So I went to the Hazlet China Buffet the other day. According to Yelp they have been operating as a buffet for quite a while, with food being served by restaurant staff. Now it’s self serve.
Unfortunately the “monglian grill” station was closed, which took most of the fun out of it for me. But they said it would be returning soon.
After some googling it appears both the Eatontown China buffet and Freehold Japanese buffet are closed. RIP.
Anyone have recent data on East Brunswick’s Teppanyaki Grill?
The recent yelp and google reviews are really bad for this place. But it’s a 10/15$ buffet so I don’t know what kind of expectations people are having. I’d give it a shot but at a 30 minute drive, I don’t know. Not worth the drive for what it is probably.
My BF went there with his family maybe two or three months ago (I was working and could not make it). He said it was not terrible but a far cry from what it used to be. The food was only lukewarm and most of it just did not look fresh.
@joonjoon I remember it being more expensive when I went there two years ago. Closer to $20. But maybe those were weekend night prices. He went for lunch.
The web site says 11.99/16.99 lunch and dinner. There was a pic of prices on yelp from a couple years ago and it was basically the same back then, a couple bucks cheaper for lunch but dinner is the same.
A lot of people on google/yelp complained about the same thing, food not being hot. How is that possible.
It’s gotta be tough (what an understatement) for buffets now, you need high volume and without it it quickly becomes a death spiral.
That was my complaint for the Hazlet China Buffet, which I have not been to in even longer. Probably closer to four years. The food there never really looked all that appetizing (peel-and-eat shrimp and some of their sushi aside) but it would have been fine if it was actually hot. Again, this was a while ago. But definitely lukewarm, which is not only unappealing but also dangerous. Never had that problem at the old Middletown “Grand” China Buffet, which later became Hao for a few years.
I’ve made many a meal of peel and eat and (frozen) fried shrimp at the Eatontown location. The snow crab legs were never a favorite of mine. As my man @joonjoon appropriately said it’s a tough time now for them. Probably outside of AC I bet a decent buffet is a hard thing to find.
Are Golden Corals back open?
Hometown buffet, a place I went on dates in HS is going way if the dino
Is going or has gone? Wasn’t that originally where the Japanese buffet/grill in on Rt 9? Also there was one on Hooper Ave in Toms River. When my kids were just toddlers that or Chinese buffets was all I would go to with them so I became very familiar. Still one of the best corn chowders I’ve had, lol.
If I’m remembering correctly my buddy looked it up and there’s like less than 10 Hometown buffets left in the US. But on a trip down southish recently there were plenty of Shonys which are supposed to be buffets. Haven’t been myself.
I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until Freehold Golden Corral reopens. HODown?
On my recent trip I didn’t have any issues with food temp. That’s just baffling, you would think there’s like an industry standard for buffet water temps under the trays…
So I’ve been borderline obsessing over buffets lately, this post covid buffet situation has really got me down.
The other day I had 2 buffet lunches back to back. First one I went to was Flaming Grill in Linden. There’s a bunch of these around the state with minor variances in the name, it seems to be some kind of loose chain? http://flaminggrilllinden.com/
First of all this place is immaculate, huge and just really nice. And the price is insane, 10.99 for lunch.
The selection is enormous, they have a sushi station as well as a hibachi/mongolian grill station. It felt like I was in paradise.
The sushi wasn’t horrible (bottom tier but I enjoyed it), and any time there’s a mongolian grill I can eat my entry’s worth just in shrimp so it’s hard to complain. They also have a large “American” food selection that I had no interest in. They had some kind of braised beef in gravy thing that looked promising but it was so chewy it was a total dud.
However the yumminess of the food left me a little dissatisfied. The beef at the mongolian station was so chewy it was literally inedible. In my entire existence on earth I can’t think of a single other time I didn’t finish my meat because it was too chewy. And they don’t have a sauce selection so it’s always the same flavor.
A lot of the food is presented at opening in a heaping pile, and as a result much of it was not quite hot enough. It looks nice and impressive, but why is my calamari cold when the buffet just opened?? Shouldn’t it have been fried (even if reused from previous day) right as it came out? Still, based on price and selection I think I will definitely be returning for dinner buffet, it looks like they have things like crab and oysters, and at their prices it will pay for itself just on the oysters I will be eating.
Next - is a place I’ve been going to for a while, Hazlet China Buffet. Now this place is totally sad in comparison, it’s worn down, has that old shitty vibe. Their mongolian grill station is permanently shut down, and it just feels like one of those old sad dying places.
However I do enjoy their selection and a lot of their foods are quite tasty. Going to both these places back to back, I think I ultimately enjoyed the sadder Hazlet buffet better, mostly because what they did have just tasted better. I was surprised to experience this, as I always expected all buffet/takeout quality Chinese food to basically be all the same.
I really hope we get some more buffets coming back.
They’ve had that “old shitty vibe” for a while now. I created this thread in 2019 and have not been there since probably a year or two before that. You could tell they were just going through the motions. Not that I was there frequently, but the few times I was, I literally saw people piling mounds of food maybe six inches high onto their plates. I know its a buffet and you can eat all you want, but damn, you are allowed to go back a second time. 
I don’t mean this any certain way, but I felt back then that the majority of their clientele was not quite concerned with quality and the owners know that. Since they opened post-Covid, I was under the impression they had new owners based on advertising I saw on Route 35 but I could be wrong (the originals ran the Middletown and Eatontown locations).
Do you remember how much they charged? I remember five years ago they were getting what far larger and better buffets were charging which I thought was asinine.
We have a Flaming Grill and Modern Buffet over the river in Westchester as well - not sure if it’s part of the same chain or not. http://www.flaminggrillmodernbuffet.com/ I haven’t been, but it gets good reviews (or at least much better reviews than the exceedingly crappy Chinese buffet it replaced).
I just checked their yelp page and the interior setup looks the same! It must be some kind of franchise type setup. It’s interesting because they all have slight variations on the name and their own web site. I wonder how it all works. But whoever is doing the interior definitely is doing a good job!
@gcaggiano Their lunch was 12.99 I believe. I mean you can always sit down with a pile of fried shrimp and load up on clams and get your money’s worth, but the other place has way more options that Hazlet doesn’t, like peel and eat shrimp and the hibachi bar. I was kind of hung over when I went to Flaming so I definitely want to give them another try. But I will say my feeling on Hazlet was that their food is straight up pretty tasty. Perhaps they are able to put out better quality since they are cooking in smaller batches and have less to put out. On many if not a majority of items I had at both places I can confidently say I definitely enjoyed Hazlet’s version better. But their small selection just doesn’t give you that “omg look at this spread!!” giddiness you get from a place like Flaming.
Alright so since moving to South Plainfield I have so many more buffets near me now! And I have been going frequently.
Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet - South Plainfield. This place is bonkers. Their lunch buffet is like 12.99, dinner buffet 14.99 or something around there. And they put out crab for dinner! The hibachi alone is worth the price of entry. Pile on the shrimp, get yourself a giant plate of clams and mussels and there’s no way you can go wrong here.
Eat Well Modern Buffet, North Plainfield. This place is a couple bucks more than hibachi, but they make up for it with a slightly better hibachi selection and a “Korean BBQ” station, and they also have a better sushi selection. The Korean BBQ is pretty good, and includes grilled shrimp.
Also I was finally able to check out an Indian buffet on Oak Tree rd, at Rasoi. It was really great but the only protein is chicken. 14.99. I really wish there was some guide to buffets in Edison, so you know what, I am going to be the change I want to see and start cataloging them. Should we start an Indian buffet thread?
No dhal? No paneer? No channa? No rajma? Really?
There is another Hibachi Grill & Supreme Buffet in Manville next door to the movie theater. Pre-COVID the buffet and a Christmas movie was our tradition. The theater has reserved seating and a full bar.
We’ve been going to Raku Buffet in Cherry Hill. Okay, its more of a Japanese buffet because they have sushi, but they also have Chinese items on the hot buffet. The sashimi is buffet style and you order nigiri and rolls from your server. For dinner they have lobster, split Dungeness crab, snow crab legs, and stone crab claws on the buffet. Crackers are available, but I bring my own little kit with the tiny forks and picks.
Err I mean the only meat is chicken - no goat! For me goat is critical.
