Kings Buffet - International Foods - Fredericksburg, Virginia

I am on the road again and am in Virginia. I have found the first of the buffets that I have discovered this trip. It is the Kings Buffet in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The restaurant is located just east of I-95 on Route 3 or Plank Road which is exit 130East from I-95. This is a Chinese buffet, though the sign says International Foods right after the name.

This is a large restaurant and as I entered it looked remarkably like the restaurant on Long Island, NY that I reported on one week ago – China Buffet City. There were the many buffet tables in the center, the sushi bar, the Mongolian bbq, and the private party room at the side – just like at the other restaurant. When you enter this restaurant you are greeted at the door and seated. Prices here are remarkably low and for what you are getting they are really good. Dinner is $9.99 per adult every day and all day on the weekend. The children’s prices are $3.99 for ages 3 to 6 and 5.50 for ages 7 to 11. There is a lunch buffet during the week and the prices are $6.49 for adults and $2.95 and $4.25 for children. Soft drinks are $1.25 and are unlimited. There is an extra charge for crab legs with the buffet for $2.99 per pound served to your table. There is not much crab in a pound of legs so skip this – you won’t miss it. The hours of the restaurant are Sunday to Thursday from 11am to 9:30pm and n Friday to Saturday until 10:30pm. We visited on a Monday night at 7:00pm. The restaurant was not empty.

There is a sushi bar at the side next to a Mongolian BBQ grill with a counter in front of it with raw vegetables and meats. The entire time that we were in the restaurant no one went to the Mongolian BBQ and there was no chef at the grill – perhaps which was why no one went to it. The first buffet table is a double long table and it was double-sided, It had salad greens and toppings, fresh fruits cut up, prepared salads including a crab salad and a seafood salad, caned fruits, puddings, in fact all of the cold dessert selections, and at the end sushi. The sushi was not served from the sushi bar. It was a good assortment of sushi. The fish was on rice, not rolls, and there were several types of fish including tuna and salmon. There were several vegetable rolls and California rolls.

Behind this long bar were four more regular-sized serving bars. Three were double-sided. Finally, there was a dessert bar with 8 types of cakes and pastry, nuts, and soft serve ice cream with sundae toppings. This night the ice cream machine was only working with vanilla. The ice cream was not as icy as some buffet soft serves can be. Of course, the cakes were the Little Debbie type.

There was a great assortment to be found. There were the usual three soups – wonton, egg drop, and hot and sour. The wontons were served next to the broth in a steam server. The wontons were a yellow in color and were doughy (perhaps undercooked). The broth was salty. It was good though. There were the usual Chinese fried appetizers. There were spare ribs that were not overly sweet, but they were fatty with little meat. There were boneless spareribs also. There was only one type of dumpling – pan fried, and they were good. The American part of the menu included carved roast beef, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, pieces of hot dogs wrapped in dough, and pizza. There was a great deal of seafood, cold to hot. There were raw oysters that were served on ice. They were tasty but gritty – a sign that the sand was not rinsed from them very well. There was good peel and eat shrimp. There were raw mussels also. There were hot mussels, steamed crayfish, half crabs with a lot of meat in them, salmon, flounder (that was full of bones and hard), frogs legs, mixed seafood, octopus, a variety of shrimp dishes, something called fried pomfeti (don’t know what that is), crabmeat and cheese, mussels with cheese on top, mixed seafood, and fried scallops (these were too tough to cut into and eat). Meat dishes included honey chicken, roast chicken pieces, chicken on a stick, Gen. Taos chicken, pineapple chicken, chicken and broccoli, pepper steak, chunks of pork prepared like a Peking pork chop (spicy and good), sweet and sour chicken, little meat balls, and others. The vegetable dishes included lo mein, chow mei fun noodles, fried rice, mixed stir fry vegetables, string beans, and excellent mushrooms. There was corn on the cob, but it was sitting in butter and it looked dried out,

The desserts were a good variety of the desserts that are found at Chinese buffets. There was something that looked like whipped cream in a dish with sprinkles on top. There was no lacking of desserts.

The service was excellent. The dishes were cleared regularly and refills of drinks were offered several times during the meal. The restaurant was clean. The one odd thing is that they bring the check mid=way through the meal. I do not think that it was intended as a message or a hint to leave – they seemed to do this to every table and they kept coming back to clear dishes and refill drinks.

Mainly the food was very good. There were a few not so good items, as I have noted, but the majority of what was served was good, especially for the price. There are several buffet choices in this area including Ryans, OCB, and Golden Corral, along with other Chinese buffets. I would definitely recommend this as a “try it”. This is one of the better Chinese buffets that I have been too. Interestingly, the other best Chinese buffet is also in Virginia (Peking in Williamsburg). If you are in Fredericksburg, which is just 40 miles south of Washington, D.C., come to the Kings Buffet. The address is 2388 Plank Road, Fredericksburg, Virginia. The phone number is 540-374-1322. There is no website.