Brave Troops Buffet

I’m SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sad this place closed down! This was one of the best buffets I’ve ever been to! It’s better than China Buffet in Methuen, MA. The Italian Chicken is awesome. Everything tastes fresh and clean instead of greasy and dirty. The desserts were delicious! The bathroom was clean and smelled good.
The staff was friendly and the price was right. I mean $ 12 — $ 15 per person for a buffet? How’d they be able to afford to keep the place open?! … Oh…
It’s mostly Japanese /​Chinese. It was sad when the hibachi grill closed but I would sacrifice that just to keep the rest of the place open.
If the owners blamed the location, find another location and please notify me — I’ll be there in a heartbeat!

It may be difficult to know that this is a buffet, since the name is a bit vague. But driving right by in the plaza it’s pretty obvious. The food is good — very typical Chinese style buffet food. They do cheese/​egg tarts, which are one of my favorites! Every time we have stopped by, the food has been hot and fresh. Could use more vegetable options. Seating is very open and clean. The prices recently went up, but that is probably just from their opening special ending.

It looks like there are cracks in Brave Troops armor. I’ve been coming here from time to time for a year since they have opened, and I’m now seeing unpleasant changes. There are a lot of new signs on the door as you walk in. One apologizes for having to close the Mongolian grill. Another apologizes for having to significantly reduce the amount of sushi provided. The newest one now cautions against wasting buffet food and threatening to charge you by the pound for uneaten food on your plate. The place also seems a little darker and seems to have slightly fewer staff.
This typically means they are in cost-​cutting mode, and they are trying to do everything they can to reduce expenses without compromising on the buffet itself.
The buffet still is not too bad. You still have a variety of both Asian and non-​Asian foods (including things like salmon, roast beef, pizza, mac & cheese, hot dogs, and wings, for example). Trays are still restocked promptly. I’d like to see a few more vegetable-​friendly options. You typically have green beans, mushrooms, a vegetable tray, and chicken/​beef with broccoli.
A few items are starting to taste a little off to me, unfortunately. For example, last night, the chicken with broccoli was drenched in oyster sauce (ruined the broccoli for me), and the tapioca pudding was sour. So what do you do when you don’t like something on your plate or in your bowl, and you fear that you might get charged for not finishing what you took?
For me, Brave Troops is still a reasonable place to visit for dinner from time to time, but I’m not optimistic about what I’m seeing.

Some of these people on this website are crazy! Me and my 3 children ate for $ 28 that is the same price as McDonalds!!! Food is good price is better. The kids love the desert spead. People need to rate a place by the cost. Seriously? I can’t think of a good Chinese food place in Tewksbury they are all mediocre.

We went here the first time and it was DEAD. All the food was that aweful mix of cold and sitting under lights for god knows how long. The sushi is not labeled (im allergic to shellfish so this one rings loud for me). But after waiting about 20 minutes finally the sushi chef showed up and i told him my allergy and requested he make some for me. He said yes. And i prayed he understood me. He did. He pointed to the one that i could eat, and it was good. After this experience, for our love and devotion to chinese buffet and our desperate need to find a good one near our new home we said. .
«Maybe we went at a bad time» we need to go when its busier”. So we went… TWO more times before now, we have finally given up, after my roommate got food poisoning and i stopped eating the sushi because i realized they DONT CHANGE THE PLATES WHEN THEY MAKE A NEW ROLL… EVEN AFTER I TOLD THEM I HAD AN ALLERGY.
my advice is… do not go here. Three strikes for me with this place.
The one thing i will say is it has potential. The food you can tell would be good. But its NOT.

It’s a buffet, with Chinese food and a limited (at least at lunch) selection of sushi. Most of the food tastes odd or off compared to typical Americanized Chinese food (hopefully it doesn’t make me sick, I guess we’ll see tonight!) Many of the dishes were lukewarm.
They certainly have a large selection of foods, and I suppose if you aren’t very picky about what you eat then this place might be great for the price, but it’s all pretty subpar. Will not be back.

Didn’t love it! I took the time to write a letter & mailed it… over a month later, no response from the restaurant. Restaurant was average at best. Many items tasted day old. The sushi chef was too busy playing on his phone or with his Rubik’s cube to make sushi, even though they were out of things. Ice cream was delicious but I think it comes from outside the restaurant. Hot tea is not included in the buffet price… come on, what’s a pot of tea cost… a dollar at most — add it into the buffet price. I won’t waste my time going back to this place… not with so many other choices in the area, but I wish them all the best.

This place is not popular due to the bad location and honestly the name of the place («brave troops» Americans just do not understand the name it doesn’t translate well it’s a story people just don’t know) but this place is great. Enough space to fit huge parties of people. Seriously bring 20 friends and you can all sit together. Very clean and well kept. Tastefully decorated. Food selection is huge. Many non Asian items in the buffet. Food was fresh and tasty. Prices are average. Staff is friendly but quiet.

Awful. Cafeteria ambiance, tasteless lukewarm food. Nothing more to say except, don’t waste your money.

Cheap. Clean. OK service. If you happen to like disgusting mall food court quality food, you’ll love this place.

This place is great. They have so many options and I really liked everything I tried. They also have a full sushi bar. The food tasted fresh and they really do have a ton of different stuff. Also, you really can’t beat the price. We paid 37 dollars for three people to have dinner and soda’s. The staff was also incredibly friendly and attentive. We will definitely be going back again soon!

Went there today for the first time and very impressed!!! The place was very clean and well kept. The food was not dried out and tasted delicious had three full plates of food! I will definitely visit again worth the price of $ 13.95 per person!
Staff was very kind and attentive to getting plates and refilling my drink.
It was not extremely busy but it was busy enough for a Monday afternoon.

Brave Troops Buffet is a great addition to the town of Tewksbury. The interior is clean, new, quiet, and tasteful. They have quite a few rows of food available offering a large variety for the amount of money you’re paying. In addition to Chinese, they carry sushi, hibachi, and some of those guilty pleasure «Chinese buffet French fries» that you just can’t get anywhere else.
The wait stuff is friendly and attentive — seemingly more so than a regular non-​buffet restaurant. Being a buffet I don’t expect them to know too much about ingredients or allergies — the food is not being made to order, and on top of that its an authentic Chinese restaurant.
Like any other buffet, and especially a buffet that probably carries 60+ different types of dishes, yes sometimes things will dry out over time, so think about timing when you go, and consider its $ 8.95 for lunch and $ 13.95 for dinner for all-​you-​can-​stuff.
For what you pay for and all that you get, I give Brave Troops 5 stars.

I ate there for Christmas. Seeing as it was one of the only open eateries in town one would expect to be packed. When we arrived we saw only ten tables filed in the whole restaurant. We were seated promptly. The food quality was less than meh. The flavors are bland and the food tastes frozen. Most of their food tasted frozen. Some of the foods were not temped correctly as well. The hibachi station was cool and all but the chicken and steak are overlooked, tough, and drowned in hoisen sauce. They call it the brave troops buffet because you have to be brave to eat there.

Meh. Decided to try the Brave Troops after hearing good reviews. Place looked impressive and clean but pretty empty on a Friday evening.
Unfortunately we felt the food was just average. Huge selection so we tried a lot but nothing that we felt we needed more of and there were items that seemed like they sat around too long.
I saw they had self serve ice cream where you dug into the freezer and scooped it. Not sure about having numerous peoples arms digging into my food.
Maybe I expected too much but it wasn’t bad either.

The place is clean and big. They got a variety of seafood and a lot of crawfish! The service was good as well.

Went today with my daughter for lunch. Got the buffet, There were some different offerings like crawfish that were good and the crab legs were good. The rest of the food was just average. Lots of it had been siting a while and was dried out. I even had to spit some out because I couldn’t chew it. The sushi was average. I thought I was over charged for the bill but it was explained to me that Sundays and holidays the charge for the buffet is 13.95 for the whole day. The wording on the website and the menus is confusing, I hope they fix it.

My wife and I visited for lunch and were impressed with:
Large variety of quality food. In addition to a normal buffet, they had items such as mussels and Italian chicken. All very fresh.
Service was fast with attentive waitress to serve drinks and clear your plates.
Atmosphere was neat, clean and new.
No alcohol at this time, but I understand that they will have a license soon.
I would rate it as a 5 start buffet, but I rated it 4 stars. it’s a buffet after all.
Will go back soon.

This place is great! I really enjoyed my experience. Large selection of Chinese and sushi and some American food. Quality is excellent. Very clean tasting. No digestive issues here.
The entire staff is very accommodating and friendly – not something I find common in buffets. It might be because they just opened but everyone had a happy, youthful optimism about their jobs.
Love it. Good luck! We will be coming back.

We tried the new Brave Troops Buffet for lunch last weekend. They subdivided the old Rite Aid location so it looks deceiving small from the outside but when you walk in it is an unexpectedly large space. They did a very nice job renovating the space and you wouldn’t have any idea you are dining on Chinese food where people used to shop the aisles of a pharmacy. Our 2.5 year old especially enjoyed the fish tank up front and she made several trips up there to see here new friends. Onto the food and experience…
There are about 6 or so different stations. 4 stations in the middle have ample selection of the Chinese staples, various fried or steamed appetizers, soups, entrees, side dishes, noodles, rice, and even a small American section. I was really impressed at the large selection and there was no way I could try everything. I liked the peanut chicken. (allergy sufferers be aware!) The chicken balls were different style I had never before and flavorful. The Chinese Chopped Beef was like a version of meatloaf. The crab rangoons and coconut shrimp were very good. I tried a few pieces of sushi and all was very good. It would be nice if they kept the chopsticks and soy sauce with the sushi instead of over at the salad bar. I did not try the salad bar, but did have some ice cream, tapioca, and a Chinese cake and all were fine, nothing spectacular but a nice way to finish the meal.
Friendly wait staff mill about clearing plates and getting refills. When we were finished, our check was delivered promptly and with a 10% discount even though we didn’t bring a coupon. I don’t recall seeing a bar but we were there are lunch so we only had hot tea and waters. It’s possible they don’t have a bar since liquor licenses in Tewksbury are pretty scarce.
Prices are ridiculously reasonable for the amount of food offerings they have. Buffet connoisseurs rejoice! Another important note, you hear ‘buffet’ and you never think «take out» as an option. However Brave Troops has very smart take out option for both lunch and dinner, which is priced per pound. Great idea for local workers wanting to get a quick lunch or families that want to bring home dinner but don’t feel like dining in, all you can eat style. That option should help keep business up in this tricky retail location. Hope to see them be successful and stick around.