Pacific Buffet & Grill

It was ok… Decent selection, unfortunately I was there around 1:30pm on a Saturday, some of the food that should have been hot was extremely cold, fruit from the salad station warm and salads warm too…

Ok, so this place isn’t fancy, but it is great. I come here several times before each of my exams, and I sit in my dark corner and shovel massive amounts of food into my mouth. People stare, but I don’t care. I always feel better after feeding my inner angry obese man. One shouldn’t come here expecting a four star experience, but one can always find fresh American Chinese food. Bonus: they make their dumplings in house! What kinda crazy crap is that? I would just use frozen like everyone else…

Standard Chinese buffet. Extremely average. Nothing I sampled last night was bad, but on the other hand, nothing stood out either. Honestly, I can’t see stopping back in for mediocre food, there are too many other places to go in the Wallingford area.
A weak 3 Star rating.

It is an amazing place to go and eat!!! Everything is so fresh and delicious and damn cheap!!! God bless this guy who owns it!

I must admit, I wasn’t entirely sure about this place. The reviews ranged from bad to okay, but I did not see any reviews that loved the place. This buffet, by far, has been the best buffet I’ve ever been to. The food was great (dessert cakes were amazing, I loved the carrot cake) and the atmosphere was busy. The food was fresh; because of the large amount of people getting food, the food was restocked readily. I would definitely recommend this place, and if Im ever in the area I will come again.

The hot food selection is ok. There is not a huge variety of prepared foods, but the hibachi makes up for it. The sushi, however… do not go there for the sushi. It is terrible.

Cheap food at a cheap price, what can I say. Don’t eat the sushi! The waitress rushed us the entire way out from the moment we came in until the moment we left. That’s okay… They’ll miss the $ 8.00 a person for lunch for their poor food because we’re never going back. Save yourself the hassle from going into one of those Asian sensation buffets.

I should break this down to a lunch and dinner review, I’ve had decent lunches here on many occasions, however after my second dinner experience I swore I would never go back after 7 pm, the crew was eating dinner and nothing was being replaced, and when the staples like chicken& broccoli or general joe are gone and not replaced they sure aren’t replacing the lesser dishes

Hmmm… this one was alright but it’s tough picking a good Chinese buffet out here in New Haven county because while one is not the same as the next, the quality of the food and the interior décor can leave a lot to be desired.
When I stepped in it did smell really funny — like some food has gone bad or something went bad and re-heated…it was really hard to say. But I waited until it was my turn to order. In this restaurant, you pay before you dine. Talk about trust in the customer! LOL But yea, the Saturday dinner price is okay but the drink is really where they get you. Came out to a little over 16 for the buffet and the drink. The drink I believe was well over 2.50, which is a bit much considering that the drinks are from the well of the soda fountain. I take it that since it’s a Saturday dinner they figured to also charge more for the fountain drinks.
Anyway, so I had the following:
Dim Sum — Pretty good.
Sugar Donut — Very good.
Steamed dumpling — OK.
About every variety of sushi that they had — Pretty good.
Pineapple Jello — Good.
Oreo Cheesecake — Good.
Sirloin Steak — Meh.
Turkey — Meh.
White steamed rice — pretty good.
That wasn’t all that I had, as everything else I had wasn’t very memorable. The thing that kind of bothered about this place was that everything else cooked on display didn’t look very appetizing. It just looked like it was sitting out there for quite some time.
The service was OK but not very quick as other buffets when it came to taking away the empty plate so the customer can make room for a new one. I did not feel that I was being watched though. But I did feel that the servers were bored because it looked like a slow Saturday afternoon.
So if you’re looking for a place to eat with a pretty large group and on a budget, I would come here for a good time. Just make sure you come hungry and with an open mind to eat your money’s worth. I tried hard to do that but due to how the place smelled and looked and how the food looked, I personally couldn’t eat up to what I paid for. This place seems to be kid-​friendly so bear in mind the chance of hearing the occasionally screaming infant/​toddler.

Used to come here all the time but food quality went down hill and the staff always seems miserable. It gets hot inside during the warm months and you feel like your breathing in everyone else’s sweat. it’s gross. Kind of loud inside too if it’s busy. Filthy bathrooms. Prices are average. Just not my first choice anymore if I’m in the mood for a buffet… There’s other places around with a lot fresher food and an overall better experience.

Great place for groups. Super cheap for an all you can eat buffet. Food isn’t the greatest, but it works. Staff is relatively friendly. Over all it’s an alright place to eat. I come here every now and then with a group. I’d recomend it.

Yuck. And ripoff
If you continue reading great. If not you know the just of it already.
I went here and ended up walking out before I actually took my second bite.
So they sat me RIGHT next to an old «gentleman» … As soon as I sat down the guy started (or continued from before I got there depending on how you look at it) letting em fly if ya get my drift. I almost told the guy he should go check himself in the bathroom.
I figured eh. Not the restaurants fault I’ll continue with my experience. I went up to the buffet. Immediately drawn to the sushi side of things… Mistake! The sushi had signs on every other item that stated «for dinner customers only» (mind you its 230pm) and the rest of the sushi wasn’t labeled at all… I assume that what I COULD eat? Idk.
Needless to say all the stuff an avid sushi eater WOULD eat was labeled for dinner only. The other stuff looked not fresh and just overall unappealing. With fears of running up my bill I backed away from the sushi and walked over to the Chinese food.
I grabbed some rice. And some general tsos chicken… I took one bite of the chicken and immediately got this grizzle crunchy uhhhggh yuck making me gag thinking about it.
I spit out the bite into a napkin and just walked out. Didn’t say anything to anyone. Just walked out. No one seemed to care. I’m good with this place. Been here before with similar experience but was hoping it changed
. Ehhhhh wrong

One of the best buffets I’ve been to. I am not one that normally enjoys buffets, but my boyfriend told me they had a variety of sushi and good chinese food, so I tried it. I am happy I did. The atmosphere is very nice, and there is a nice selection of different foods. My favorite is the dim sum. The food was hot and tasted fresh and was very happy with everything I tried. If youre looking for something quick for lunch or dinner, this is a great choice.

This buffet used to be one of my «go to» places for buffet food. The food was usually always warm and fresh and tasted somewhat decent. Man what a decline in quality and service. I went here last year and was very disappointed. Tonight I went back to see if anything changed, It was also a family get together. I found out things have changed and not for the better.
While most of the food was warm few items were somewhat cold. The crab rangoons were cold which was somewhat worrisome. The general tso’s chicken was room temperature and not very good. There was a dish cold sesame honey chicken. Very strange flavor. Not good at all. I tried several other random chicken dishes with much the same flavor. Just not all that great. They had crunchy fish filet that lost the crunch and were just a greasy mess. Spareribs were just OK. The shrimp dishes were decent but fairly mediocre.
The American section was a disappointment. They had shrimp scampi that while tasty was more of a shrimp alfredo. Mac & Cheese was from a box. Spinach puffs lacked flavor. Again, a real disappointment because they were my favorite. I didn’t have anything from the carving section because it all looked very dry and kind of gross.
Sushi was OK for buffet sushi. Fish was all fresh and lean. Assembly was clean and neat. Only thing that irked me to hell was the lack of chopsticks. I had to track down one of the many waitstaff that refuse to smile to request chopsticks. Which brings me to service.
Not one smile or hint of appreciation. Refills were few and far between. My girl pushed her plate aside to eat her soup and the waiter walks over and grabs the plate that was full of food. Really?
The only reason I’m giving 2 stars is for the slice of chocolate chocolate cake I ate for desert. It was fantastic. Better than any store bought cake I’ve ever had. While the cake was really good the rest of the desert I tried was terrible. Rice pudding was runny. The banana wafer cake was OK. I tried the fresh melon and it was inedible. No flavor at all. Not juicy.
In the end I have to say I won’t return unless it’s for another function of some sort.

As a college student, I couldn’t resist going to what seemed like great food at a cheap price. I had a little bit of everything, including some pieces of sushi. Later that evening I felt sick so I went to bed early. The next day I was extreme pain and went to the hospital where I found out that I had gotten food poising from their tuna sushi. I reported this to the Connecticut Department of Health and they told me that this is not a rare occurrence. In fact, this buffet has had a number of reports just that month.
I would highly recommend NOT going here, just to save yourself the E Coli that I got. I have had other friends get sick here as well. Maybe it’s just their sushi, but I would not risk it.

Location — this place can be a little difficult to find. It’s in Wallingford just before you get to Toyota of Wallingford. If you’re coming from north, you’ll have to turn left into a street (by the gas station), then turn left into a strip mall. What’s deceiving is that when you turn into this strip mall, Pacific is located behind the businesses in this strip mall.
Aesthetics — The place is large and well lit. Seating is comfortable.
Menu/​Food — There’s a large variety of Chinese food including American and sushi as well. Desserts are to the extreme left of all the stations and include fruit, an assortment of puddings, cake (slices), and ice cream. Food isn’t too bad and not on the greasy side though some items can be a little tough to chew through, e.g. their BBQ ribs and some of their other meats… could be that they’re out under the heating lamps for a bit too long. (–1)
Service — Very friendly and courteous. There’s always waitstaff walking around to collect your dirty or finished dishes. I’m not sure if when you order soda you get unlimited refills as I saw on this occasion but I could be mistaken.
Rating — ⁴⁄₅. Definitely not bad for the price of $ 7 and change.

My wife and I have tried Pacific Buffet twice now. The take away for us is that it’s just not very impressive at all. Nothing is really terrible, but nothing is really any good, either.
The food selection is decent, at least. This is an Asian style buffet, mixing traditional Chinese Buffet elements with American Buffet elements (General Tso’s chicken and rice, along with steak and potatoes, etc). The selection is actually the highlight here, but the quality is just lackluster; nothing stands out.
The cleanliness is hit or miss… the restaurant itself is clean enough, but I had to cycle through more than one dirty plate before finding a clean one, each time I went up there. The service is also poor. I asked one of the women clearing the plates if there was any barbecue sauce (for my fried chicken), and she told me that they had none. Another worker (one of the cooks, I think), overheard and said that they did have some, which he got for me (they must just use big jugs for cooking, but don’t have any bottles to bring to the tables). I was thankful he got some for me, but if he hadn’t been standing there I would have gone without.
All in all, this is not a favorite place of ours. I can’t say we’ll never go back, but I don’t really know if we will. The only compelling reason for us to return is that there is no other comparable buffet in the area. But I think we’d much prefer just about any other tableside restaurant to Pacific.

While the food was ok, there are some big problems.
— someone vomitted in the bathroom. They mopped the floor but did not bother with the walls.
— the girl carrying the mop for dusting the floor paid no attention to where she was going and ended up dusting a tray of cakes — that they ended up serving anyway.

very good and fresh selection for a buffet.
from Sushi through Asian to American food.
Always busy.
Prices are reasonable.

Pacific is still my favorite buffet and has been since I was in high school, but I stopped in this week and noticed some changes — most likely to cut costs and to make up for the lower lunch and dinner prices they have going right now.
The grill options I wrote about in my last review are no longer, which was why I felt the need to come back and update my review. The grill area has been replaced by a hibachi bar, where you can put noodles, rice, eggs, veggies, and different raw meats on your plate and have the hibachi chef grill it all up for you with any sauce you pick. The line for it wasn’t long, but my brother and I decided to pass on it because we were already eating a lot of other things. The people who did take advantage of the hibachi grill looked pretty happy, though, so I’ll likely try it next time.
Also different — the crab legs aren’t part of the buffet, but you can order them for an additional $ 1.99. It makes sense since they cut the price of dinner, and it doesn’t bother me because I never actually ate the crab legs anyway. The oysters and shrimp are still there and more than enough for me.
Despite the changes, the Chinese food options are still great and better quality than other buffets, even though some things are hit or miss depending on the batch that comes out. For example, the General Tso’s chicken was a little soggy this last time I went, but the crispy garlic shrimp that was next to it more than made up for it. It’s nice that I can try a little of everything then decide if I want more when I go back for seconds (or thirds, or fourths). I grabbed a plate of sushi, and while it’s not the best quality, some of it is actually pretty good. I didn’t care much for the individual red snapper and tuna pieces, but I did get some pieces of interesting rolls, including one with shrimp tempura in the middle topped with different raw fishes that was great. The dessert options are also great — lots of fruits, including lychees, and several flavors of ice cream.
Right now Pacific’s doing a 2 for $ 20 deal for dinner on weekdays, or $ 11.99 otherwise, and lunch is cut back to $ 7.99. For all-​you-​can-​eat, you can’t beat that.