China Buffet, Manchester

I like this place, ive been a few times, it is dark, but thats cause its underground. I have always found the staff helpful and friendly. There is a good choice of food, the bog standard chinese buffet of rices, noodles, duck, chicken, beef, ribs, lots of veg, deep fried bananas, fresh fruits, jelly, ice cream. Im a meat eater and enjoy a wide selection of the dishes on offer, but i have also been with a vegetarian, who enjoyed it too.

I think its good value for money for what you get, its not gourmet cuisine, but its an all you can eat buffet, and sometimes that is just fine, and what you need.

Close to Oxford Rd, its a good location and a handy stop off prior to catching a film, show or gig.

The fact that I’ve only been to this place once gives a good indication of the standard to expect. It should have been apparent from the outset from the dark, dingy dining room and the grubby, slightly sticky tables you always seem to get in a bit of a dodgy eating establishment.

Although I always take an 'all-you-can-eat’ buffet style restaurant with a pinch of salt, this particular restaurant really did test even my low standards. The food was much more greasy than the usual buffet standards and simple dishes such as sesame prawn toasts turned out to not contain any prawns. Moreover, some dishes were completely indistinguishable; they looked nothing like they should and more often than not were just anaemic looking meats flopping around in a greasy brown sauce.

The same can be said for the desserts; we couldn’t get ours as the whippy ice cream machine was broken, which is an authentic Chinese dessert if ever I’ve seen one. The waitresses looked just as bored and moodily slammed plates down on the table without speaking.

Generally speaking, this is a place I would never visit again, unless I really fancied turkey dinosaurs and chips, which I could just nip down to Tesco for, anyway.