Peking Buffet

Peking Buffet: good

Wifey's 2 cents:

Last night we went to Peking Buffet in Coralville. We were part of a larger group of 8 adults. This wasn't my first trip to Peking Buffet, but it's only my second trip since the reopening. I love the new building. The layout of the new place, I think, is one of the better layouts for a buffet restaurant. Plus the decor is clean and simple and bright. On to the food...

One of the nice things about the food choices here is that there is Chinese cuisine, plus some Japanese foods, and a few American items to make sure those picky eats could stay (at least mildly) happy.  I was really happy with the staff that worked there because a couple of my friends really wanted to make sure that they knew what they were eating (dietary) and they were able to get a menu (which are just readily available) and order food, instead of using the food out on the main floor.  The plate of veggie lo mein that they were brought was enormous and was enough food for probably 4-5 people. They also ordered some sushi, and it was artfully prepared, and all of the items were very tasty.  I was super pleased that the staff at the restaurant easily and without complaint accommodated my friends and made their meal as enjoyable as it was for the rest of us.

Several of us enjoyed the sushi - and no one was disappointed. Sometimes sushi on a buffet doesn't work well, because sushi needs to be enjoyed/eaten shortly after it has been prepared. This sushi is replenished frequently and gobbled up quickly by the customers. All of the rolls are lovely to look at, which I have always found to be part of the enjoyment of sushi. Sushi - it was all tasty.

I then tried the crab rangoon, mei fun, mongolian beef, and chicken and broccoli. These were all tasty. The mei fun and the chicken and broccoli were my favorites. I really enjoy these tiny rice noodles that mei fun is. The chicken and broccoli was seasoned well, the broccoli was perfectly cooked. Broccoli, often times, gets over or under cooked. I like broccoli, but only when it's properly prepared. It needs to still be a vibrant green and tender, but not mushy. Broccoli should never be cooked to a dull green to brown color, and it shouldn't be mushy, EVER. 

One of our friends was thrilled with the desert choices, endless ice cream, as long as you want to keep scooping. Lots of tasty desert choices abounded, and once again, no one in our party was disappointed and that makes me happy.

Overall, this restaurant was a great choice and no one walked away hungry. Flavors were wonderful and choices abounded - which is very important for a buffet.

Hubby's 2 cents.
Taking a page from the Red Queen's court, I'll go with sentence first, verdict afterwards. When picking a place to go with a group, a wide selection is very important. I would sentence people I liked to going to Peking Buffet on those grounds without question, and look forward to eating there again.

The decoration and layout of the restaurant are great, it was a bit warm and humid for my tastes, but with an indoor fish pond and the weather fluctuations of late I'm going to assume that was a one time issue with the thermostat until the next time I go there.

Looking for meatless options I headed over to the sushi bar, they offer a veggie roll (though I'm not sure what the yellow in the middle was) which was tasty, and the self serve wasabi and pickled ginger were very welcome. Friends who were with us requested California rolls without meat from the chef, shared them, and I can say that they were excellent. As far as Chinese dishes, there were a lot of options, and the mei fun in particular was excellent.

Now for a bit of a downside (at least for a vegetarian) while almost all (90%) of the food was labeled, a bit more info on the labels would have been nice. Are the egg-rolls vegetarian? are they pork? are they chicken? how about shrimp? the sign just says egg-roll. (I'm told they were pork) The same issue with the spring-rolls, but those turned out to be meatless.  There were a couple of other dishes that looked very interesting, but where I couldn't tell by looking if there was meat in them or not. I know that I could have asked, and I likely will the next time that I'm there, I just think some kind of icon or something indicating food not having meat would have been nice.

For the verdict. The company was great, the service wasn't bad, The food was good overall with some of it being excellent imho.