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Probably a first for Chester, Buffet City extends the concept of the Chinese buffet that many of us have enjoyed on a Sunday afternoon, to the whole long week. They have given us a brand new venue designed from the ground up to allow us to find and forage without the benefit of a menu. Money no object - just eat what you like.
The glazed arched entrance next door to Zizzi leads straight into the ranked offerings. Staff hover eagerly, ready to guide the hungry through to the tables beyond. Drink orders are taken and served promptly (there is a modest drinks menu featuring new world wines and Asian beers), and one is free to return to the action. The dishes are arrayed in a reasonably logical order, starting from the left: soups, starters, mains, rice and noodles, crispy duck and its associated gear, sushi and fruit. Each is labelled, lit, warmed and clean. There are, of course, no prices.
I didn't come with the intention of breaking any records, but both I and my companion comfortably executed four visits to the troughs each. Some of the food was pleasant: chicken satay ate better than it looked, salt and pepper chicken wings were agreeable and the braised beef was OK. Lemon chicken looked good but had dried out, the main courses were lukewarm, rice was too unsticky to be managed with chopsticks, sushi was dull and most of the fruit was tinned. The meal's high points ranked as moderate.
It was an early Saturday evening, eight days after opening, and the restaurant was perhaps a quarter full. This meant that access to the food was mostly unhindered. On a busy night it would be a different story - indeed, one can see social opportunities presenting themselves over the black bean sauce. It also meant that food turnover was slow, to the extent that some of the food was not hot enough and some was quite dried out.
The room was bright and pleasant and not especially oriental. More like a canteen than a restaurant. There was no luxury and the bareness of the table seemed to lend our meal a sense of urgency. We had an efficient, if taciturn, Thai waitress (though there was no sign of the promised Thai food). We faced an issue over whether to tip in a no-service establishment - discretion forbids that I should reveal our decision.
Buffet City was born in Manchester where it pulls its weight amongst the big shot destinations of Chinatown. In Manchester the headline fixed price is £9.50, which makes the experience a good bargain. Here, with a two quid weekend surcharge the price was £13.90 a head. With two bottles of beer each that makes £37, which means this is not a budget deal.
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