You would think that a Chinese Buffet staffed by those of obvious Chinese descent (who spoke something that I was pretty sure was some sort of Chinese) would represent a marked improvement over the sort in East Texas, located out in the middle of nowhere and staffed by individuals of a Hispanic descent. You would think that... but in this case, you'd be WRONG.
The Metro Buffet on Blairs Ferry Rd in Hiawatha (Cedar Rapids) has to be one of the worst buffets, if not the worst that I've ever been to. Some would criticize and say that my tastes are not acclimated to "authentic Chinese cuisine." And that might be true to a certain extent... but the staff of the Metro Buffet wouldn't know authentic Chinese if it lit the restaurant on fire on account of being far too busy yelling at each other in shrill voices across the restaurant.
In fact, let's take a minute to discuss the food. The crab rangoon was the worst I've ever had... it tasted strongly of salt and old fish and I could barely gag one down. The sesame chicken was actually "white sesame chicken" and it was basically fried chicken soaked in an orange sauce that tasted suspiciously like sweet and sour. The peppers in the pepper steak and the General Tsao's Chicken were wilted and off-color and the broccoli was brown... really, the only vegetable that wasn't screwed up was the onion, and that was nearly raw. All in all, the only thing that tasted like it was supposed to that I was willing to try was a chinese donut.
And for the pleasure of partaking of this exquisite fine dining experience as overseen by the paramount staff, I got to pay $12.50. Now, to be fair, there were options as far as sub-rate sushi and snow crab legs were concerned... but considering the quality of the other faire of which I HAD partaken, I wasn't about to risk my ass on food poisoning.
Posted by Vengeful Cynic at April 9, 2008 10:45 PM | TrackBack