One sly, come-hither stare at the restaurant section of the yellow pages
will key you into the fact that Chinese cuisine rules the buffet scene in
Austin. In eight years of local buffeteering, I’ve only managed to scratch the
stir-fried surface when it comes to Chinese buffets.
With so much competition, some enterprising buffets have tried to widen
their appeal by adding Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese items to their menus.
No longer do you have to make due with a standard-issue selection of egg rolls,
General Tso’s chicken, and pepper steak. Instead, try a full-fledged Oriental
buffet and teach your mouth something new.
* Buffet Palace (5400 Brodie, #1240, 892-2550) dishes out Chinese, Korean,
and Japanese cuisine all under one sneezeguard. Highlights include beef
bulgoki (a Korean take on barbeque), and agressively spiced pieces of
squid that start out tasting like rubber before assuming the consistency of
meat. For the less adventurous, Buffet Palace also turns out a mean sesame
chicken that emphasizes subtle flavoring over the tired sugar-happy recipe most
restaurants use.
* Dynasty Buffet (7101 Hwy71 W., Oak Hill, 288-3588) is a new place run by
the same folks who brought you the acclaimed Yunnan Dynasty restaurant years
back. While some of the Chinese dishes were a bit salty, the kimchi (spicy marinated cabbage) was a cool, crisp treat, and the cold noodle salad
with sesame sauce prompted me to moan embarrassingly in response to its
goodness. Dynasty’s interpretation of chicken teriyaki was more akin to
jerky-on-a-stick, but it was still quite tasty. To top it all off, they served
a respectable apple cobbler a la soft-serve mode for
dessert.
* Sea Dragon (8776-B Research, 451-5051) is a long time Austin favorite
that recently instigated a quaint $4.95 Chinese/Vietnamese lunch buffet. Their
selection is limited, but it’s unique and uniformly well-prepared. Their pork
satay consists of pork, crisp green beans, mushrooms, carrots, and a
sauce that grips the back of your throat with tough love. The Vietnamese
chicken vermicelli (b�n) can be accented with anchovy sauce, marinated
carrots, green onions, and carrots. Sea Dragon’s interesting version of hot and
sour soup forsakes the familiar sharp tang for a subtle sweetness. My taste
buds were a-singin’. – G.B.
This article appears in September 22 • 1995 and September 22 • 1995 (Cover).