Restaurant Review: China Super Buffet in Waterlick Plaza, Lynchburg, VA

China Super Buffet has been in business for many years. Recently, however, they have been advertising a lot on television. It seems every time I turn on the television, their commercial is being aired. The commercials show the buffet, highlighting their all you can eat crab legs, mussels, and 'peel and eat' shrimp. The prices for lunch and dinner are also listed. Dinner is only $8.99. Thinking that the food looked good and that the price was decent, I decided to try China Super Buffet.

In addition to the seafood, they also have a nice variety of Chinese food, including general chicken, sesame chicken, Peking duck, sushi, egg rolls, spring rolls... And that's just from memory, there is a lot more available on the buffet. Their dessert items include Chinese donuts, mini cream puffs, cookies, brownies, and more. They also have an ice cream machine that has chocolate, vanilla, and swirled soft serve. However, they do not have ice cream cones.

My first visit

My friend and I arrived at China Super Buffet at ten minutes to 4pm (the time that they serve dinner). I asked the waitress when they put the crab legs on the buffet, and she responded that they are only a dinner item. I told her, while the commercial didn't say they were a dinner item, that I did not mind paying the dinner price. After all, it was mere coincidence that I arrived a few minutes to 4pm, qualifying me for the cheaper lunch price. I made it clear that I was there for the crab legs and that I was willing to pay the dinner price, which is only about two dollars higher. The people who work there do not speak perfect English, but she understood what I was saying.

As 4pm came and went, I asked again when they would have crab legs available. The waitress admitted that they were waiting to put out the crab legs because there were people there who would pay the lunch price. Obviously, the restaurant didn't want to make crab legs available to the lunch patrons because they are a more expensive dinner item. I can't blame them for this, but considering it was after 4pm, they could have brought me some crab legs to the table to avoid this problem. Not that I requested they bring them to me, but they should have done something than make me wait for so long.

After I asked what the hold up was for a third time, some crab legs were finally put on the bar thirty minutes later than what they should have been. And it was only a few individual crab legs (not the groups of them together as was shown in the commercials). It was so few of them that they only covered the bottom of the pan. There was maybe enough for two people. This was fine since I was the only person there paying the dinner price. My friend had already told the waitress that he didn't want any crab legs. More customers did come in closer to 5pm, but it's sad how little business China Super Buffet has considering the food is great.

My second visit

Before writing a review of China Super Buffet, I wanted to give them one more chance to see if they were really hoarding the crab legs or if they simply weren't putting out many because there were so few dinner customers on my first visit.

This time, I went there a little after 6pm so it was two hours past when they begin serving dinner. They had a few customers in there this time, but they still didn't have many crab legs on the bar. However, I told them that they needed to cook more because my friend wanted some. And they put out more on the bar pretty fast. I've decided to believe that they were just having an off day on my first visit there because it was a Monday and so few customers. But either way, I'll always go there closer to 5pm rather than the 4pm dinner time to prevent any problems since I mostly go there for the crab legs.

I had the same waitress both times that I ate there and she was very polite. The other staff was nice as well. It is really nice to eat at a restaurant that doesn't have many other people there. I highly recommend China Super Buffet.