Running a Chinese Buffet isn't easy, does anyone have any tips?

Ally L

New member
I don't run my own Chinese Buffet but I work at one, and I am the Hostess/server. The owners just moved here and we just opened May 1st. I take a lot of pride in the buffet but business is slow and though I know it's impossible to please everyone, I still feel like we could improve and get less complaints.

The restaurant itself is small and we only have about 22 tables, the tables seat 2, 4 and 6/7, no booths. There are 2 Steam Tables and a salad/dessert bar. In one Steam Table we have all the 'wet' food like mixed veggies, meat, chop suey, soup ect. In the other we have all deep fried things, like egg rolls, battered fish, shrimp ect. I believe there are at least 14 dishes per steam table, plus the salad bar for dinner. We also serve fresh crab legs on the weekends.

The chefs are chinese, and began cooking in china. They have been cooking for 25 and 15 years, and I see them make everything freshly by hand so sometimes the food varies (not drastically but in a nice way). The takeout food is awesome because it's fresh, but takeout is very slow.

We charge $9.95 for an adult for the weekdays and $10.95 for the weekend. There's a 10% senior's discount, and kids 10 and under eat for $4.99.

I know it's a pretty vague description of a restaurant, but what do you think? Would you eat there?
The buffet is run like a self serve style, people go up and dish out what they like and someone is hired to monitor what food pans must be changed and stuff.

We have a dessert table that offers a huge variety of cakes, squares and the classic almond cookie. The ice cream is actually interesting too, currently I think we have peanut butter cup, brownie, tropical breeze, mint chocolate, and the classic variety.

We also have a full bar :)
The owner used to manage a Mandarin Buffet restaurant but now she runs it on her own.

I've never been to a Mandarin but I'm assuming she runs it a lot like that :)
 
Sounds like a bargain to me. They charge about $14.95 around here for a buffet. Kings buffet is the worst, Mandarin the best. Do you have a dessert bar? Old folks like their sweets.
 
The only tip I can give is to have a 1/2 potion price.
I am assuming the service style is the customer asks for a pork fried rice (as an example) or builds a meal from what is available and the counter hand puts it on a plate, or whatever.
It is then paid for and taken to a table.
 
The price seems a little high. The chinese buffets around here charge about $7 a person. Other than that, everything sounds fine. I would eat there. What are the complaints about?
 
It sounds great! I would love to eat there. If cost gets to be a problem, for a smaller restaurant like that you could cut a few dishes, I think even if you cut it to like 10 "wet" dishes and 5 fried, there would still be great variety. But it sounds very tasty. :-) I wouldn't raise the price higher though, except maybe on the weekend with the crab legs.
 
I would definately eat there. I love eating at small restaurants especially if the food is freshly cooked and wonderful! Plus chinese is my favorite food variety! The price fits the meal, I think!
 
Back
Top