Tour of China

Buffet? The word brings mixed feelings. I'm not always in the mood. In fact, rarely do I look forward to reviewing this type of establishment. On my own, I doubt I'd choose to dine at a buffet-style place.

"Yummy Buffet"? brought even more trepidation. But, adventure is my middle name and by keeping an open mind I have been rewarded time after time with the discovery of new cuisine worthy of passing along to you, dear readers.

This Yummy Buffet is located in a shopping area just south of the intersection of New Orleans (101st Street) and Elm Place (161st Ave.) in Broken Arrow, Yummy Buffet Chinese Super Buffet is touted as being "New York Style".

Interesting.

This buffet is not just for lunch; it runs everyday from 11am to closing at 9:30pm. The price for the lunch buffet is a mere $5.49 (children $2.99); the dinner buffet, beginning at 4pm, is $7.99 ($3.99) for children; and Sunday all day buffet is $7.99. Even carry out buffet is available.

Should diners not wish to parade through the buffet stations, a full menu is available of Soups, Sweet & Sour, Egg Foo Young, Lo Mein, Mei Fun, Chicken, Pork, Beef, Seafood, Vegetable dishes and Chef Specialties. Prices on the menu are from $5.95-$8.75. With such a bargain eating buffet style, it makes me wonder how often orders are placed from the menu.

My dining companion and I met at Yummy Buffet for dinner one Saturday evening and overall found our experience quite pleasant. For those of you who grew up dining at buffets, and those who don't share my adversion, ya'll come.

For those who, like me, enjoy being waited on when I choose not to prepare my own meals at home, give this place a try. It's not bad.

The atmosphere is bright and inviting--tables and booths are on the perimeters of the food stations, which are in the center of the restaurant's large room. Stations of all sorts of foods were being filled throughout our time there, and servers were continually monitoring the areas, wiping stations as needed.

There are simply too many dishes at this buffet to mention (and to taste), but my friend and I did get a full sampling of what is available. You'll find all your favorites.

Lo Mein (stir-fried soft noodles), Egg Drop Soup, Hot and Sour Soup (with fried noodles on top), Egg Rolls, Fried Dumplings, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Rainbow Shrimp, Sushi, Chicken on a Stick, Chinese Wonton, Sesame Chicken, Bourbon Chicken, Crab Legs, Black Pepper Chicken, Honey Chicken, and Chicken with Mixed Vegetables were some of the dishes we sampled.

I love soups, so the Egg Drop and the somewhat spicy hot Sweet and Sour soups were delicious, especially with the strips of fried, crunchy noodles on top.

Next, I enjoyed the Bourbon Chicken and the Honey Chicken; the Bourbon version had a rich, reduction of Bourbon flavor and the Honey version was small pieces of fried chicken coated with a very thick, very sweet honey sauce.

My friend found all of his samplings good and tasty, picking out the beef dishes as his favorites.

Although we were too full to sample some of the other dishes, a return visit is in order for the Mongolian BBQ salmon, scallops, the fruit, vegetable and dessert bars. Many selections were still left to be sampled.

Our visit to the "all you can eat" Yummy Buffet was satisfying; we found it authentic Americanized Chinese and the service very friendly and attentive. And, we ate all that we could for one evening, for under $20.

Yummy Buffet

3806 S. Elm Pl., Broken Arrow

455-5888

Hours:

Sun.-Sat. 11am-9:30pm

Rating:

Atmosphere ***

Food ***

Service ***