Location: 2641 Maple Point Dr, Lafayette (map it)
Phone: (765) 446-0888
Cuisine: Chinese, Japanese, American

Today I drove over by the mall to try out the newest buffet in town. It’s located past the mall, on Maple Point Drive, close to the Kittles Furniture store. I really have no idea what was in that location before Teppanyaki. I’d be interested to know, because I don’t remember a restaurant being in that area.

We got there at 11:30, and it was really busy. And it only got busier as we dined. The word on Teppanyaki must have already gotten out, because it was packed by the time we left. The place is huge inside, with plentiful seating areas and many, many buffet tables. I was really surprised with how expansive it was.

We were greeted immediately by who I would guess to be the owner, but I don’t know for sure. He was really nice and really funny, as he seated us. The restaurant itself was, to my eye, very clean. Sometimes with buffets you get that not-so-fresh feeling, but this was very nicely done and very clean. Even when I glanced back into the kitchen area it seemed very clean.

The buffets were unreal. There’s a bit of an identity crisis here, because they had nearly everything. There was your standard Chinese fare: beef with broccoli, chicken with broccoli, fried rice, general Tsao’s chicken, lo mein, fried rice, egg rolls…. I could go on, but then you’d get bored. There was a lot of Chinese food. Then there were buffets of American food. Mac and cheese, pizza, pasta, and something called a beef pie that was really intriguing but I didn’t have the opportunity to try, mashed potatoes, french fries, even a few Mexican items. Then another area had seafood items like stuffed shrimp, peel and eat shrimp, tilapia.

Add in another buffet for salad bar, one for fruit, and another for desserts, and you have a pretty extensive menu. But wait, there’s more! In the back there was a sushi buffet and a Hibachi buffet.

It was slightly overwhelming with so many options, so I grabbed a plate and loaded it with as many items as I could get. I started with Chinese and tried a variety of the food on the buffet. It was all pretty good. Definitely better than Fortune House, in my opinion.

After I finished the first plate, I decided to try the hibachi buffet. This is where you pile your plate with frozen meats, fresh veggies, and noodles or rice and hand it over and they cook it for you. This is generally hit or miss for me. The thing is that while I’m a decent cook, I have never been able to make up my own recipes. So when it’s time for a hibachi buffet, I throw in stuff I like, but it doesn’t always come out that great. I don’t blame the cook, he’s just grilling the food I handed him. But it was okay, no complaints.

Next I went to the sushi buffet. I’ve said on here before I’m not an experience connoisseur of sushi. I like it okay, I’ll eat it if I’m out, but I really just prefer my meals to be hot. So I ‘m no expert. None of the sushi items had labels, so I also had no idea what I was picking. There were several plates of sushi, but only two tongs so you had to wait in line to have access to any of the sushi. (Not to mention the guy that was piling his plate three levels high with sushi and not giving anyone a chance to get anything.) I finally got some sushi and headed back to my table. And the best I can say is “meh.” I’ve had better sushi. Maybe if I knew what it was I could tell you more, but again, it wasn’t labeled.

Finally, we headed over to the dessert buffets. One thing I really liked was that their ice cream bins, instead of having the large tubs of ice cream and bowls, had individual servings of ice cream in little containers. I like that for a number of reasons, but mostly because it’s really hard for me to get ice cream out of those big tubs because I’m not very tall. The desserts were unlabeled like the sushi, although most of the other items on the buffets were labeled. I grabbed a few things and went back to my table. Overall, I was unimpressed with the desserts. Of the ones I tried, none were really that good.

I should state that I’m just not the kind of person who is going to get the most bang for my buck out of a buffet. I can’t eat 17 plates of food, and I was really struggling to try as much as I did. One plate of food is generally plenty for me. I ate more for you, my dear readers.

Overall, my experience was pretty good. The food was pretty good buffet food, the place was clean, the price was right. Aside from the sushi and dessert, the rest was fine. I’d go again.

Kid Friendly: Yes.

Price: Very reasonable – lunch buffet was just over $7.

Location: 945 Sagamore Pkwy W, West Lafayette, IN (map it)
Phone: (765) 463-2364
Cuisine: Chinese

Considering that I live very close to Szechuan Garden, and that it was selected as the Journal and Courier’s Reader’s Choice favorite Chinese restaurant, I find it very surprising that I’ve never actually been to this place. I recently got an email suggesting that I rectify that, and today I am glad to say I did.

If you aren’t familiar, Szechuan Garden is located in West Lafayette on Sagamore Parkway, right next to the Miracles Fitness, Goodwill, and Sigma. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this is no Chinese buffet. It is a sit down, get served restaurant, which is a nice change of pace when eating Chinese food. It’s really quite nice inside, very clean with plenty of tables.

We were seated quickly and given water and hot tea. The tea was excellent! The lunch menu has combinations that include soup, spring roll, main dish, and fried rice. The lunch menu was not expansive (although the to go menu was pretty standard) and had things such as chicken and beef with broccoli, etc. I ordered the beef with hot garlic sauce. The entrees come with fried rice, which I generally love, but I did ask for steamed rice with this.

First came the egg drop soup which was great. It was served very hot and was really tasty. Next came the main dish. I really enjoyed the beef with hot garlic sauce. It was really good, especially served with the steamed rice. The spring roll was fairly bland. My friend had spicy shrimp with peanuts and reported hers was really good as well. She did order it with the fried rice and let me taste and I have to unfortunately have to say it was pretty mediocre. It made me glad I got steamed rice, and I am a big fan of fried rice.

The service was really good, always had plates removed right away, glasses were always refilled, and we were frequently asked if everything was okay. In fact, it was almost a little overboard with the service.

Overall, it was a really good experience and I would definitely go back.

Kid Friendly: Yes.

Price: All lunch combos were either $5.65 or $5.85.

Location: 3500 E. Indiana 38 Lafayette, IN (map it)
Phone: (765) 838-1975
Cuisine: Asian

I had a lot of people recommend Fortune House as a place to try, and everyone on Facebook was very complimentary so I decided to head out there today to check it out. It’s located over where the Old Country Buffet used to be, by Michaels and Staples and Petsmart. I was skeptical at first, because a number of restaurants have tried and failed in this location.

Upon entering, we were directed to our table and had our drink orders taken. The place is pretty nice inside, with large buffets arranged in the buffet area. The restaurant is clean with lots of tables and there were plenty of people there for lunch.

Our drinks arrived and then we were left at our table with no directions or instructions about how everything works, so we eventually just got up and started wandering around. I wasn’t sure when we got there what the cuisine type was – Chinese? Japanese? Mongolian? And apparently, the answer to those are yes.

The first buffet table was sushi, and I was happy to see two sushi chefs behind the counter, making the sushi and dishing it out. There is nothing less appealing to me than a sushi buffet with who knows how old sushi sitting on a cold plate. At least here, you could tell it was being made fresh and put out for you to try.

There were also several buffets of mostly Chinese food. You had your regular fare of lo mein, chicken with broccoli, and sweet and sour chicken as well as some other options that were new, such as Hong Kong Chicken, Mongolian Pork, and a lot of sea food options as well.

Then the last buffet was a raw meat and veggie station where you can get your stir fry cooked to order.

After wandering around, I chose to start with the Chinese fare and got a plate of that. It was just okay. While I was impressed with the selection, the food itself was nothing spectacular, and the lo mein noodles were really not good at all. I was underwhelmed with the Chinese food.

Next I hit the sushi buffet. It is well documented here that I am no connoisseur of sushi. I always try it, and often like it, but it’s never my first choice and my palate is not very discerning. I got a plate of various choices and they were all okay. Again, nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either.

Finally, even though I was getting very full, I needed to try the Mongolian stir fry area. I had to ask another patron for the procedure here, because there were no instructions. Just a bar of raw meat and veggies and a guy with a grill. So the basic premise is that you fill up one plate with your meats and veggies that you want stir fried, then another plate with your rice or noodles. Then you take them over to the grill and set them down and the grill guy cooks it all up for you. Some people stood and watched, others went off to get other food and come back. I watched him cook. It was cool. He asked if I wanted spice, and I said a “little” and wuhoo, was it spicy. It was good though. As far as the food I ate, that was the best part.

They also had salad, fresh fruit, and desserts as well. There was definitely a lot of everything as far as selections go.

It doesn’t stand out as best sushi, or best Chinese, but if you can’t decide what you want, or have a group that wants different options, it will definitely fit the bill.

Friend’s opinions: From @kristenrielly, “fortune house – 1st Chinese buffet but thought it was good, chicken & steak were tasty. Will try the ‘make your own’ next time.”

Kid Friendly: Yes. There were french fries and other kid friendly items on the menu.

Price: Lunch buffet ist $6.25 – full pricing on their Facebook page.

Restaurant Name: Nanking

Location: 3800 Indiana 26 Lafayette, IN  (map it)

Phone: (765) 449-8728

Cuisine: Chinese

Review: A mighty thank you is now going out to all my fabulous Lafayette Eats readers. When planning my evening out and looking for a good place to try on the east side, I sent a call into Twitter and Facebook and was deluged with many tasty options. I chose Nanking, though, because that was the only one that got four separate nods.

And wow, am I ever glad I took the advice! It was fantastic!

I guess I’ve probably driven by Nanking a million times and just never really paid attention to it. It’s got a giant sign and everything, but when I went to find it tonight, I had to really look. It’s on SR 26, just east of Creasy, on the north side of the road. Trying to get across 26 and into the parking lot is a bit of a challenge, especially at night, but if you can manage, it’s totally worth it.

We arrived and went in and found the restaurant really full of people. We were greeted quickly and given a table. I’m almost ashamed to admit how long it’s been since I’ve eaten at a Chinese Restaurant where you sit down with a menu. A mistake I don’t plan to make again for a while. After sitting down, a server immediately came out and filled our water glasses and then, before we could even think about ordering it, poured us two cups of hot tea and left the pot on the table. That was super cool! We were going to get tea anyway. And the tea was quite good as well.

I was told in both Twitter and Facebook that I should skip the standard menu and go with the traditional menu. I wasn’t sure what that meant when I got there, but when you open the menu, you do see all the standard American style Chinese food – beef with broccoli, etc. Several pages of it actually. But when you flip to the very back of the menu, there’s the “authentic Chinese dishes” that I heard about and that’s where we chose our meals.

I ordered the mixed meats with pan fried noodles. I was a little scared of the whole “mixed meats” thing – what kind of meat are we talking about here? But I’m glad I ordered it, it was really good. And the serving was ENORMOUS. The meats included shrimp, chicken, and beef and possibly pork but I wasn’t entirely sure. Broccoli, carrots, and then of course the noodles rounded out the dish. It was most excellent.

My husband ordered diced chicken in hot brown sauce. When they brought out the dishes, his looked amazing. I was actually jealous of what he ordered. He scooped a bunch of rice onto his plate, loaded it up with diced chicken and went to town. He reported that while it was hot (hence the name) that it was really good.

So after my first helping of my pan fried noodles I had my own helping of his dish to compare. And wow, it was great too!

The portions were huge, the food was amazing and it was a nice place to eat. It is now my most favorite Chinese restaurant in all of Lafayette/West Lafayette and I know we’ll be eating there again.

Kid friendly: Yes, if your kids will eat Chinese food. There were children eating there.

Price Range: Pretty cheap, I thought. We paid less than $20 for our two giant plates of food, with enough left over for lunch tomorrow.