Hubs took us out for dinner tonight. We ended up at Golden Palace Buffet on Outer Loop near WalMart. Now, I do not eat in restaurants often, but when I do, I am pretty picky about my food. Heres the rundown: The food was mostly good, but I was a bit disappointed to find out that there is no actual menu from which to order if you did not want a buffet. It is buffet only. The bad: I do not recommend the sushi or the cake. The sushi does not contain fish but is the sort which is made from rice, seaweed, and various vegetables instead. It has a strong odor and taste of old fish anyway. The cake (I tried three different kinds) was very dry despite being frosted liberally. The surprising: There are quite a few items on offer which you dont generally see paired with Chinese (okay, we all know it is really Chinese American fusion, but you know what I mean) cuisine such as cheese pizza, garlic bread, yeast rolls, deep fried butterfly shrimp, fried potatoes, stewed apples, and french fried frog legs (which tasted strongly of shrimp, but were quite well prepared). Just the facts: There was an abundance of chicken, a little shrimp, and only one beef dish offered. The really good: The sweet and sour chicken, chicken fried rice, coconut chicken (made with coconut milk sauce instead of being breaded in coconut flake and then deep fried), mongolian chicken, general tso chicken, pan fried shrimp, and steak with peppers were all fabulous (I literally put two bites of each on my plate lol) and there was a hint of sweetness to the crab rangoon which was a surprising twist. The spring rolls were a little underfilled in my opinion while the egg rolls were well filled with mostly meat. Overall they both had a pleasant spice, crunch, and flavor. The restaurant was clean and offered great ambiance. The uncertain: There were also many kinds of noodles and a huge variety of fresh and canned fruits and lots of puddings and jello in the shape of stars on offer, but I was not in the mood for those things on this trip. The disappointing: The wait staff were very attentive up until we had all sat down with our plates. They kept a careful eye (very noticeably staring at every customer in the place) and when we had each had two plates (dinner and dessert), the check was quietly brought without us asking for it. During our visit, the only one whose glass was refilled was my husbands as he went to pick up his dessert and after that, we were ignored. I dont mean the staff were busy and forgot about us, I mean that they made a point of not looking at us as they walked by and more than once my daughter and I tried to wave to our server as she was standing still (there were only three occupied tables in the section and two servers working it, so there was a lot of standing still) only for her to walk behind a counter and disappear. The servers were still watching us, mind you (I know, because I saw them looking at us when they were standing in the corner). So, instead of being rude and yelling or snapping, we politely removed the lid from our daughters drink to signal that it was empty. This, too, was ignored. This left us feeling awkward as we do not like to be those people who snap their fingers and demand service, but we really did want more to drink. We decided we wanted to be respectful more than we wanted another drink. Once the check was paid, we felt very unwelcome and decided to take our leave rather than sit and have any conversation after dinner. As we stood up, our server walked past swiftly to say Have a good night and still refused to look at us. In the end: The price for four people to eat at a buffet was a little more than Golden Corral or Ponderosa would have been, but not drastically and I feel that it was a good value. Because the food was good and it was not overpriced, I may go back one more time but if the staff are like this on my next trip, I think it will be my last. I could actually FEEL these ladies willing me to hurry up and leave. Good food does not really make up for that. Just my opinion.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 04:29:17 +0000
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