Lin’s Buffet

Just left there. Literally there not even 20 minutes. Sat down with our plates and there was a nat on my noodle. We lost our appetite at that point. The girl asked if we wanted new plates to get food?! Really? No! Then we still had to pay for the sodas that we took maybe one sip out of!!! DO NOT GO THERE

First off the service was great. My plates were cleared quickly and my drink was always filled. I tried the Chinese food and was impressed. The sea food selection was great and tasted fresh. The sushi looked good but was not so fresh. The rice was hard and the tempura batter was soft. I tried the desserts and they were ok. I finished it off with a bit of ice cream. You can never go wrong with buffet ice cream.

We went last night because it was a little past dinner time and everyone was pretty hungry. We have received plenty of advertisements from this place in the mail so we thought, why not? The people were really nice to us and to our kiddos. But the food was terrible. I will never eat here again. The food wasn’t fresh and seemed to have been there not just all day but possibly for several days. I have never had such terrible buffet food. And for two adults and two children-​dinner came to $ 53.00. I’d rather eat a $ 50 bill that was rolled over by a car tire and touched by 10 people who didn’t wash their hands – yes it was that bad. Please save your money. Cook at home. Or just find a different place to eat.

DO NOT GO HERE!!! You will get sick from the food being at the wrong temperatures and the horrible smelling seafood. They have a «Hibachi» area where you put what you want on a plate and they cook it for you. Not only was the RAW MEAT not cold, you could see the edges of the chicken hardening and turning dark because it had been sitting out! I still tried to get some other food onto a plate because I was so hungry, but a few bites in, my stomach started to turn. The crab and crawfish that looks so good in pictures, SMELLS HORRIBLE! There is nothing fresh about this place. On a Sunday, a day that is pretty busy, you would think that the food preparation would have a quick turn around of fresh food, but the Manager and owner clearly only value the money associated with food being put out. When I spoke to the manager and told her we did not want the food because it tasted bad and was not fresh, she instantly said, «No you ate some!» We paid for 1 meal and a drink (there were 2 of us) but know that I will be complaining about even paying that much!

This place is OK if you are starving and there isn’t a restaurant for miles around.
Most buffets are a bit iffy and this place is no different. The food is tasteless and looks as if it’s been under a warmer for days. Not a lot of people in the entire place (which is a sign in and of itself) and the service is nonexistent. And the soup is like dishwater.
SCORE: 1.5

Yuck is the only word that comes to mind! The only thing that tasted ok was the fruit. First and last time here :(Sad when you spend $ 40 for lunch (2 adults & 1 child) & leave hungry.

Recently they do much better than before, plz give them the choice to build up their business!

Worst service ever. It wasn’t even busy. The food was mediocre when they were Buffet City and now it’s really bad. The only good item I ate here was the crab and shrimp. I can say it’s the last time I come here. Save yourself the money and go some where worth it.

Lin’s Buffet is essentially the former shadow of Buffet City; they still have the previous name still quite visible underneath the new one. The food, service, and basic interior décor are exactly how I remember them to be when it was called Buffet City. I kid you not, nothing has changed.
Going to a buffet means willingly eating for quantity over quality. Let’s face it, I can go to a nice sushi restaurant and spend up to $ 20.00 for two rolls; or, I can spend a little less and eat all the sushi I want, which as it turns out can be a lot. The sushi counter and the hibachi grill are my two «must haves», meaning I will easily get two plates of each. I’m not a big fan of pretty much the entire middle section of the buffet because a lot of the stuff looks unappetizing, but a few of the options I usually partake in. The mushroom chicken and the Tso’s chicken. Both were good, and the Tso’s chicken had slices of raw jalapeño in it.
The one thing that still bugs me about this place is the service. The hostess was nice when she sat us; our waitress was nice when she took our drink order, after that, everyone just hovered. As I’m waiting to pay the bill our waitress was literally hovering right above me, so the second I was done signing she was ready to pick it up. The employees refilling the food were like robots. And the death glares I received from both the sushi maker and the man at the hibachi grill were not pleasant.
If you liked but Buffet City, you’ll like Lin’s.

Lin’s Buffet is a great Asian restaurant. They have a large variety of food from various Asian cultures. The atmosphere is very warm, clean, and luxurious. There appears to be ample seating for large groups as well as dinner hour rush. They have several televisions.
The price is unbeatable. $ 8.59 per person during lunch hours.
This is definitely my new favorite Asian buffet in the area.

China City, Buffet City, and the now Lin’s Buffet. The same owner between Buffet City and the now Lin’s Buffet, China City was a different owner. Let me get this updated review on the road.
The buffet scene is now starting to boom, and in particular the Asian Food Buffets are starting to really make a name for themselves in the Golden Corral, Hometown Buffet and Ryans market. This is one of two in the Concord area that I visit from time to time, the other being China City a little further up willow pass. I like this one because they have a Mongolian Grill inside and its included in the cost of the buffet, and thats a plus, becuse I’d much rather spend $ 8.99 ($ 11.99 dinner time) and eat all I can eat rather going to the Mongolian BBQ places in mall’s that charge $ 10 to $ 12 bucks for a try sometimes…“YIKES” Lin’s Buffet and staff is the same I been seeing since the ownership change back in 09. I have no clue why they changed the name once more. but the food and select things I like on the menu is still present. So I have no major frets concerning that. But, seems like quality have changed and the menu has gotten a bit… boring. Like this is a buffet after all, but, I feel the food should still be exciting to eat. Not the case here, my last visit was a bit of a let down.
They have seafood here all day for the seafoodies out there. They don’t make you wait or charge extra like some establishments do. That’s a plus, They also have fresh sliced fruits and a pretty basic dessert offering (cookies, jello, puddding, cakes) nothing to out of the ordinary. They have a small sushi selection here, as compared to other asian cusine buffets I’ve been too. And the Dim Sum offerings are slim pickings as well and go fast. So if you like dim sum, just hope you get here at a good time. On my last visit, the General, Sesame and Spicy Chicken all tasted the same. The breading wasn’t crispy, and the only differences were the hot peppers or the sesame seeds. They also tasted like that store bought chinese stuff you can get from the freezer section and warm up. Ummmm No, that’s a no bueno in my book.
In closing, Lin’s Buffet is a hit or miss. I been coming here or at least to the various buffets it’s been for a min now. They have take out that varies starting at $ 5.99 lb. Its located off Willow Pass road across the street from the now defunct Sizzler and Dennys. A hop skip and jump from Highway 4 and 680 respectively. And the Willows Shopping Center and Sunvalley Mall is close by. With the regular chinese food offerings being slim in Concord. This place has a decent take out for those on the go as I usually am. So if you’re in Concord, try this place out for yourself. And as always Unilocal your own experience.

Today was my first time back here since the name change and ownership swap, and today will also be the last.
Firstly, the cooks in the back seem to be the only ones doing there job right and making a real effort.
Everyone out front responsible for your personal absolutely sucked. We sat for a while waiting for them to come by and notice my girlfriend needed another drink. After ten minutes I got up and had to walk to the main desk to ask for one. The girl rolled her eyes at me and asked if it was sprite. I said yes and she walked off with the cup, I sat down. She brought the drink back and I said thank you and she just kept walking.
My food was cold even though it was supposed to be fresh. The bread was rock hard and the chicken was all fat. My girlfriends soup was nasty. And the servers were moping around and a female server was asleep with her hand in the silverware bucket.
This is ridiculous and it’s not how you run a restaurant. I don’t think I’ve ever been so dissapointed in a restaurant overall.
I do not recommend coming here unless you feel like doing everything yourself including warming up your own fresh food.
The booth we sat at had a huge tear in it, that was repaired with SF Giants ducked tape.

Since my last visit this place has really improved — it’s still just typical buffet food, but they have quite a few seafood dishes and those are my favorite.
They serve crawdads, spicy shrimp, crunchy fried shrimp, honey walnut prawns, octopus, raw oysters on the half shell, baked clams, crab legs, huge crab claws, cooked mussels, sautéed clams, baked fish, salmon, 3 types of sashimi plus many other sushi rolls and more! And that’s just the seafood!
Your typical spicy chicken and beef dishes, plus chicken wings and ribs, rice, noodles, etc are all there too. There’s even seaweed salad and a small salad bar.
Service was on point Monday night (server #4 — she was awesome). MNF was on TV so I watched the game while I enjoyed round after round, before finishing with a giant soft-​serve ice cream cone.
My meal was $ 14.16 plus a nice tip for immediately clearing plates and keeping my water full. I left happy with the value — the price was great for all the food I ate. The oysters alone were worth what I paid — fresh squeezed lemon juice in seashells of full of ocean goodness. Can’t beat that!

The tea and canned fruits were the highlight of our meal.
Actually, I liked the mayo fried shrimp very much and the fact that they had tuna and salmon sashimi. My husband liked the Won Ton soup. Otherwise, it was a disappointment. When my husband doesn’t eat at least three plates of food, then there’s definitely something wrong. lol! They had the WORST hot & sour soup I’ve ever had. That’s the only soup I get when I get Chinese food, and that was just the worst I had ever tasted. They had crab legs. Maybe I just took the worst ones, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE crab legs, but these were bad. The meat was yellow and not flavorful, so they weren’t worth the trouble of cracking them open, so I didn’t bother to get any more. All the rest of the food was just OK/​mediocre.
We checked this place out because they changed the name and had new management and my friend said it was good, but we will keep going to the China Wall Buffet on Willow Pass from now on when we want to go to a Chinese buffet. In our opinion, that’s the best Chinese Buffet in the Concord/​Martinez/​Pittsburg area that we’ve found. Or, go to Tomi’s buffet at the mall for Japanese/​sushi buffet; they’re good, too.
PS, I am not being paid by either China Wall or Tomi’s to say these things…

sign says $ 4.99 per pound lunch to go
I ask for the mongolian buffet to go and get told its $ 6.99 per pound !
absurd

A big yawner. We had been when it was Buffet City, and it was quite inferior to China Wall. They did have frog legs, though. My hunny wanted to try them out some time, now that it’s a new restaurant. Today, she suggested that we eat there (for those who are not husbands, her wish is our command, unless we are fine with never sleeping in the same room with her again), so off to Lin’s we go.
I didn’t see much change at all from its previous iteration, except that they now have crawfish instead of frog legs and China Wall has neither. Relatively small selection of food, but they keep it stocked. And the food was, well, okay, typical Chinese buffet fare, but it didn’t really jump out at you. The wait staff isn’t around as much, so if it’s important to you that your dirty plates are taken and your Cokes are filled, then best to not eat at Lin’s.
Then the bill came. About like eating dinner at China Wall. My wife is not price-​conscious at all, and even she thought the bill was high. Major uh-​oh.
Notice that I keep comparing Lin’s Buffet to China Wall. The latter is not a top-​notch restaurant, but it’s far preferable to the former. I think we’ll stick to China Wall from now on. Maybe turn this restaurant site into an Everett & Jones or something, the buffets here have not been winners.

When I saw Lin’s had taken over Buffet City, I was concerned. I figured we would have to go to other spots for massive overeat meals. I’m not a big fan of buffets, S loves them.
On our first visit my worse fear was that I would not like the food and they would not have the Korean short ribs. I did not like the food and there were no short ribs, I was disappointed! Of course we were there between lunch and dinner. I agreed to go back and try it again and I’m glad I did. I had my fill of short ribs and S had his fill of crawdads. He thought the crawdads were not seasoned as well as they were before. I thought the short ribs were excellent, I hope they serve them every night. Another plus, is the sushi is very fresh.
I will not complain when S wants to go back!

This place is the exact same wtf are you kidding me smh lol
The audacity of some ppl sometimes. Why would you call your self a new place when’s its f***king exact same!
Make better and FRESHER food.
And be clean for Christ sakes. My kod, it’s like dirt galore @ places like this.
SEVEN THOUSAND THUMBS DOWN!

Pros: lots of different options, inexpensive and lots of seating
Cons: some of the food was cold that wasn’t supposed to be
Came her yesterday, 5÷31÷15 for dinner. There was a lot of options to choose from. I had a lot of the seafood which wasn’t bad. They offered more sushi than any other buffet I’ve been to and it was being made fresh. The only complaint I had was that the chowmein was really watery and cold and the fried rice almost looked like white rice with peas and carrots mixed into it. Other than that, everything else was decent. For $ 12.99 a person, I couldn’t really complain. Service was friendly and fast. The place was clean and well kept.

What can you really expect from a buffet. Although some people have slammed Lin’s Buffet for an assortment of issues, it does service it purpose and provide a decent arrange of selections and customer service. Because its a busy buffet, its all based on timing. No excuses however. Bathrooms should be clean and smelling good (at this visit was fair, no smelly or weird). Food was ok (something they should put more effort in quality) and customer service (at times, the servers look bored and probably are overworked). They MUST be more attentive with keeping the table undersides (underneath) more clean. This is overlooked in many buffets and spells doom for any eating experience. In the end, our experience was fair and hopefully they’ll improve as they see the Unilocal reviews come in.