China Buffet

In a word: It's not on the bad list, but it's not exactly a good place to take a date.

The specs: #0078
Address, hours & details via Isthmus.

Chad, David, JM, Kayla, Nichole, Rachel, and Renee all had the buffet.
The bill was $63 plus tip.
Rachel and Renee gave China Buffet a B; Kayla gave China Buffet a B-; Chad and JM gave China Buffet a C; David and Nichole gave China Buffet a C-.

When we drove up, Rachel and Renee started freaking out about similarities the motel next to China Buffet on East Washington Ave. bore to a certain horror movie.

Big crowds call for little editorial mucking about. Forthwith:

Chad commented that a lot of the dishes were cold, but fairly tasty - not enough veggie selections. An acceptable place to eat.

David sampled lots o' the chicken dishes and wrote that one pot sticker was a bit undercooked, and still pink. Eyeballs.* Questionable...very.

JM ate his usual one-two punch of appetizers followed by main dishes.  Everything in the place struck him as warmed over but adequate.  Definitely a typical buffet: something for everyone but nothing great.

Kayla said that it had a very Mom & Pop feel. It was late in the day (don't know if that is a factor), but the steamed fish was dry and only semi-hot. Wide selection of tastes.

Nichole also lamented the lack of veggie dishes. The time, more than 2 hours before closing, really shouldn't be an excuse for the cold food, but next time maybe she'll avoid the buffet.

Rachel: "Interesting!"

Renee opined that the service was excellent, and there was a wide variety of foods (but somewhat cold).

*It turns out the eyeballs were probably canned white cherries.

Comments

[Sean]

On the topic of that Identity-lookalike, the Spence Motel, I found the AP blurb about the murder there:

Madison reports murder

MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ An Iowa man who was valedictorian of his high school class but was hospitalized with mental problems last year has been jailed in the slaying of a 20-year-old woman at a Madison motel.
Police said the victim worked for an escort service.

The 22-year-old man from Monona, Iowa, was arrested at the scene in the bludgeoning and stabbing death of Emma Bacon. Police said they would seek a charge of first-degree intentional homicide while armed with a dangerous weapon.

Bacon, formerly of Sturgeon Bay, was killed Friday night at the Spence Motel.

I cut & pasted instead of linked because the only place I could find this was in a Google cache of a dead link. That said, if you want the real creepy skinny, here's the Google cache on the Beloit Daily News coverage of his trial:

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:NiWnYPGA6y8J:www.beloitdailynews.com/498/4wis8.htm+%22brandon+grady%22+escort&hl=en

The killer was also name-dropped in the WSJ's recent Prison series:

http://www.madison.com/wsj/spe/prison/index.php?ntid=24857&ntpid=1

[D']

The Spence Motel is creepy! And so are pseudo-eyeballs.

Is the China Buffet under the same ownership as China One Buffet? And does the difference in names mean that you'll need to sample the cuisine at both?

[nichole]

I'm glad I didn't know that sordid history before we went there!

I think China Buffet and China One Buffet are under different ownership. We assumed so, anyway, and China One is *very* different from China Buffet, is different from China Inn, is different from China Wok...