Driving
up to my favorite existing Chinese buffet (emphasis on “existing” as
all my longtime favorites are long gone), Gold Hibachi in Alhambra,
something was wrong. There were no cars parked in the spaces by the
entrance to the restaurant. While it wasn’t 11:30am yet, still I was
stunned since I was always relegated to parking in the back of the lot.
Were they out of business? No, the front door was open. But then I
saw the two signs. UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT and Lunch Buffet $20.99, where Gold Hibachi had historically been on the low end price wise for lunch buffet. Stepping inside only four tables were occupied.
For me, this was just the latest 21st century disappointment for me as all my favorite Chinese buffets have gone by the wayside. While Chinese buffets are probably at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to the hierarchy of Chinese restaurants, I'm quite proud that the late, great Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold described me as a "connoisseur of the genre" and referred inquiries about Chinese buffets to me.
Chinese buffets were not on my radar for quite a period of time. First of all, there weren't that many around the Los Angeles area, especially compared to other parts of the country. More importantly the food wasn't that good, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, when so many outstanding new Chinese restaurants were opening up. In that environment, why would one want to waste a meal at a buffet that was sure to be lesser in quality?
The first Chinese buffet to grab my attention was the Universal City Hilton, which opened around 2001, serving fabulous and expensive weekend dinners. It was too high end and impractical to eat at on a regular basis, but certainly a treat to eat at a few times a year. (For sake of completeness, I should mention the buffet at the San Gabriel Hilton which opened in 2005 and was quite comparable to the Universal City Hilton. Once again it was only a special occasion venue, at least until they pivoted to a lunch time limited menu mini-buffet.)
But the opening in 2003 of Moonstar on Market St. in downtown San Francisco was the game changer, serving high quality but affordable and approachable food at both lunch and dinner time. But it was the 2004 opening of West Coast Seafood in Hacienda Heights which really won me over to buffets, since I could eat there any time I wanted. Well not any time, since we lived 25 or 30 miles away, but that didn't stop us from eating there every couple of weeks. Sadly after a few years something happened and the quality started to drop and West Coast Seafood was eventually sold in 2011 and became an ordinary Chinese buffet.
From time to time, what I considered to be excellent Chinese buffets would come and go. Union Buffet opened in West Los Angeles in 2010 and I managed to eat there weekly during the three years they were open. Yummy Yummy Seafood Buffet opened in El Monte in 2011 and lasted barely more than a year, but I was able to eat there regularly for lunch, driving out from my downtown Los Angeles office. I still think about the beef dumplings they had in their buffet line. When Union Buffet closed, I moved on to Hokkaido Seafood in West Los Angeles, not nearly as good as Union Buffet, but good enough for weekly visits until I retired.
Then there was Kome Buffet in Industry. A successful operation in Daly City, they moved in the San Gabriel Valley in 2014 and opened with a bang. By far the best, most fabulous Chinese buffet to ever grace the Los Angeles area, better than any of my other favorites. One problem. They didn't charge nearly enough for what they served. (I think lunch was $12.) Quickly they had to raise prices and lower quality. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
In 2017 I was winding down my work career, cutting my hours and sometimes going home at mid-afternoon. This is where I found my most improbable buffet of all, Fuji Buffet in Glendale. Glendale, a near black hole when it came to Chinese food was the last place I’d expect to find a Chinese buffet head and shoulders better than anything in the San Gabriel Valley, serving authentic Chinese dishes not found anywhere else in Glendale or within miles thereof. I stopped by for a late lunch on my way home on a weekly basis and was so impressed I wrote a glowing article about Fuji Buffet for LA Weekly. But alas once again all good things buffet had to come to an end. I guess it was the pandemic, which at least temporarily closed down every buffet restaurant. Fuji Buffet did reopen but it was never the same.
I did find another new San Gabriel Valley. favorite in 2019, but it wasn't a pure buffet, but rather Spring Shabu Shabu was an all you can eat hotpot restaurant with a separate short buffet table. But it was heartbreak time again as while they did reopen again as good as ever after a partial pandemic closure, they closed in 2023.
Which leads us back to Gold Hibachi Buffet in Alhambra, which opened up in 2014, the latest in a string of Chinese buffets at this location since 2001. Gold Hibachi Buffet was much better than its predecessors, and also had a variety of dishes that appealed to my particular tastes, though not as good as the buffets mentioned above. On my recent visit, the food did look
pretty much the same. There were even a few upgrades like unlimited fish skins (!!!)
And
sashimi.
A couple new dishes headed by this great new take of baak tong goh, the diagonal and flat sweet glutinous rice cake.
Salt and pepper bone in fish
chunks.
On balance food was not quite as good as before. Pig ears were still fine.
But my very favorite dish, the Korean glass noodles may have looked the same but were meh. What a disappointment! And the teppan grill, which was so crowded that you had to keep an eye on the line for a lull to jump in, was so ordinary that I'm not sure if anybody went through the line while I was there. Even at peak lunch hour, the main dining room was less than half full and the large auxiliary dining room wasn't even in service.
And with the
higher price, people have voted with their feet, as even at the height
of lunch hour the main dining room was less than half full and the large
auxiliary room not even in use. I'm not saying I'll never come back, but certainly it will have to be in a situation like this visit, where I happen to be near the restaurant at lunch time without having eating breakfast.
