China King Buffet
625 South Lone Hill Ave.
Glendora, CA 91740
626-963-3996
I like China King Buffet. They do offer a good variety of food but it's not as extensive as other Chinese buffets. But most of the items at China King are outstanding. Instead of doing a decent job on a lot of food, they do a great job on a smaller number of food. My only complaint is that the service is average at best.
The Sunday dinner buffet is $9.65, which is a steal for the great items they have. I got there around 6:30pm and there was a good crowd there. So there would be a high turnover of food.
The first picture has regular fried shrimp, salt and pepper shrimp, and Chinese BBQ pork. The BBQ pork has way too much fat on them. I tried to pick the leanest pieaces but even then, they were at least 50% fat. What lean pieces they had were pretty good. The fried shrimp went really fast. A trayful of shrimp will not last more than five minutes. The shrimp is very crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. As you can see they are good sized shrimp. The shrimp was so good they didn't need any cocktail sauce. The salt and pepper shrimp was much more salty than the fried shrimp. They didn't have the same amount of batter and crunch as the fried shrimp but were tender. I didn't care for them too much because they were salty.
The second food picture has chicken and broccoli, bean sprouts, and what they called lover chicken. The chicken and broccoli was very good. The chicken is tender and the broccoli is crisp and tender. The sauce has a light soy sauce flavor. Good stuff. The beans sprouts were crispy and had a nice garlic taste to them. The lover's chicken is really more of an orange chicken. The chicken was fried and covered with an orange flavor sauce. The lover's chicken has a very high turnover rate. I got the chicken right after it was cooked and it was steaming hot.
The third food picture has fried rice, orange chicken, satueed string beans. The fried rice had onions and carrots and zucchini, something I've never seen in fried rice. But the fried rice is mostly rice and has a good flavor. The orange chicken is more batter than chicken but still pretty good. The chicken is tender and the sauce is sweet but not too sweet. I really liked the satueed strong beans, which were satueed in soy sauce and some oil. The beans were so crispy and tender.
The fourth food picture has black pepper shrimp and beef and broccoli. The black pepper shrimp is awesome. I had a few helping of it. A great pepper flavor and the shrimp is nice and tender. The beef and broccoli is one of the best beef and broccoli I've had. Nice tender pieces of beef and crispy broccoli in a medium gravy. Very good stuff.
The fifth picture had more of the black pepper shrimp, king pork, and mushrooms. The king pork was very dry and tough. They had been on the steam table for way too long. I really liked the mushrooms. They were soft and not chewy, with a nice texture. The sauce was light and added the right touch.
The sixth picture has chow mein, broccoli and chicken, and more black pepper shrimp. The chow mein was basically all noodles. There were some onions, green onions, and carrots but they were not greasy as some chow mein can be. The combination of chow mein and black pepper shrimp was awesome.
The last picture is dessert with watermelon, cantalope, and honey dew melon. The watermelon was very sweet and juicy. I loved it. The cantalope and honey dew was also sweet but the watermelon was the best.
Service tends to be very average. I kept having to ask for more water and at times the plates would stack up at my table. Also where I was sitting, the servers are standing there like vultures waiting for people to finish. They should worry about making sure people are enjoying their meals and have what they need. More water please!!!
But I enjoy eating at China King buffet. It's my standby Chinese buffet.
