Sad Turn of Events

China Town Super Buffet

It had been several years since either of us had visited this establishment and our memories were those of a decent meal at a decent price with a large selection.   However, this particular evening we decided to revisit the China Town Super Buffet, located at 151 S 18th St, Kansas City, KS 66102.

Everything pretty much appeared to be the same, but we were not greeted by our usually attentive Asian Host, instead we were greeted by a young Latino Kid (most likely still in his teen’s) who seemed more interested in his phone than the guest walking through his door.

Secondly, we noticed that the menu boards behind him had not been changed since our last visit, only the prices had been blacked out with no new prices now reflecting the selectable menu items.

Once inside we noticed the place was nearly empty.  The color pallet of the large room had changed.  Gone was the authentic Chinese décor from before.  The brightness of the room nearly overbearing from the afore mentioned calm warm atmosphere you would expect to find in a Chinese Restaurant.  Now it resembles the atmosphere of a hospital cafeteria.

We went to the buffet where instantly we noticed the dinner plates had been downsized to those of picnic plates.  Clean but still significantly smaller.

Between us we tried various dishes, some of which we remembered being very delicious for a buffet setting.  However, after sitting ourselves our hopes of a decent Chinese meal soon faded.

The Pepper Steak appeared to be correct however the steak was slightly over cooked and instead of being in an authentic Chinese brown sauce it was over spiced and sadly seasoned to something along the lines of a fajita sauce mix with brown sauce.  The taste was not pleasing to the pallet.

We also tried the deep-fried tail on Spicy Shrimp, floured and deep fried crispy.  Only to discover the shrimp had neither been pealed or deveined.  The spices on this were more flavorful yet by not pealing the Shrimp or deveining them, you were almost immediately hit with that pungent awful and seriously dangerous taste of the vein.  Then there was the choking hazard of having shellfish shell stuck in your throat.

The fried rice tasted as though the rice had soared or it was a few days old and was again nonconsumable.

Also, the fountain drinks were slightly off in flavor, not sure if this was the use of taping into unfiltered city water or a lack of cleanliness.

At this point we apologized to our guest and quietly left the restaurant, with no plans on ever returning.

The China Town Super Buffet gets 3 points.

Note: we also did not notice any buffet staff person of Asian nationality.  It is almost as if this restaurant has changed hands and was purchased by a person of Mexican persuasion that has no reference of Chinese Culture or Food.