Sizzling Express

It’s funny… Sizzling Express seems to think that orange chicken is actually stones covered in orange batter. I almost broke my teeth trying to bite into one of the orange chicken nuggets! That night they seemed to be running low on their stockpile of buffet items because the food was cold, old, and bland.
I don’t want to be the old grump around here, but their food was quite horrible. I tried a lot of the food items around the buffet and none of them were satisfactory. This place was just unmemorable.
When I came in, there were absolutely no customers in the restaurant and the light was dim and sad. All of the speciality stations like the deli and the sushi bar were closed, so it made the place feel like a tomb. I’m sure that during the day or another day of the week, the place is good. The sushi bar also looked good.

The only sizzling thing about this express is the high prices for food that tastes plain and old. The salad bar was the option I picked and while it was filling, it left me unsatisfied due to the ingredients not feeling fresh. Plus I paid nearly $ 10 for it. They charge 8.99 per lb but this felt like the method of taking off a bandaid: a rip off!
I don’t think I’ll be doing the salad bar or any of the buffet bars here. I should’ve done a sandwich instead. Live and learn.

Terrible Terrible service and mediocre food at the buffet! The people running the hot grill and sandwich bar are very disorganized and cannot get orders out in a timely fashion. I actually had to get a refund on a hamburger!!! Not good!!!

Run away from this place if you can. Stuck with a tour bus group who obvious does not want to spend our money on food !! We have the buffet, it is mostly over processed Chinese food… Cold and tasteless. We have about 40 in our group who are leaving hungry !!!

True story, I used to ear here sometimes twice a day EVERY day while in college at GW. Whenever I am back in town I always make a point to go. So much to choose from on the hot buffet. The burgers and sandwiches (made to order) are excellent and the fries are always spot on. Staff is very friendly and everything is very clean. The chocolate cake which is in the case and absolutely huge is amazing. Probably 10,000 calories, but awesome. Lunch time is very busy as the State Dept. employees come here in droves.

I just have to do this, i’ve been going here for 6ish years and have always just ignored the review. But it’s time.
Typical sizzex experience:
This morning, I went right when they opened to grab breakfast. I grabbed eggs and Turkey sausage. Even ignoring the crazy overpriced per pound price– the eggs were overcooked and already cold by the time they brought them out, of the three pieces of turkey sausage that I got 2 WERE FROZEN still. What the f? You can’t even slap the damn things on the grill for a few seconds more? Wake up earlier.
In the afternoon, you’ll go in here to be greeted by overpriced food that has been sitting out way past it’s prime. It used to be a decent place to go and get a burger or a sandwich, but now you get half the meat for twice the price.
And the older Korean manager guy– he’s a hoot. I pointed out to him one morning the 2 inches of oil on top of the huge tray of corned beef hash. He tells me that this is how they are supposed to be made and that his customers love this.
On to their Sushi. It used to be great– it would be made fresh for you and was enjoyable. No longer. Now, the sushi is premade and put on the buffet. They don’t put it in a case, so what happens is that the rice starts getting stale immediately. Once you pick your sushi up, the rice is hard and disgusting.

I would give this 0 stars if I could. Staff is incredibly rude and lazy. I have gone in on multiple occasions to get a sandwich from the deli section. Sometimes a person from behind the counter or sitting down gets up to make a sandwich, but if they don’t feel like it, each day they tell you the deli closes at a different time. They have signs clearly posted that say it should be open, yet the lazy employees sit around chatting and make up excuses to tell you why they are closed early on that particular day. It’s too bad because they had a great Reuben (they call it The Lord Baltimore) but I refuse to support poor customer service. Additionally, I’ve seen a lot of unsanitary behavior by the same people who put out the food. My advice: Save yourself the extra exposure to germs and get food somewhere else.

To avoid the weight scale trap that is Washington DC, you’ve got to find foods that aren’t hiding water weight and this place has those in spades. Things like fruits, cottage cheese, etc are all secretly killing you more than «big ticket items.»
But I am here to moan and complain about one thing in reality, the grilled cheese. Before yesterday I could come here and get grilled cheese and fries for $ 5. Well, over the weekend, they changed the price OF A GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH to $ 5 which is an absolute joke. The only reason they get the business that they do is because they’re the only thing in the area that you don’t need a badge to get into. If you’ve got a State Department ID, head over to the Harry S Truman building and get grilled cheese and fries for $ 3.76

I reeeeeally, really like this place. I’ve been here for breakfast and lunch. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
1. Quality/​taste. Everything is fresh and uses real ingredients. It’s hard to prepare buffet food without making it too oily/​greasy, since it sits out under heat lamps and can dry out faster. I don’t know if it’s because the turnover is high or if the chefs possess magical powers but the food here just tastes like real, home-​made food.
2. Variety. They have EVERYTHING. For breakfast (all different preparations of eggs, breakfast meats, carbs) and for lunch. Their salad bar is especially dear to my heart. I despite salad bars that offer only a handful of different vegetables and lots of croutons and dressings. This one has about 30 different vegetables (artichokes! chestnuts! those crazy mini corn! arugula! even jalapenos!) and a dozen premade salads (mac salad, egg salad, pasta salad, greek salad, etc. etc.) Also, they have sandwiches and pizza and really good happy hour deals.
3. Casual/​cheap. Sometimes you just want to get a quick, satisying meal without having to choose between a sandwich at some fast-​food chain restaurant and a bougie DC restaurant.
4. Service. Good!
5. Location. Only a few minutes’ walk from Foggy Bottom.
See you soon, you Sizzlin’ Express, you.

I visit this place regularly. Breakfast and lunch are good but the options for dinner aren’t as many. Food is delicious, especially considering the price. I can have enough of their orange chicken. Place is nice and the outdoors eating area is comfortable during the summer. Overall, a great buffet.
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Inconsistent hours had me take off a star. You’re lucky to find this place open during the weekends.

This weigh and pay not-​so-​all-​you-​can-​eat buffet place is pretty cool for salads… but it can get pretty pricey. The salad bar selection is pretty sweet though. You can pretty much make any kind of salad you can think of. A couple of blocks from my office… I’d go here more if it wasn’t so expensive.

We came late in the morning around 10am so there was very few options of food left. But I still thought there were plenty of options even though we were getting the last of the pan of food. They had hash browns, omelette’s, veggies, home fries, sausage, spam, biscuits and gravy, and other breakfast foods. I thought everything tasted really good. The price was also very affordable. They charge the food by weight. I was able to get a nice bite to eat for about $ 3.00. A great way to start the day with a cheap tasty hot breakfast from here. Another thing that makes this place great is that they accept credit cards. Yay!

I end up getting food from this joint more often than I would like as I work in the back of the plaza where it is and we are seriously hurting for lunch options. The sandwiches are pretty decent. If I get in early I really enjoy their breakfast buffet line and it is much more reasonable than the lunch prices. The lunch hot bar is always a gamble. It is anybody’s guess if the food will be any good. Some things are very good and some are just horrible. I always have this nagging feeling like the place is unsanitary. Nothing I can put my finger on, just a feeling.
The prices are sorta bananas. I always feel really stupid paying $ 12 for a tray of fried rice and some broccoli beef. I am not sure why I am bothering to review this joint. Odds are that if you are considering going there it is because you don’t have any better options.
I don’t like sushi so I cannot comment on it. I would not eat raw fish from this place, though.

Food /​Cost: Came here for dinner today and I learned something new. After 8:00pm, the weigh-​by-​pound section is 30% off! Unfortunately, the later time also means that the hot food pickings are slightly slimmer; but I can’t really complain because of the price reduction.
(See prior posting for full, still applicable review)

Work right across from this spot. Ate there 3 – 4 times and it was OK. My last meal here involved an incident with a rat which the owner and two Hispanic men beat to death, meanwhile pretending to sweep where they were exterminating the vermin. This place should be called Rat-Ex…they killed Master Splinter

As I was wandering around the area by my hotel checking Unilocal for nearby restaurants, I read Jennie K’s comment that she spends $ 17 on pineapple. And yet, I did exactly the same thing.
Well, almost. I was there at about 30 minutes before closing, so they were starting to dismantle the buffet. You get 30% off the buffet price after 8:30, so the assortment of sliced fruit I had picked was probably only about $ 12.
The fruit made a nice breakfast for me the following morning. I also got some mac n’ cheese which made for a perfectly adequate (ho hum, if you will) dinner.
I’ve got to give them credit for the variety — and particularly the variety of healthy foods though. (Just because I chose the least healthy entrée they had — I still like the option of vegetables and salads)
And I’m sure on days when it was slightly less hot and sticky, the outdoor seating would be a great option.

My coworkers like Sizz-​Ex for the huge variety, but whenever I’m here, I always end up spending $ 17 on a thing of pineapple and melons (they charge by the pound). They have surprisingly good french fries and good sandwiches though.
PLUS: They sell Asian snack food (POCKY!!!) by the checkout line. (This is kind of a big deal for those of us without easy access to the Asian ghetto.)

I give them 4 stars because they actually use real eggs in their Breakfast Buffet. It’s quite a nice treat especially when I have to get to work at the State Department EARLY!
The muffins are REALLY good. And those hash brown patties are really yummy and crispy albeit oilyyyyyyy

SizzEx is a great go to lunch place in this area. Mostly because there isn’t much else in this area! You pay by the pound and they literally offer everything. Do you want egg rolls? Mashed potatoes? Salad? Cake? Any drink imaginable (including alcoholic beverages)? Maybe some sushi? Generally, if you are thinking of a type of food, especially in the Asian or American category, you can probably find it at SizzEx.
Would I ever go out of my way to eat here? No. But it’s a great value and agreeable to most people if you happen to be in the area.

Back when was when, this place was a four star place, but today was not their day. This is what it is, pay by weight. Get everything and anything. This one, in Columbia Plaza, does not have much atmosphere (although it has many chairs, outdoor seating weather permitting, a pizza bar, a sandwich bar, a sushi bar and a cake bar and the usual hot and cold bars) so it’s all about getting in and eating.
The hot food seems to have gone down in quality. They do now have plastic covers to keep the food warm. Not that it makes much difference. The strangest thing was the General Tsao’s chicken. I think it was mislabeled. It was not crunchy, not sweet, not spicy, not orange… and the chicken was old tasting (oh, wait, that’s normal). The rib something or other was so tough that I could barely rip off a piece to taste.
But, maybe I was mistaken in my choices (and I did try seven or more items) and should have chosen the brick sized carrot cake.
**********Update*****************
Felt a hankering for sushi. I took a looksee at the hot bar. Yup still warm and dry. I sat down at the sushi bar. The sushi chef greeted me. I decided, in the name of Unilocal,to try the «low carb roll» and an avocado salad. Chef asked what I wanted to drink. I said hot tea. The sous chef handed a glass cup and saucer. Tea bag. Hm. Then she made my salad. Half an avocado, sliced thin, placed on a dab of cucumber strips, drizzled with sweet sauce and duo colored sesame seeds. I just realized how overpriced this stuff is. A ten dollar avocado? The sushi took a while. The chef really sculpted them. The yellowtail was spicy and okay. The fake crab was flat tasting. The other thing was so uninspiring that I can’t even recall what it was. The low carb bit was that one of the rolls didn’t have rice. And instead of seaweed (nori), there was a pink soybean fruit plasticky sheet. Not tasty.
But, I got a chat with the chef. Usually these sushi chefs seem so aloof. This guy asked me where I worked, where I was from (I said «Korea» as I figured that was an answer he might like) and then, when he saw my credit card, he exclaimed, «but you American, you have American name.» I quipped back, «So do you, Tony!» (That’s what it said on his name tag.)