New China Buffet

Finally… The poor quality caught up with them. They are GONE, Out of Business.
After years of sliding quality and service, it caught up with them.
Last visit was like a ghost town, food was terrible and very small selection. This was around 6:00 pm. hello, dinner time!
Well, we won’t miss them. They even tore down the building they were in. There are so many Chinese buffets today, almost as many as McDonalds! Most are mediocre — but we keep looking…

New China Buffet is a Chinese buffet eatery located off of Roosevelt Road in Villa Park. A friend of mine was in the mood for a buffet rather than a sit down Chinese place, and being the closest one to us we stopped by and tried it.
The first thing that troubles me about this place is that it’s called «New» China Buffet. This is fascinating because I had some room temperature to cold food that didn’t taste «new» or fresh to me. Biting into some sweet and sour chicken despite having been under the heated buffet tray it definitely was not as warm or hot as you might expect having been cool to the touch on the inside. Some of the other things I tried was spicy chicken (general tao’s), cheese wonton, and some noodles. Nothing here tasted particularly good besides my beverage and at just over 10.00 with tax I felt like I would have been far better off at a regular Chinese restaurant.
This place is at least somewhat cleaner than other Chinese buffets, but the food wasn’t so hot (both literally and figuratively) and for the price I could have had slightly less variety but much better tasting food. At least their ice cream soft serve machine works.

1 star for the Chinese-​style string beans, but there’s not much else to like about this place. It’s pretty cheap, but it seems like the food has been sitting out for hours. Nothing ever tastes fresh and sometimes it is even cold.
They charge extra for seafood, and consider their imitation crab meat rangoons to be seafood…

If I DIDN’T HAVE TO GIVE THIS DUMP A STAR, I WOULDN’T!
We have been here a time or three. Each time we come… I dislike it more and more.
First, what Chinese place do you know that serves taco’s, pizza and other nontraditional Chinese food??? oh yeah, has Mexican hot sauce on each table… and i think the size is probably a quart.
Second, just about every dish is chicken… not that i have anything against chicken, but over the past year, if the sign didn’t say it was chicken, I wouldn’t be able to identify what kind of meat it was.
Third, please dint take this the wrong way, but we were the only non-​mexican folk up in da joint. Every table had small children that were allowed to run around without supervision. Now I dint know about you, but I see disaster coming (dint you see). Yep, we were just about finished when the place was overrun with these wreck-​less little imps, when I look up and see this chubby child PLATING JELLO WITH HIS HANDS. Mom (or sister not sure) comes up and I thought ‘thank God, shes gonna stop him’…but NOPE, she just waited, then walked to the table with him.
Fourth…After witnessing this, I took it upon myself to let the woman in charge know what I had just seen. She said «oh solly» and walked away and LEFT THE FINGERED JELLO OUT FOR OTHERS TO PARTAKE IN. EWWWWW. I can go on, BELIEVE ME. I CAN… but after that, WHY???
Fifth…I WILL NOT BE GOING BACK TO THE NEW CHINA BUFFET EVER AGAIN. NOT EVEN IF YOU PAY.

No points awarded for style here — the décor feels about 20+ years old and the food doesn’t look appetizing in the least. But, you need to get over that because much of the food is really, really good. This is where you’re reminded why judging a book by its cover is unwise. The sweet and spicy General Tao’s Chicken was the best I’ve had in a long time, and the Mongolian Pork was just awesome — sneakily hot and very flavorful. I tried all of the entrees (except for the seafood, which I always avoid at buffets on principle) and everything ranged from pretty good to excellent.
The table devoted to appetizers and food for people who won’t eat Chinese food (pizza, roasted potatoes, etc.) was pretty weak and they were already packing it up for the evening by about 7:15, which was too bad because I wanted to try their crab rangoon.
The dessert table had a selection of mini pastries (I tried and enjoyed the coconut cake and cream puff — the macaroon wasn’t great, though) and fresh fruit, and the salad bar had two kinds of pudding: chocolate and banana. They also had a soft serve ice cream machine.
In summary: not much to look at, but surprisingly good food at a good price (just under $ 10/​pp on a Saturday night, including tax).

I’ve been getting the lunch take out the past two times I’ve been there. Get a to go box from the front and walk around filling it until your little heart is content. Then she’ll weigh it and you pay per pound.
*01/​19/​11 Update… About $ 2.99 with out seafood per lb, with seafood it’s $ 5.99/lb. NOT BAD at all my friends. Not bad.

New China buffet isn’t the best Chinese food by a long shot, but it is perhaps one of the best-​valued. It costs approximately $ 10/​person for their dinner buffet. What I loved about New China is that although they don’t have actual servers, they’re still fairly speedy at cleaning off your table while you go up for subsequent plates. The food was seasoned decently well, and they always ensured adequate food was available (there were never any shortages while there). One thing I did love about New China was that I never felt pressured to leave after consuming over 5 plates of food over a 2 ½ hour span. It’s definitely a great place to go if you’re hungry and money is tight.

I’ve been here a few times, merely for convenience. The selection at this buffet is smaller than most. Sometimes they have some good food, but more often than not it is bland and really seems to have been sitting out a long time. I can’t say it’s bad, it’s just ok. Eat here if you are severely rushed for time and dont want to drive any further.

For Chinese buffet, I loved QQ’s in Glen Ellyn. It closed due to crispy critters so I’ve been searching for another buffet to fill the gap.
Avoid the cake and other desserts. I stuck to that sweet mayo shrimp dish, baked crabmeat thing, and any of the meat dishes. I always have to try pizza at a Chinese Buffet, but this one was nasty. They should just buy some pizza from Chuck E Cheese next door and serve it instead.
Why four stars? This one replaces QQs. Under $ 7. 72 items. Free drinks. Soft serve ice cream. The only thing they lack is decent sushi.

So I’ll be the fat one and review this buffet first! =] I have been going here since I was in high school because it is right behind my old school. It is just your average, in a strip mall, Chinese buffet. The inside is dumpy, which is expected, but I actually enjoy the food. Sometimes the food disappoints, though, but again, I think that is expected when you are paying like $ 6 for an all you can eat lunch! Overall, the food is decent and you can always find a place to sit because it is pretty large inside.
**Some things I like on the buffet are the sweet and sour chicken, chicken and mushrooms, noodles and pot stickers, I can pretty much do without everything else**