21 Buffet

This place has been closed for months. Why doesn’t Unilocal take these restaurants down once they are closed? It’s such a waste of time.

Buffet isnt very clean. Food isnt very fresh. Service was not very attentive either. Very disappointing..

I was not that impressed with it. The beef and broccoli tasted weird. I dodident think I got my money’s worth, and I wont be back. i expected more for $ 11.00.

Seems like a lot of unfair reviews here. What do you expect for a Chinese buffet under 10 bucks? The food is greasy and hits the spot when you want some mediocre food on the cheap. It’s nothing more and doesn’t promise to be. I like that the price includes a drink and the servers are always speedy on the refills. Some of my favorites are the honey chicken and Mongolian Pork. Not bad!

I was leafing through some old coupons that I got in the mail, and I saw one for 21 Buffet. I had never tried this in its old life as Lucky Star, and I figured it was overdue for me to try it just this once.
First off, there are a few decent things here, which is why I’m not giving it straight up 1 star. I don’t remember which meats were pretty good, but I would just follow my standard buffet strategy if I were to come back. The strategy is to try one or two pieces of everything, and now I’ve realized that I need to add «poke the meat with the serving spoon» before grabbing it. A lot of things are dry, and it’s no wonder with all the small pieces being kept warm all day (but hopefully not since the previous day). Look for the items that are still steaming, or the ones that you see being brought out fresh. I thought the the fried plantains (labeled as «banana») were surprisingly nice, and probably the only decent dessert judging from looks (I skipped everything else).
Service was also, well, serviceable. They refilled my friend’s drink (included in price, which is good) constantly, and they helped to level out the rickety table.
Now for the true negatives. The fresh shrimp were not deveined. It also lacked flavor, as did the freshly fried shrimp. The crab legs were incredibly devoid of flavor. It’s like they left it in fresh water long enough to take all the natural flavor out of it. I had to add flavor with soy sauce, which is sinful, but I otherwise would have left it behind. The texture was the only thing not ruined, but that’s not enough. Lots of chicken were dry. The bao bao shrimp is actually like meat loaf (which isn’t a bad thing if you like meat loaf), and whatever imitation stuff was in the crab shell was way starchier than even I had anticipated.
Maybe I should have given this place 1 star for its crimes against nature (the crab and shrimp), but there were just enough redeeming qualities today to save it. Barely.