China Buffet

I’m giving it a one star, but rather give them a zero star for the worst buffet I’ve ever been too… the food was not hot, not fresh, and was not even tasty. The service was horrible too! Don’t come here unless you are really desperate for a meal. Off of Fowler have a lot of tasty restaurants, just go there instead.

The variety is nice, taste ok. Always eat too much and complain. But always go back. Chicken wings, crab legs, pork all good. Soup good. Not very clean, but its okay.

Walking in I felt like the front desk was shocked that I stopped to be seated, she yells out to a server for a seat for one. Upon my arrival the place seems dark and dingy, with mold covered tiles that scattered the ceiling that accompanied the out of place chandeliers. Let’s just say I am not impressed.
The server was nice. He showed me to my seat, dried off the table, and got my beverage. He was kind, curious, and efficient.
I went to the buffet to check out the selections. I was impressed to see peel and eat shrimp, raw oysters, craw fish, sushi rolls, large assortment of typical Chinese cuisine. I dabbled a bit on the seafood section. The shrimp were definitely old, due to their mushy texture, I was glad that I did not go after any of the raw seafood selections.
I ventured along to the hibachi table, this is where I should have stayed. You can see the freshness of the product prior to the chef cooking your plate, there is not a huge selection of items to choose from, but at least I knew what I was picking to eat.
Then the salad bar, not your typical salad bar. But it was not the worst part of my experience here. Crab salad, pasta salad, tomato salad, fresh cucumbers, and some other unusual salad choices. But I was surprised that there was not your typical salad toppings such as mushrooms, cheese, croutons, or seeds. But they did have a good selection of dressings.
I walked by the sushi table but I did not try any of the sushi due to my disappointment with the shrimp, I did not want to take any chances getting food poisoning. (I’m pregnant).
The other two tables are your Chinese dishes. Nothing was labeled, very frustrating to choose items to dress your plate. I decided to go small in my servings just in case I didn’t like it, I didn’t feel like I was wasting food.
I did not like anything that I tried. Either it was a bad flavor, bad texture, over cooked, over seasoned, under seasoned. It did not matter what I tried, nothing satisfied my palette. The only thing I had seconds of was the sweet tea! I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone.

We found a hair in our food and the owner said that «its just a hair and we already change the food» horrible customer service from the owner! Will not return!

I really wanted to love the place because it was affordable but I just couldn’t. The food was obviously reheated & most of the chicken were dry & hard to eat. I only enjoyed 3 things: steamed bun, coffee/​dark chocolate mousse cake & the ice cream. I ate my money’s worth on those 3 items.

Love the food. My favorites are chicken wings, shrimp, oysters (not raw), and crayfish. I haven’t tried all the dish but the ones that I tried were very delicious. The price is very cheap ($ 7) for weekday lunch. This place is always full and I can see why. I am coming back here again.

China Buffet used to be a great place when they started the service in the late 90s. However, they ruined everything. Food is now just nasty, cheap, awful taste. Don’t waste your money. There is nothing good I can think of CB now.

The food was nasty as hell. I’ll never come back to this shit hole of a buffet. I went against my judgement and tried it. Walking in a customer was yelling the food was nasty. I should of turned around then.

Awful, like, so bad.
I was here with a huge group for a family reunion, and there were a few things immediately wrong: there was very limited air conditioning, the tables weren’t set and the buffet items looked like they’d already been out (and barely touched) for a while.
I tried quite a few of the foods in search of something moderately edible, and was disappointed. My mom ordered a coffee and it was not drinkable; she said it tasted mostly like tea.
AVOID.

Well years Ago this place wasn’t so bad, but walking in it smelled like urine! the place needs some remodeling, carpets, walls, bathrooms everything!, the food isn’t so bad they have hot crab, lots of options. Bit the atmosphere Makes it hard to enjoy your meal!

place went down, its a dump now.

Chinese Buffets have become hard to come by in my homeland of Pinellas County so when I found myself after spending a day at the BARF Ren Faire in Tampa, on Fowler Avenue looking for vittles, I whipped the olé truck into this China Buffet.
At first the clientele outside seemed a bit dubious to be honest (many people just hanging outside by the front door) but once inside the atmosphere was pleasant and it became instantaneously obvious that there would be a huge selection.
On this particular Sunday evening the price for the Buffet was $ 10.95 ($ 19.95 if one opted to eat crab legs). We each chose the $ 10.95 option and when the meal was done, we really did not miss having the crab.
Our first round was dedicated to the raw seafood offerings and sushi. Steamed shrimp, raw oysters and mussels and various fresh sushi rolls were piled onto our plates (being hungry Ren Faire goers in costume and all). We each agreed that the shrimp were steamed just right and of a decent size and the oysters were very good (one could get their moneys worth just on a couple of plates of raw oysters, they are that fresh and good). The sushi was a delight across the board but the mussels were a bit flat and tasteless.
Second round included standard asian fare including ribs, several chicken and seafood dishes and the addition of a beautiful standing carve it yourself pork roast that was delicious. My companion went for dim sum and she enjoyed every bite.
Neither of us opted for the Mongolian grill option but it did look good, I will definitely give it a go next time.
The service was plentiful and polite as well as being authentic asian. The asian tea a bit weak for my taste and the dessert table was just a mirage in the distance because our bellies were so full of the good stuff! (It did look enticing however, from a distance… I spies some huge cookies that I must try next time…
All in all this is a good stop, some dishes better than others as in all Asian Buffets but the good outweighed the not quite up to snuff by a wide margin and there were no really scary or bad dishes at all in our tastings.
The décor’ upon closer inspection could use a bit of maintenance but when you are serving the masses a lot of food at $ 10 a pop, it is not hard to imagine that the margins can be slim. An honest hard working and well prepared buffet, really what else can you expect?

A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, I went to China Buffet in my early days of USF. It was ok then. Your basic china food dishes and overly processed desserts. No fuss, no muss.
I recently had 2 hours to kill last Saturday and out of curiosity headed to CB to see how it was almost 10 years later.
The inside had been redocorated with a greenish tinge which looks tacky imo.
However, the food imo has significantly declined. I know that they have to have some american dishes, but the macaroni and cheese is the most artificial food I have ever eaten. I know Kraft is artificial as well, but at least it tastes decent. Kraft to this is like comparing grilled cheese to filet mignon.
Now the actual chinese/​asian dishes were the heart of the restaurant and I assumed they would fare better on my taste buds. WRONG as Kevin Spacey would say
.
The Hunan beef had 10% beef and 90% broccoloi. The roast pork was ok. The General Tso had no spice to it. All these dishes were lukewarm to cold.
Now, I know ambience isn’t really why someone comes here, but I thought it was funny that some of the employees were shelling peas right behind me in the main dining area. The service was like prison. delivering your drink without looking at you.
Now the 2 positives
1): I went on a Saturday afternoon and the price was 9.60 (before tax and soda) which is quite good.
2)I didnt get sick. Woot
Ultimately, I would’nt go here unless youre broke. Even then, try one of those Chinese places near Kaleisia. Theyre cheap, but tasty.
Toodles

Not a bad place to eat. My only complaint is the temperature inside the dining area. They are either being cheap with the AC or the buffet heat really overpowers the AC units. It’s not very comfortable. But aside that, the food is pretty good for the price, I never went home sick or feeling weird. Food is always hot and has good flavor.

If you eat here you are greatly increasing your risk of severe food poisoning. Went here for lunch, place is a garbage dump. Should have turned around and walked out, but thought Id try some things cuz I really wanted Chinese. Most everything I tried was cold. Cold buffet food sitting in a serving tray is a recipe for disaster. After 2 trips to the buffet and horrible food I walked out. The place was dirtier than a soup kitchen.

Oh boy, this place was an absolute disaster of a buffet. It’s a shame really because if a little more care and effort was shown by the owners, this would be a great buffet to dine in. Unfortunately… The food on the line sits under heat lamps and is more often than not cold. That’s just not acceptable. Anywhere. The sushi was better than average for a buffet of this caliber, and some of the dishes were unique and tasty. Like the several choices of dim sum which you usually don’t see in a typical Chinese buffet, but it was ignored much like the rest of the buffet. I was there a good 45 minutes and the entire time I was there I saw nobody attending to the food. It just sat pathetically in the serving trays and went bad. Slowly under the lamps!

I was in the USF area Saturday around 6 p.m. and my girlfriend and I were in one of those indecisive, «oh I don’t care you decide», types of moods. I just happened to catch a glance at China Buffet as I drove by and I figured, Hey why not.
My impulse was poor. I can say without hyperbole that this is probably the worst Chinese food I have ever had. Every Item was cold and most of the staff could not be bothered to get off their cell phones to sit us or refill our drinks. Normally I would just pay, leave and never comeback without writing a review but the food was so terrible that I figured it was worth it to prevernt the next couple from repeating our same mistake.
On the plus side we did not become ill and this seemed espically surprising considering that the quality of the food is nothing compared to how filthy the restaurant is or how sticky every exposed surface is to the touch. The startling thing is that at first glance the place seems alright and the food smells not too bad, but when you get inside and really look at the place and plate a bit of cold slimey General Tso’s the magnitude of your mistake becomes all too clear.

Certainly a good deal for the price. All you can eat for less than $ 10. It doesn’t offer perhaps everything one wants, but does give enough food to even make the most hungry person satisfied. The sushi is actually pretty decent, as long as you stick with the California Rolls — I will admit that I also gave the salmon nigiri a shot and it wasn’t bad. Crab lovers can get their crab leg obsession on as well.
My friend and I were originally going to head to Hibachi Buffet on BBD, but I had a bad experience there during my last visit and the parking lot was deserted (never a good sign). In contrast, there were plenty of cars parked at China Buffet.
The Chinese food is solid with some tasty Thai Chicken and the General Tso’s is satisfactory as well. I liked the coconut shrimp, which is more like honey walnut shrimp you’d find at other Chinese restaurants, minus the walnuts. That dish had pineapples in it that tasted good. The fried squid was a disappointment, too rubbery.
The salad area looked incomplete, unfortunately all the kimchi was gone. The dim sum area is only available for lunch FYI. Crab Rangoons were standard. I didn’t try any of the soups, but the miso soup looked the most appetizing. Hibachi is only available on the weekends here as well.
The green tea ice cream was great as usual. It’s amazing actually that this place is still in business. I believe my family started visiting this China Buffet when I moved to Carrollwood in 1999 and even though it has been 14 years, this buffet is still standing. It brought back all kinds of memories sitting in the restaurant.
Overall, a solid meal that is guaranteed to leave you stuffed for a reasonable price.
ProTip: Dinner is cheaper Monday-​Wednesday and they offer a USF discount so bring your id.

I ate there at least once a month from 2001 until 2008, and then last month.
The food is hot and fresh, good but not great.
The issue I have for this business is, the outside looks like it is abandoned.
Super gross, trash and dirt everywhere. The building is falling apart.
Maybe they rent, at least they could clean it up. Inside and out.

What the heck were we thinking?
We had one hour before having to return to the USF campus, we were starving and no one was in the mood for fast food or campus cafeteria. A quick drive down Fowler and low and behold… chinese buffet for UNDER SEVEN BUCKS.
Why not?
Remember the four of us were very hungry and perhaps thinking along the lines of «QUANTITY» in lieu of «QUALITY»
We were greeted by the hostess but before taking a table we checked out the buffet… obviously we weren’t in the right mindset to know what we were getting into. At that moment we all agreed it looked and smelled wonderful. We accepted a table and made our way to the buffet…
No one finished their first plate and I was the only glutton for punishment that decided to make another plate. There must be something we like, right? NOPE, I was very incorrect with that assumption.
Perhaps someone slipped us something earlier and we hallucinating to think it looked and smelled good. Maybe our hunger just got the best of us. Or we just simply screwed up, but what ever it was we knew a great error of judgement had occurred. What followed that evening was proof of our misfortune (nothing pretty I can assure you).
Ever have one of those days…