Hy Buffet

A Vietnamese buffet in the ‘Burbs!?! NOOO WAY! Well it’s 70% Vietnamese. I say 70% because it absolutely has a ton of Vietnamese items you would never see at any other Asian buffet. But it still has the greasy Chinese staples like sweet & sour chicken, plus a tiny section of American buffet items.
Hy Buffet is the first ever Vietnamese buffet I’d ever heard of in Georgia. For that, I was very excited to try it out. I’ve heard a lot of bad things about Hy, so I decided to test the water.
First, I am Vietnamese so that could make me a tough critic for Vietnamese food, but let me just say that I would be willing to pay more if it means the food would be better.
There is so much to write about but I will just sum it up and say that the only thing I liked here was the Crème Brulee and the Banh Canh Cua. Yes, only those two things.
The soup station is probably the only decent thing around here. They have Phở, Bun Bo Hue, Banh Canh, Bun Rieu, Mi Bo Kho, Bun Oc, Hu Tieu My Tho, and a few others soup noodles I haven’t tried. The Crab Banh Canh was pretty good, and the Bo Kho was bad; pretty tasteless.
I’m disappointed to say that the best Vietnamese buffet in my opinion is definitely not Hy Buffet. This restaurant does not seem to stand above its cookie cutter Chinese buffet competitors or any other Vietnamese Restaurants out there.
What I like about Hy Buffet:
— The selection of soups
— The desserts
— Sushi
— Hot Pot
— Service
What’s wrong with Hy Buffet:
— Seasoning is just wrong (SOOOOOOOOO wrong)
— Someone need to taste the food before serving it
— Need to invest in a new Chef (a Vietnamese Chef)
— It’s overpriced

Me and some buddies stumbled upon this place on Saturday evening for my going away party. The reason we decided to try Hy was because Iron Age (next door) was too damn busy. Little did we know this place exceeded our expectation (at least mines).
Food taste/​quality: the Phở was actually good and broth was on point. Craw Fish was watered down with no spicynesss or olé bayness. Everyone thing tasted salty but that may be due to me having a clean diet. I was too stuff to try any of the traditional Vietnamese delicacies.
Service: I was blown away by the service of our waiter Miss Ling. She was attentive and friendly with our refills, served us our Phở bowl, and served us our steak. This is REALLY RARE for an Asian buffet. I’m not sure if just her personality or if it’s an attitude that all Hy employees instill.
Price: a little steep for a buffet but worth it. Wouldn’t be my go to spot.
Recommendation: yes, I recommend this place and would consider going again.

Went here for the lunch buffet and was blown away by the size [giggity]. Even for lunch, Hy Buffet had an impressive offering of sushi and hot entrees. While at some places it’d be a no go, the Phở bar was also a go-​go. (Yes, I’m aware it’s pronounced f-​uh, but that doesn’t prevent all of the puns from still being made).
One of the highlights of the buffet was the grilled chicken skewers. Absolutely every Asian buffet has these teriyaki grilled chicken skewer things [don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about]. Hy Buffet is one of the few places that executed these well.
The sushi was diverse both in look and taste. While the sushi here won’t deceive any connoisseurs, I enjoyed all of the various rolls that I sampled.
The Phở served at the phở bar did not have the impossibly good broth that I have been accustomed to. But it still wasn’t awful.
I haven’t sampled enough buffets in the Atlanta area to compare Hy to all of the others. As a cheap lunch, Hy does the job very well.

I decided to treat out D and his dad to dinner since I got my big girl job now and his dad wanted to come back here and give it another go. D and his dad had come a while before with their family, and so I was willing to give it a try, although, it was pretty hard to turn down Korean BBQ lol.
We came in on a weeknight around 7pm, and there was probably one family dining in at that time. It started to slowly fill in as the time passed, but for a buffet, it was pretty dead.
We went straight to the sushi first, while D’s dad went for the crawfish. The sushi was probably the better portion of the foods that were self serve. The salmon sashimi was fresh, but the only complaint would be that the sushi chefs could probably cut the pieces a tad bit thinner next time around. I enjoyed the rolls I ate, and wouldn’t complain to much about it.
We got two orders of phở and two orders of bun rieu, and I’d say the phở is not worth getting. The noodles seemed undercooked, and the broth was just not flavorful as a phở broth should be. D enjoyed the bun rieu more than the phở, but I don’t feel the need to comment since I haven’t had authentic home made bun rieu like I have with phở so I’m not too sure what it’s suppose to taste like lol.
We all felt that they might need a new hot foods chef cause… it wasn’t very appetizing to look at nor eat. That might be one of the biggest complaints we had about this place.
Overall, I came in not expecting anything grand from other friend’s experiences, and so with that, I didn’t come expecting much, which made my experience slightly better lol.
But I highly doubt we’d be back. D’s dad got up saying he’s not going to come back so I guess you can take that for what you will.
It’s just another buffet, nothing special about it and nothing worth raving about.

I am glad I disregarded the discouraging reviews. I’m fairly new to Vietnamese cuisine, and Hy offers a great way to check out items you might not other have a chance to try, with little risk. I ate my first lychee as well as the banana leaf wrapped desserts.
Service was attentive and pleasant, and all items were fresh and inviting. I am glad this place has reinvented itself in such a creative and unique manner. A bonus for Atlanta!

My husband and I loved this place so much that we came back second time out of five days stay in Atlanta.
Even though it’s a buffet, but every dish is very well-​seasoned with such an amazing selection of food.
I’ve tried every single item as well as the noodle soups on the menu, the broth are very flavorful that I kept slurping the whole thing.
Ginger snails are our favorite, couldn’t get enough of it.
Dessert soups are the bomb.
Sushi are freshly made constantly by the Mexican chefs behind the counter. That’s right, sushi are made by Mexican chefs, it’s really good though.
I like sushi but they have too much of it, I think they should cut out half and replace with something else, other Japanese dish maybe.
The place is huge and organized, feel like it’s a Japanese restaurant.
All the staff are really nice and efficient, I didn’t get the name of the female server, she’s very sweet. The second time we got the waiter name Eric, he’s excellent, polite and attentive, checked up on us often to see if we need anything.
The male manager is nice and friendly. He saw my husband taking pictures of me and he came over to offer taking pictures of us.
I must say all the staff really try their best to make customers happy, if someone come here and complain about the service, then that person must be a pain in the butt, no one else could please them and should be staying home waiting for mama to cook.
Food and service are awesome, I’d definitely go here again if I’m in Atlanta.

I spent much of this past June in Vietnam. My 2^nd trip there. I was finally back in the States and heard about this place. I went with two Viet friends and we gave it a try on a Sunday around 6. I think it was like 17.99 for dinner, maybe it is like 11.99 or 12.99 for lunch. No crab legs now though.
Ok, so the good:
Service was good. Cleared plates quickly. The Crab soup that you could order was just like what I would eat most days in Hanoi, it was legit. The chicken thigh skewers in garlic and chili sauce were also very good. Some of the sushi was good.
OK, so the poor:
The Sashimi is clearly frozen, and farm raised, it was very mediocre. I mean when I compare to the salmon at Nori Nori, this just does not fit the bill.
I likely will not be back, but I could imagine this place improving various aspects. For example, all they have is generic dumb-​dumb Chinese frozen food style egg rolls here. Why in the WORLD would they not have Vietnamese Fried egg rolls with finely minced goodness in them. I mean if you are a Vietnamese buffet how can you not have this?

This restaurant is VERY BIG and their food selection matches their guest capacity perfectly. There’s an optional hot pot for an additional cost and snow crab legs for an additional cost as well. I hear this place used to be $ 30 per head, but they toned it down to $ 20. So I guess that’s why those two cost extra.
Now the ALL YOU CAN EAT part:
They’ve got about ten choices of phở + soups. I ordered the #1 phở, not too shabby but their broth was too salty.
They’ve also got other viet dishes such as rice vermicelli and pork chop. Their American steak is meh, I wish they had steak sauce. They’re pork chop is great, it’s got that sweet grilled taste.
Their fresh spring rolls are fantastic! I loved the ham one. I wrapped it up with big pieces of lettuce they had and dipped it in fish sauce. I must say, their appetizer section was my fav. Their sushi is TERRIBLE. doesn’t taste fresh at all, flavor doesn’t even taste good. I would only recommend the plain fish sushi pieces such as tuna or salmon on a bed of rice. They also carry unique food items such as giant snails and frog legs! Plenty of crawfish too.
Great dessert section with a mixture of Vietnamese and American sweets. They even have a jar of coconut milk for you to add onto viet desserts. I’m OBSESSED with their crème brûlée. I couldn’t help but eat 2! It was too perfect for a buffet.
Honestly, this buffet has a great wide range in variety of food items, but I’d say only half of them satisfy the taste… Some dishes were bland. Some were just old. I’d recommend you wait for a fresh batch to come out for hot items because their business is slow so some dishes have been sitting out for a while… I can’t say it isn’t worth the $ 20. They just need to work on their ingredients and replenish trays.

I want to like this place, I really did. There are definitely things I liked about it but then again there are also things I didn’t.
Things I liked:
— concept: I like the idea of a Vietnamese buffet. Vietnamese food is very flavorful and interesting and I would love for people to know viet food as more than just phở or banh mi.
— great sushi, crabs, and noodle selection: These were the highlights of the restaurant. Some of the noodle dishes were a little off (ie too greasy) but I like the selection. They had options that can rarely be found on other menus.
— nice touch with the desserts. I liked that they added viet deserts into the selection instead of just fruits and pastry. They had Che :)
Things I didn’t like:
— the food was a little bland: I know that the owner is trying to cater to a lot of people but sometimes that can isolate viet people who really like that extra flavor.
— price: I can see why it’s expensive. There are tons of «pricy» options (sushi, crabs, hotspot, crawfish, etc) but at 30 $ a person… It just needed better quality and flavorful options
Overall… I would give this place another chance later on, once they work everything out. The owner talked to us and said that he’s working on the menu and trying different things to see what works and what doesn’t. I do give it to him, he’s trying. This place had a lot of mixed reviews… So why not give it a try. You might be one of those who like it. I know there’s a special going on right now (5 $ off a person) so if you want to see what it’s like, this is the time to do it.

I was thrilled to hear about the novel concept of a Vietnamese buffet until I read all of the poor reviews. David decided to test the waters with his family before I make a decision on whether or not to eat there. He concluded that the restaurant was decent and they must have taken heed to complaints from reviewers. He noted the buffets were all well-​stocked when he ate there, ~ a month after the grand opening. One of the complaints were no clear labels for the food items and lack of American dishes. The concern for lack of American food selection at a Vietnamese buffet is kinda… ehh…However, with other Asian buffets offering some American food options, I guess the complaint is somewhat (unreasonably) valid. I mean, they also served sushi at Hy Buffet
A day of strenuous hiking awakened the beast in me and I was ready gorge myself crazy. I was willing to pay $ 30 for the buffet, but luckily I (ok, ok, my boyfriend) only paid $ 25 due to the «manager promotion» they were running that weekend. The discount required you to «like» their page on FB.
At first glance, I was completely entranced by their selection; various spring rolls, street foods like banh khot (mini Vietnamese crêpe/​pancake), banh uot (rice noodle wrapped in banana leaves), snails, snails, and other varieties of snails, frog legs, bo kho (actually very, very good), canh chua (sweet and sour soup), even some Vietnamese desserts, albeit scanty amount. Also included in their dinner buffet are about a dozen soup options, which you can request the server to bring to you. These included: bun oc, bun rieu, hu tieu my-​tho, banh canh, phở, bo kho, etc.
You can also request steak and hot pot at your table. I’m not fond of hot pot, esp. right now when it’s hot as hell. David explained to me, they bring you broth and you go to the buffet stations to get the ingredients. The hot pot ingredients include standard items; mushrooms, lettuce, shrimp, imitation crab meat, etc.
But all that glitters isn’t gold. I was quite titillated to see bun oc, vermicelli soup with snails. It’s a more special dish bc not a lot of restaurants offer it. So I requested it. The oc were flavorless with rubber-​tire-​like consistency. The broth itself was ok.
I was really excited to see the snails, lol. I love those things. Even in California and Texas, where the VTN population is huge, a small styrofoam cup will set you back about 5 or 6 dollars. So I greedily hoarded a plate full. Man, biggest regret of my life, forthe evening. They were impossibly bland, so were the frog legs. They definitely were the frozen kind. I have no qualms with them being frozen, but I was disappointed in how bland they tasted. To make matters worse, the fish sauce was sweet! Who made the fish sauce? Did they even taste it? And on that note, the peanut sauce for the spring rolls sucked. They might have been sitting there for too long to maintain their efficacy. Same goes for the coconut sauce for the che, or Vietnamese congee desserts.
There was a section for goi, or Vietnamese salads. They even had Vietnamese shrimp chips, which you eat with the goi. The stand is next to the American foods. I didn’t get anything from the American foods, except for the corn soaking in butter. I think there were mostly fried food items.
The most redeeming quality of Hy Buffet is their sushi selection. Hy Buffet didn’t skimp on these rolls as they are monstrous. The selection is great, taking up a whole section that’s perfectly placed: center-​court.
The desserts included soft served ice cream. They had green tea, so of course I got that. The green tea flavor was faint and more watery than creamy. It was also a little too sweet for me. However, the petit crème brûlée was surprisingly very good.
There are petit carrot cakes, petit strawberry cheese cake, blueberry yogurt tarts, Vietnamese jello, and standard buffet fruit selection.
Our server was helpful, attentive, and nice
When Sydney’s Buffet opened its doors years ago, it was great. They even offered galbi! Over the years, Sydney’s Buffet waned significantly. So I am really glad Hy Buffet replaced it. I don’t think Sydney’s better than Hy Buffet, even at Hy’s current state. Ultimately, bravo for opening a Vietnamese buffet. Neat! I hope the owners continue to tweak the menu. 30 dollars is steep for Vietnamese food, even if it’s ayce and includes crab legs (and crawfish and mussels). They are nice, but don’t justify the price. Some of the other foods have the potential to be substantially better. I recently went to the Sunday AYCE brunch/​lunch at Ray’s on the River for essentially the same price (~$ 33). Sunday brunch did not included crab legs, but it included crab claws, mussels, and shrimp. Additionally, there was an apparent discrepancy between the quality of the foods at Ray’s and Hy’s to me. They are different food categories, but Ray’s had more quality dishes, and generous amounts of it. Wow, reached my max wc. A 1^st, but hopefully, you feel m

Seriously. This place is horrible and just plain overpriced. I am 100% Vietnamese and this place makes Vietnamese foods look bad. I visited this place the first week they opened with my brother and my two nephew and it was a disaster. I think this buffet is the first buffet where I barely eat five plates. Lol. I usually can eat a lot. This place have decent options regarding Vietnamese dishes and also other kind of cusine, also hot pots and sushi. But overall none of them stood out to me. I won’t be coming back.

We went here for my mom’s bday this past weekend and we thought the food was good. The sushi was surprisingly good and the sashimi was fresh. They never ran out of crab legs, as opposed to Nori Nori. They had lots of unique food that you don’t see in other Asian buffets, and my family even said that they ate stuff that they hadn’t eaten in 20+ years since moving to the US. One tip I have is to remember to ask your server for the hot pot!
I had also read the prior reviews for this place, and was a little bit concerned about this place. However, I think that those things were just a result of this restaurant figuring things out in their first month of opening. Also, they were crazy busy on Mother’s Day (with a 3 hour wait), so some of those complaints on that day are understandable. Like someone else said on here, I feel like this restaurant reads the reviews on here and makes an effort to be in touch with what their customers want.
All in all, I wouldn’t say that this is a replacement for Nori Nori as the two restaurants offer two different types of cuisine. In addition, this place is too pricy to come on a regular weekend. However, it’s nice to have Hy Buffet as an additional option for special occasions.

I was hesitant to try this place since I’ve heard some mixed reviews, the bad reviews were mainly about the pricing though. $ 29 a person does look expensive but they offered free drinks & hot pot. Also, snow crabs, claims, snails, and steak!!! You pay $ 30 for Nori Nori ($ 35 including drinks & tax) i think you get a better «bank for your buck’ here.
I must say i was really impressed with the food and the food variety! There is so much to try & eat! Servers were super friendly. I think everyone should definitely try it out!

I know, I know. It’s definitely not a bang for your buck at $ 17.99. But let’s be real nice and try to analyze its merits outside of the price, shall we?
I don’t know what people are so butt-​bitten about with the service. We had a nice waitress. Yeah, that’s vague… but something I did like that Hy does compared to Sydney’s (since we’re going to go there with these other reviews) is that they can take your orders for noodle soup (and pork chops. Porrrrk. Those chops were good.) at your table. She came by frequently and always had a smile as long as you had a thank you in return (common courtesy, right?).
The food wasn’t stellar in quality, but I will commend them for their efforts in trying to replicate traditional Viet dishes. Instead of a full-​out sushi side, they offered spring rolls instead. Those were nice light appetizers. Also, in the hot foods section they offered lots of traditional Vietnamese rice dishes (not sure what they’re called, but they were yummy!). And although I didn’t want to chow down the desserts at a diabolically diabetic pace, I still credit their efforts in trying to replicate Southeast Asian desserts, such as Mung Bean sweet soup, a chilled Taro Tapioca dessert, etc.
Oh, by the way. When they say it’s vanilla ice cream, don’t let the green color of the ice cream deceive you — it’s not green tea (I know, cry cry).
Decent for a very occasional trip. Not amazing. Not awful. A tad bit disappointing, but try to appreciate it for what they’re trying to do. And as for the price, let’s be a little understanding here — the place they’ve got to rent is ginormous, so I’m guessing the rent isn’t so nice to them. Sometimes, you’ve got to try out places just to (as my dad would say) «support them»!

Loved this place!
The food was really good, especially the sushis and the crab legs.
The manager, host, and the servers were extremely nice. They all greeted us when we came. The server was really good and attentive.
Definitely a great environment. Will come back!

I read the reviews on here before I went to Hy Buffet. I can see why people rated it poorly. But let me share my experience and see if that makes a difference.
The negative reviews said this place was expensive. I agree. The current price per adult is $ 29.99 for dinner. For the quality of food, I think it is a little pricey. I think $ 19.99 is a reasonable price to keep me coming back. I would not come back regularly and pay $ 30 plus tax and tip. Yes, they had decent and meaty crab legs but not everyone eats it. Vietnamese food should never be that expensive. These are equivalent to street food in Vietnam — phở, banh canh, bun rieu, mi, banh xeo and bo kho. As far as taste, it was decent and authentic.
Hy Buffet must has been reading a fellow Unilocaler’s review on here because the sushi bar was stocked and never empty on a Thursday night. They now offer American food to cater to those craving pizza, wings and fries in a Vietnamese buffet. I can understand kids wanting American food but for the adults coming to experience authentic Vietnamese food for $ 30 and wanting fast food is a waste. To each their own I guess. Anyhow, they are now serving a limited selection of American food. They also have tongs and label for every dish. To eat hot pot, you would have to order it through the server and they will bring you the broth. You select the food from the buffet to dip in the broth. They also have Vietnamese che. (dessert). I’m not a fan of che. Perhaps if they have «che thai», I would enjoy the dessert bar. Anytime you visit an ethnic restaurant and don’t know how to eat it, ask the server. I’m sure they are more than happy to share their culinary practice to anyone who is open to trying the food. The wait staff was professional. They would even reserve a bowl of noodles for you so you don’t have to wait in line. The only thing I thought they could work on was clearing the dirty plates off the table quicker.
Clearly, they have made improvements based on Unilocaler’s reviews. It is their grand opening month and lots of unexpected things will happen. Many restaurateurs can agree that the first month is their learning curve. I’m not making up excuses for them and I am not affiliated with them. I just believe in giving people second chances. I think this place is decent and they appear to be open to suggestions. Overall, I would recommend this place to friends. It’s your one-​stop-​shop to trying the best of Vietnamese cuisine. I would like to see their price drop a little then I would come back regularly.

Not really good and fresh to recommend. They got mini hot pot charge 1.5 extra each. Did not try. Like old owner buffet.

This place used to be Sydney’s Buffet. I hate to compare but Sydney started out strong. AYCE King crab legs that have the young and old fighting for them, I kid you not. I had an elderly lady jumped right in front of me and yes, I sure did tell her off!
Anyways, I was very excited to learn of this place and have already planned to take mom there when she visits. Well it looks like we’ll be hitting up Iron Age next door.
This place clearly do not know what they’re doing or they do not care what they’re serving the customers. The Vietnamese dishes such as clay pot fish, sweet sour soup, Banh beo (steamed cake with shrimps) are some of the worst food ever. The steamed cakes are over steamed or left out do long that the cake was like eating rubber. WTF is this???
The sweet and sour shrimp soup was just sour and was difficult to eat and I love sour food. The clay pot fish that is not in a clay pot was too salty and taste nothing like its been Caramelized. It’s just salty. All this was harsh on my palate!!! Gah!!!
The crème brûlée tasted like bland whipped cream? The beef noodles had no beef, the floating banana dessert looks like craps floating around on a bowl. The sweet rice and beans tasted decent though.
If you accidentally stumbled upon this place then please stick to the soup station. They have phở, bun bo hue, Banh Canh and a few others I haven’t tried. The Banh Canh was decent to eat; it’s thick noodles with minced pork and crab. The phở is alright as well.
They kept some of Sydney’s sushi dishes, which was a smart idea because they were also decent to eat. No tummy aches as of yet…
I’m so disappointed! This would haven been an awesome thing going with the Vietnamese dishes. I want people to taste and enjoy our food but definitely not from here. I understand cooking for the masses; you have to know how to season large quantity of food correctly.
The owner (s) needs to grab a plate and go taste their food before serving it. From everything I’ve tasted today, it doesn’t look like they care about flavors or quality of their food.
Longevity does not look good for them.

I went with my family here today for lunch to celebrate Mother’s Day. It was super crazy busy but our wait time wasn’t too bad. We were quoted a 30 – 40 minute wait but I think it was more like 15 – 20 min. This place used to be Sydney’s buffet but it’s now an AYCE vietnamese buffet. I was excited about this place opening because there’s no other AYCE vietnamese buffets in the area that I’m aware of.
Once seated it took a few minutes for our server to come over and take our drink order. By the way, they are currently offering free drinks for the first month of them being open. Our server didn’t mention this to us so it was a good thing that I overheard another server mention it to the table next to us. Since today is Mother’s Day and this place just opened a few days ago, the lines at the buffet area were crazy long!
Overall I enjoyed some of the dishes they had here. Some dishes were definitely better than others. Our server was pretty good at clearing our table especially considering how busy they were. I would visit this place again but probably just for lunch because dinner is a little pricey. Lunch is $ 18 and dinner is $ 30. On the weekends its $ 30 all day.

Took my mother (and my family and beau) here for Mother’s Day treat, per her request.
This place used to be Sydney’s Buffet and you can tell that not much has changed. The entryway, layout and even some of the staff members are still the same. They offer some of the same food items — sushi and Chinese. Amongst the new items are the 8 different Vietnamese soups (banh canh cua, hu tieu, bun rieu, bun bo hue, phở, etc) which replaced the noodle bar Sydney had (Japanese udon, etc). There are also a variety of Vietnamese appetizers, salads, and desserts.
There are a few things that I would come back for:
— the meaty Alaskan crab legs
— bánh bèo
— chè đu trng
— snails
Skip on the crawfish — they’re very small, bland, and were still dirty. The soups didn’t compare to your basic Vietnamese noodle restaurants. The fruits didn’t look too fresh. The tongs for the sushi were accumulating a lot of the sauces and started looking pretty nasty. I would stick to the small, cooked rolls. Their sashimi looked a little weird — the color was really pale and the fish didn’t look very fresh either.
The atmosphere was crazy, which I will attribute it to the after church rush, plus the fact that it’s Mother’s Day. The music is confusing — they played both Vietnamese (pop, «og» stuff that the older generation can appreciate) and English songs (clubbing music, rap and hip hop). I’m not sure what kind of crowd they are trying to cater toward.
Service was good but you can tell there are couples amongst the servers. The PDA made it highly unprofessional, especially since it was out in the open in front of patrons.
For the price of $ 30 for dinner (and weekends, I’m assuming, because that’s what they charged me today), it’s unfortunate for me to say that I do not believe it is worth the price. I was really hoping that I would like the idea of an ayce Vietnamese buffet but so far, this one isn’t working out. I’m willing to wait a few months and check them out again to see if things get any better.
They did score a 100 on their current health inspection score. That’s always a plus! Good job, guys! :)
Mother’s Day special — moms eat for half price.
From now until June, you can get $ 5 off (no coupon necessary).