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, or $9/person, 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- (see our grading rubric).

Latest China Buffet news and reviews

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...

[Leeds]

Can I just ask, what does the China Restaurant have anything to do with the murder of an escort service in Madison? Just asking.