Koywan Buffet

Reviews 3

A

A Robinson

**Do yourself a favor and dont waste your time with this place. Notice all of the negative reviews recently. I wish we would have known this prior to going yesterday!!** We’ve been going to this buffet since it was Crazy Buffet more than 5 years ago. Unfortunately last night was the last time we will ever be visiting this restaurant as it was a total disaster. This restaurant is a 45 minute drive from our home but we chose to make the drive because the sushi buffet close to us can be inconsistent from time to time. After arriving at 9:20 which was over an hour before closing we were escorted to our seats. On the way we passed the sushi buffet bar and I noticed quite a number of sushi rolls empty/sold-out. There was one sushi assembler (dont know if they can be classified as sushi chefs?) present however he was not making sushi and appeared to be doing closing duties and cleaning up. Upon being seated I asked our server to notify the sushi assemblers to make more sushi. She immediately sent the manager over so I suspect they have encountered this situation before. The manager came by to address me. I explained my concern over the sushi shortage and he invited me to the sushi bar to show him. Once there I pointed out that 60 – 70% of the sushi serving trays were empty, and the trays that remained had very few left. He asked me what I would like as the assembler could make a couple of rolls for me and my wife. I asked him to see a sushi menu and he told me they did not have one. There were cards with sushi names on the buffet bar however there were no descriptions. I said how can I tell you what I want if I don’t know what the various rolls are? I then informed him that there was over an hour before closing time and I expected to have the full range of choice at the sushi bar. He said they could not refill the entire sushi bar because of the time and waste. This made absolutely no sense as the restaurant had plenty of diners and people were still sporadically walking through the door. I continued to press him and he offered up every excuse and did not budge. He said that late night they encourage people to come in for take-out sushi to receive a 50% discount. This was the first I ever heard of this and there were no signs posted. I asked him if dine-in meals would be discounted and he said no. As we’re talking another restaurant guest is looking confused with his plate as there is very little sushi for him to put on his plate. Not getting anywhere I asked the manager how he would feel if he were in my shoes as a diner. He responded by saying that he would not go to a buffet later because “THE FOOD WAS OLDER AND NOT FRESH”. I almost lost it as I could not believe what I was hearing! My reply was “so what you’re saying is that your food is not fresh?”. Realizing his Freudian slip, he denied that their food is old and claimed he never even made the statement. It was like being in the Twilight Zone. Upon hearing this I decided there was no point in staying so I returned to our table to retrieve my wife and kids. She was feeding my son a chicken wing she got from the Chinese food side of the buffet. After leaving she informed me that the non-sushi side of the buffet was lacking food also. The bottom line is that in any buffet business there will invariably be some food waste. This is just the nature of the business. However if you want to keep customers happy and coming back so your business stays full and makes money, you should offer the same food selections at 9 pm (one hour and a half to close) as you do at the start of dinner service. And, when your guest asks you to make reasonable accommodations you should probably not refuse. Next time we will save our gas, time, and money.

LI

lisa bohorquez

My husband and I took our daughter and son here for our daughters 17th birthday. We arrived at 8:40 pm. We had to wait almost 10 minutes for the hostess to make an appearance. There was an employee seated at the bar, watching television. He made NO EFFORT to find the hostess. When she finally showed her face, she told us it was last call. We didnt understand...we thought she was talking about the bar...we dont drink. She explained that they close at 10pm, and anything that was on the buffet already was IT. They wouldnt be bringing out any more food. We asked if we could take a peek to make sure there would be something our daughter would like, since it WAS her birthday. She felt bad, because SHE was the one who asked to go there, and said she would be fine. We then went back to the hostess, who seated two other parties before acknowledging us. We were finally seated. We went up to the buffet and sat down to eat. Within the first five minutes of eating our food, we noticed it was quite warm where we were seated. We also noticed that some of our food must have been sitting in the buffet for quite a while, because it was hard and inedible.The selection at 9pm was sparse. By 9:20, the smell of bleach started to overpower us. The employees had started pulling all the food and were scrubbing out the vats. My son and I both have asthma, and the smell of the bleach was making my son wheeze. Around 9:35 we asked the waitress if we could be moved because the smell was bothering my son and the back room we were seated in was ridiculously hot. The waitress kind of laughed, and said the air was broken. She came again, 5 minutes later with our check and was trying to take plates that we werent finished eating. This, all-in-all, was NOT a pleasant dining experience. The smell of bleach was nauseating, the selection was poor and old, the broken a/c made it uncomfortable and the waitress made us feel very rushed. Add that the hostess made us wait...not ONCE, but TWICE. For $12.98, I expected FAR BETTER food and service. Only after our experience did I discover that this place made the Top 20 Dirtiest Restaurants. My birthday is this week. Im going to Ichigo Ichi in Sanford or Panda Hibachi Buffet. Both are far cheaper, better food, and way better service.

KE

Ken Christianson

Biggest issue: We left at 9:45 when they closed at 10 and we had to walk through a completely dark dining room (the one adjacent to ours) and over a tile floor completely drenched in soapy water to leave the restaurant. Every square inch of non-carpeted floor in that place was completely covered, incredibly slippery, and there was not a single "wet floor" sign. That must be a massive insurance liability (which I have several pictures of) and I nearly slipped on my way out. Apparently their version of mopping involves creating a lake in the middle of their restaurant while customers are still there and having a team of guys push all the water into the parking lot with a broom. It wouldve been safer if I used the emergency exit by walking through an even darker dining room. That was the worst of it, but theres more. We got there just after 8:30 when they close at 10 and there was practically nothing left and they clearly had no intention of replenishing anything. Some of the sushi was warm. We were told before 9:30 that it was last call, so I went to get another plate and brought it back to the table when I realized I had forgotten to get some soy sauce, so I went back up to the buffet and returned to find my full plate had been taken away. Shortly after that they started cleaning which was incredibly loud and made it impossible to enjoy the short remainder of my meal. I have pictures and video of all the wet floors if it would interest Koy Wans insurance company or the health department.