Buffet Castle
| Address: | 3326 W Belmont Ave, Chicago, IL 60618, USA |
| Phone: | +1 773-267-6688 |
| Rating: | 3 |
| Working: | 10AM–10PM 10AM–10PM 10AM–10PM 10AM–10PM 10AM–10PM 10AM–10PM 10AM–10PM |
Location
Photos 1
Reviews 5
BR
Brendan Tripp
While Buffet Castle is considerably "out of the way" for me, it at least is easily accessed by public transportation, either via the Blue Line Belmont stop, which is right across the street, or via the Belmont bus if one is connecting via the Red Line. Ive been coming here for years, every few months when the opportunity presents itself. In this case, I was coming back into the city from The Land Beyond OHare on Sunday, and was wanting to avoid the bus transfer around the Blue Line construction at Western, so I got off the el at Belmont, and headed across the street to Buffet Castle. I was a bit miffed to find that on Sunday, they have their dinner prices all day, so this cost more than it usually does ... but thats still pretty cheap, coming in at $10.95 including tax for the all-you-can-eat buffet. There had been some significant changes since the last time Id been there, including the addition of a dedicated maki station. However, this appears to have come with totally abandoning fish in the maki - they used to have surimi rolls of various types, but this time they had a half a dozen "fancy" rolls but all based on cream cheese and veggies. Not bad for what they were, but theyre hardly "sushi" at this point! I have occasionally joked that they have a "Big Boy - you go NOW!" relationship with me there, as the main attraction for me is their peel-and-eat shrimp, with my usually starting out with a heaping plateful of shrimp, followed by maki, followed by whatever might grab my attention on the rest of the buffet. They have gone to head-on shrimp (with a nasty Nautilus-like spike on their head - see pic), which Im guessing is to make having Vast Quantities more challenging ... but theyre well worth the effort. The main part of the buffet features a dozen or so Chinese dishes, various Hispanic dishes (Im found of the plantains), and assorted "American" dishes (pizza, onion rings, etc.). They have a soup station with four choices, and they have a very nice hot sour soup, that I usually make room for. Obviously, the thrust of a buffet is in variety, and they have a salad line with everything from plain lettuce to spicy octopus, an array of fruit dishes, puddings, pastries (hmmm ... I forgot to get a mini "elephant ear" cookie this time ... dang!), soft serve ice cream, and soda, coffee, and tea. Theres no way to sample everything in one trip, but you can be pretty sure that everybody will find something they like there.
JU
Juan Marca
Uh... Someone explain me why there is Latin music playing at this place. Ffs the food also didnt make the mark. The witnesses do a great job at keeping plates at bay but the food on those plates could be better. Seriously. The food is effortless and prepared like it came straight from Five Below. Will not be back for a LONG time. The only good part is the $9 price and the well placed stands. Heres my review on some food items on the scale of 1-5 to help your choices. I have tasted plenty of food in my time so please take my word for it. :3 (This will not count vegatables as the veggies are either full steamed or raw.) Tomato salad: 1. Slices must be smaller to be edible. Seriously. Octopus salad: 1. Tomato sauce ruins the flavor and octopus is too chewy. Not my cup of tea. Pineapple chicken : 2. There is barely any meat in those things. Mongolian beef: 1. Holy hell this one had absolutely no flavor from the sauce practically being in globs. The texture is unbearable. Vegetable and pork Egg roll: 3. Despite the size. The filling in this roll is actually okay. The only problem is the fortune cookie tasting wrapping. Good try though. Orange chicken: 3. Its not good, but a huge jump from the pineapple chicken from before. Jasmine Tea: 4. A good brew. Didnt taste like it was made from a pot and bag at all except the actual ingredients themselves. Squid: 2. The legs taste alright if you have a cup of water to waste the gross flavor of some awkward grease build up. Not recommended Spicy shrimp: 1. Lacks any spiciness despite the name. Tastes just like a warmed up squid salad except with grilled shrimp. Steamed chicken and vegetables: 2. This one had an interesting texture and made its way at a higher count, but STILL managed to fail in terms of flavor with a poorly prepared taste. Ice cream: ...Not even going to count this in the list because its only icecream. Hey, this at least beats super china buffet at the brickyard
VA
Vanessa Lopez
this use to be my favorite chinese buffet but when I went there on mothers day it was not what I expected. the price of dinner went up a dollar (from 8.50 for adult to 9.50). they made us wait for a table and when they brought us to one it was dirty and full of food. the young lady cleaned it off quickly but it still looked dirty. the sushi use to be so good but it seems like they got a new guy who made them taste like gas station sushi. the hawaiian salad tasted like they put mayo in it, the crab ragoo was fried so bad it shrunk and for some reason they liked yellow green (so I didnt even try them). they had ice cream cones but they just had them in a box instead of a despencer(so little kids where grabbing cones and putting them back). for that reason I decided to grab a bowl. unfortunately the ice cream tasted old. so I went to grab fruit but I notice that the plate I grabbed was dirty (it was with the clean plates) so I grabbed a cup instead but decided to examine it closely but using it. since it seemed to be wet I smelled it and it smelled like bleach! I WILL NOT BE RETURNING TO THIS AGAIN. they ruin my mothers day dinner.
ER
Erik Rojas
If I could rate this place zero stars I would but Ill give it a 1 because google forced me to. Let me tell you, worse place to eat. Nothing is fresh like the other people say it is. My pizza was as hard as a rock, Im sure it had been there since the morning because it was super dry and hard. My favorite nuggets were cold and raw, fried wonton is my favorite food to eat at buffets, I thought atleast thatd be fresh but unfortunately it wasnt. To top it all off, I found a hair on one of my fried wonton. I let the lady know and she took my fried wonton and just threw it away, in return , the lady gave me 2 quarters and told me to buy gum off their machine, so I did, turns out the gum was just as bad as the food. Bottom line is dont waste your money here, not worth it.
TO
Tony Buck
First I must admit that I do not like buffet style eating, there are so many reasons, but who cares. First, the wife and I come, find a seat, take to a server, leave our jackets on the back of our seats and go get out food. I will say that Buffet Castle has a nice variety of foods that look appetizing. So we come back to our seats and my wifes suede jacket is missing. We both get up and start looking around, and we see it at the hostess station. She goes to retrieve it and the woman tells her it is not her jacket. After a few minutes of trying to reason with the woman, we just snatch her jacket and go and sit down and try and eat this stuff. The wife enjoyed what she had gotten to eat. I picked over mine and just wanted out of there. We have never been back.
