They Don't Make Chinese Buffets Like They Used To

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.

What We Ate In Japan

In late 2019 we took a wonderful 10 day tour of Taiwan with Supera Tours, known at that time as Super Value Tours.  Unlike every other China tour we had been on (or for that matter, any tour period) the food was fabulous as the tour company carefully curated all of the meals on the trip to maximize our complete dining experience with a variety of food choices that few people visiting Taiwan on a group tour would ever enjoy.  Everything we ate on that tour is chronicled here (with the exception of one episode which got lost in the cloud and can be found here.)  We quickly decided we wanted to try another of their tours as soon as possible.   But scarcely two months after our return COVID hit, and it wasn't until now that we were able to go on another Supera Tour, this time in Japan.

The food on the ANA flight to Japan was better than the typical international airline fare.  First they gave a picture menu of entree choices.

A six course dinner, including ice cream.  Most of it was quite good.

However, the end of flight meal, considered to be breakfast even though it was late afternoon in Japan, was a disaster.  Orange chicken on the ANA flight was the worst I’ve ever had. Soggy and not much flavor. Moreover, what’s ANA even doing serving orange chicken in the first place? Perhaps in response to segment of the American public that doesn’t discern the difference between Japanese and Chinese food?

 

 Arriving in Tokyo Wednesday evening two hours later than scheduled, I was afraid the time for the first dinner of our tour had passed.  However Hanamidori was able to serve the members of our tour group in waves as we arrived.  First course was an interesting shredded daikon salad.

Also a nice slab of fish cake.

Main course was the specialty of the house, chicken hot pot.  Hanamidori was probably the weakest meal of the trip, but proximity to the hotel and flexibility to serve tour group members as they straggled into town likely trumped finding anything better.

 

Part of Supera's meal curation is to find hotels with excellent food.  As soon as we stepped into the Glass Kitchen buffet in the Keio Plaza Hotel, where coincidentally I stayed in 1980 in my only other visit to Tokyo, it was apparent that this was a high quality operation, with interesting dishes, and other amenities.  Two of my favorite dishes were fried tofu patties and sea bream with eggplant.

 

Ever had orange peel muffins?

 

Udon station, prepared to order!

 

How about some great low carbohydrate vanilla pudding?  I guess they couldn't figure out the word sugarless.

 

View of the small upper dining room where we sat once.

 

And a view of the main dining area from upstairs.

 

First lunch of the tour was this seafood rice casserole at Kamameshiharu Maru in the Akakusa section of Tokyo.  The main dish was delivered with a cover.

 

This is what it looked like inside.

 

For dinner on our own on Thursday, we stayed in house in the Keio Plaza at Kagiri Restaurant.  A nice high quality meal started with sea urchin with sesame tofu.

 

A group of seafood appetizers.

 

Whole grilled rockfish.

 

The best yakisoba I've ever had.

 

Assorted sashimi.

 

Grilled yellowtail.

 

 

 

Capped by refreshing dessert offerings

 

 

 

Thursday lunch was  at Minemoto Restaurant in Kamakura.  This is their signature tempura dish.  But in line with Supera's desires to give us a broad eating experience, they chose this specialist in non-crunchy tempura, a concept foreign to anyone who has only eaten crunchy tempura in the United States.

 

We also had these appetizers, including a really interesting Japanese tofu, much chewier that what we're used to in the United States.

 

Also soba in broth, though nothing to compare with the previous night's dinner.

 

 

Some awesome dried white peaches and other fruit for sale on Komakidori Street in Kamakura.

 

 

 

Our next two meals were at the buffet at the Odawara Hilton Hotel and Spa.  Interestingly, this was the most Westernized of all the hotel buffets on the trip, surprising since this was a traditional Japanese Ryokan style hotel.  For example here's the scallop pineapple pizza.

 

 

 

Interestingly, a dish for the season--cherry blossom tartare (sic) sauce, to be used in conjunction with their fish nuggets.

 

And at breakfast on Saturday, plain cold udon in ice water.  Strangely this was by far the most popular Instagram post of the trip with over 450 likes.

I didn't actually eat these, but these Mount Fuji replica cakes for sale in Gotemba, at the base of Mount Fuji, caught my eye.  A bit strange since it's not exactly a lasting souvenir.

 

Meanwhile at the Mt. Fuji viewing area itself, we got a sample of sweet potato fries.

 

After our first viewing of Mt. Fuji, it was on to Funari in Kawaguchiko, for some Hotou Futonaga udon.  This is a unique Japanese noodle local to the area around Mt. Fuji.  This was the first of a number of restaurants on the tour that had massive local crowds waiting to be seated, while our tour group jumped the line into our reserved space, another testament to the care that Supera takes in choosing its dining venues.  This noodle is so popular that people travel from Tokyo to eat here, because the dish is not available in Tokyo.  But for me it wasn't transcendental since it's actually similar to Chinese hand pulled noodles.

 

At the Kubota Art Museum in Kawaguchiko a visit to the Kubota Art Museum included a sample of matcha green tea in the tea room.

And Saturday night it was back to Tokyo for a great BBQ dinner at Toraji on the 46th floor of the Shiodome Building.  First off was the wagyu.

 

We all had seats looking directly out the window offering a stunning view of the Tokyo night skyline.

 

With an assortment of BBQ beef and other items.

On Sunday morning it was on to Tokyo Station and the bullet train to Kyoto.  We were taken to the Daimaru Department Store bento box food court next door to select our bento boxes for the 2½ hour train ride.  What a fascinating area with a wide range of meals to purchase.

 

I ended up at Shang-hai Deli since I knew some people would ask me about how the Chinese food was in Japan.

 

I bought a selection of siu mai, which included something I had never heard of, Shanghai siu mai, which is filled with sticky rice.

 

Along with some fish cake patties.

 

Also grabbed a pack of sushi, which turned out to easily be the best of the bunch.

 

Arriving in Kyoto, we went to the Biwako Hotel in Otsu for the crown jewel meal of the tour, the multicourse Kaiseki dinner.  This is the type of meal that distinguishes Supera Tours from the rest of the pack.  We started with sesame tofu, horsetail, clam with ginger miso dressing and lilly bulb.

 

Shrimp and small seabream with yolk, sweet fish, soft seabream roe, rope blossoms, bracken.

Tuna, seabream, amberjack and squid sashimi with cherry blossom.

Soft boiled bamboo shoot and seaweed, deep fried tofu fritter, butter bur, fu, bud.

Spanish mackerel grilled with bud miso.

Sakura shrimp Kariage, conger eel tempura and ostrich fern.

Oumi beef and wild herb sukiyaki with baked tofu and vegetables.

Clam and sea lettuce egg custard.

Red miso soup.

Mochi.

 

The Monday morning buffet at the Biwako Hotel was also excellent, highlighted by some surprisingly good dim sum like these green har gow and pork siu mai.

 

Moving to the Arishiyama section of Kyoto, we had a pre-luncheon snack of sesame silky tofu ice cream at Kyuozan, so sticky that you could turn an ice cream cone upside down and it wouldn't spill out.

 

Then it was across the street and another line jumping reserved lunch at the crazy busy Hanana Restaurant which specializes in sea bream dishes, particularly this one with green tea rice.

 

 

Appetizers, steamed eggs and vegetables.

 

Thin sashimi seabream.

 

Monday night was the wonderful Teppanyaki dinner at the Osaka Okura hotel, another one of the meals I've come to expect from Supera.  Tops on the list was the Kyoto beef.

 

 

Along with an assortment of goodies including meat, fish, mountain yam, pumpkin and other vegetables.

 

But nothing beats watching the chef light his fire.

 

All capped by a simple dessert.

 

On our after dinner walking tour of downtown Kyoto, we passed a tankful of blowfish embedded in a restaurant's front wall.  Not sure if I'd want to try these.

The breakfast buffet Tuesday at the Kyoto Okura was also excellent.  XLB were major league, as were the siu mai.

 

 

 

 

On Tuesday's walking tour of Kyoto, we stopped for coffee and tea at Chourakukan Dessert Cafe in Kyoto’s Marayuma Park. Thanks again to Supera Tours for finding venues like this one which is over 110 years old. We certainly would never have found anything like this on our own.

 

 

A nice pre-lunch resting spot was Maccha Cafe in one of the old town alleyways.  This is their macha parfait.

 

For a change of pace lunch, Supera booked Sodoh Italian restaurant for a taste of Japanese style Italian food.  Interesting utensil set up, with a molded rest with specific spaces for chopsticks and western cutlery.

 

 

 

Main course was onion fusilli.

 

White bean soup.

 

Kyoto pork.

 

 

Salad.

Strawberry dessert.

 

 

 

Dinner was on our own so we had a simple dinner of Kyoto ramen at Karikaya.  A vastly different kind of ramen noodle.  Indeed, I wouldn't otherwise consider it to be ramen.  One thing I hate about most tours is that there are very few lunches and dinners included.  Our Supera tour had only three meals not included, and that was strategic as there was one on our own dinner in each major stop of the tour which was coupled with a night tour to give you a feel of the dining options available.

 

  

It was the last leg of our tour on Wednesday with our luncheon stop at Yoshino for what I would call at bento box skyscraper.

Wednesday dinner was on our tour of the Shinsaibashi shopping area in Osaka and Dontoburi dining street.  One problem of dining on your own in Japan was that the dining areas are so crowded, even on weekdays, that you probably have to settle for a second or third choice as many venues are not available or have long waits.  Fortunately our Plan B dinner at Creu-Ru turned out well as there was no waiting and we had a nice dinner.  Creu-Ru describes itself as a Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki restaurant.  This is one of their many varieties of takoyaki, though you'd never have an idea that there was any octopus in there.

 

 

 

The surprise of the menu was seeing something called Shanghai style yakisoba.  Seems to be a contradiction in terms.

 

A common dish throughout the trip, both in the buffets and appetizers, was Japanese style eggs.  Much softer that what were used to.

 

 

A nice dish of scallops.

 

 

Chicken karaage, delicious and crunchy.

 

Thought we were getting chicken nuggets, but I think these were really chicken gizzards.

 

 

Beef and fries.

 

 

A soupy bowl of beef stew.

 

The final meal of the tour was breakfast at the Imperial Hotel in Osaka.  Amazingly outstanding dim sum in the buffet.  Never seen anything like the fish paste festooned with rice.

 

Siu mai was excellent.

 

Crispy seafood egg rolls were excellent.

 

Final meal at Osaka airport was this Japanese hamburger at Sakifukuya Cafe.  How is this different from regular hamburger?  It's soupy.

 

More Japanese fried chicken.

 

 

With assorted trimmings.

All in all a great tour with many food highlights.