOD.
And do you like cocktail sauce? TOO BAD, THEY ONLY HAVE KETCHUP.
What a horrible place.

It was good until I found a HAIR in my food!
I called over the waitress — which took some time (more like wait too long) — and showed her. She told me it was mine — IM BLONDE!!! The hair was BLACK!!! (I was my boyfirned who was blonde as well) She kept insisting that the chefs all where hair nets so it couldn’t be theres — yet there was a man making food who clearly did not have one on.
I refused to pay and told my BF I wanted to leave. They still made my boyfriend pay for his!
Oh, and we got here a little bit before it opened, and the food had been sitting out (for who knows how long). Who brings food out before customers are even set to arrive? Especially RAW FISH?

My husband went here last night. It was an unfortunate situation for everyone, as the hosts had invited him and his parents out to «buy them dinner», and they were taken to a buffet. Need I go on?
He had a few things to say (ok, he had a 45 minute rant, and below are the pearls of wisdom that I collected at 11pm last night) :
1) Edemame is fresh and good– take advantage of it!
2) don’t eat ANY of the meat products– that means shellfish, sushi, meat, flesh– This is Buffet Eating 101 advice, but I thought I’d mention it again because he did
3) service was good, in the buffet-​service sense that water glasses were filled and empty dishes were cleared quickly
3) you essentially get what you pay for here– it’s a buffet, after all– I think he used «not very fresh» about 5 times
3) There’s no free lunch and there’s definitely NO FREE dinners
I will never eat here and form my own opinion because he’s dead set against ever setting foot in the place.

This is a place that is on its last legs. I wouldn’t be surprised if the night I went with my family was considered a «busy night» for them. Back in the good old days of the tech boom in Silicon Valley this place was better off. The prices were higher back then but people were able to afford it. Somewhere in-​between 2000 — 2002 this place started its slow decline. In its golden years this place was absolutely bustling with patrons, and it’s no surprise why: they had better (I won’t say high) quality food then other buffets. I mean seriously way back when they had (and still do… sorta) a huge variety of sushi ranging from octopus to mackerel. Back then I believe they also had more than one choice of sashimi (now only barely thawed tuna is served), fish roe, and they also served lobster albeit in the cheese sauce that most buffets cover their seafood in, but it was lobster!
The last time I went before yesterday was probably a few years ago. I finally remembered why my family and I stopped going here for so long: This buffet drove off the quality cliff and the remains were never found. They implemented of course the infamous «DON’T WASTE FOOD» policy which is understandable, but now it feels so much easier to waste food just because it’s gotten so crappy. Lobster at first was replaced by large prawns, and now those prawns have been replaced by mussels. Instead of learning to adapt and evolve like other buffets this place is stuck in the late 90’s — early 00’s and has kept the same stuff, but the «same stuff» has declined in quality. I also think that the heating lamps and metal trays here are just for show because the food can reach ridiculously lukewarm (almost cold) temperatures.
All in all, thanks for the memories, but I wouldn’t recommend this buffet unless you had a time machine.

Once upon a time, there was a grand building that was home to a rather fancy buffet with some rather good sushi (for a buffet anyhow) and lots of wholesome Korean food including good galbi and other side dishes, appetizers and entrees. Unlimited. Pig-​out-​time. In fact, many Korean dinner parties were held here, as well as engagement parties, and receptions. It was a rather cheapo way of feeding your guests good food while renting out a location that looked halfway decent.
Not so much anymore.
They redid the interior, which I saw on my last visit to this place, which was about a year ago. But the food quality sucks.
Nothing tastes good.
Nothing even LOOKS good.
The sushi, if you can even call it that, it withered. I’ve seen better lookin’ sushi in Safeway aisles.
Even the fruit looks shabby.
If you are wanting a Korean buffet for the unlimited meat, drive 7 more minutes and head to Palace BBQ here:
If it’s unlimited sushi you are wanting — go to any Todai and have a feast.
They also serve galbi at many, if not all, Todai locations so you can kill two birds with one stone that way. It costs more, sure — but believe me, spending even 5 bucks to eat at what California Buffet is now is a huge waste. Take your 5 bucks to In N Out and grab a good Double Double with Cheese, take it home with some change leftover and call it a day.
Never again will I eat here unless something drastically changes and it is confirmed by at least 12 Unilocalers!

Ever since we were little, we’ve been dragged to numerous buffets because not to be mean, chinese people LOVE to eat buffets. Um. let me rephrase that. OLDER chinese people LOVE to eat buffets. and poor kids like us have to go with them… lol!
With that being said, I’ve been to California Buffet many many times and I still remember this place from I was little. It used to be the ultimate buffet and had a huge selection but I think over the years in order to compete with the cheap asian buffet prices, they’ve cut down on the variety of food offered in order to reduce their prices.
They still make the best Kalbi at a buffet and it’s purty kewl to have unlimited udon!