Chen's Buffet, Levittown NY - Back to See After a Long Time

Asian buffets in our area are getting fewer and fewer. A favorite out in Suffolk County recently closed. We have been going to two on a semi-regular basis - both of which are OK but I was curious to see what Chen's is now like after not going for quite a long time and also how it is attempting to compete with it's directly across the street competition, Global Buffet.

Chen's no longer has a website. I was able to find out that dinner price at Chen's is now $11.99, Monday to Friday, and $13.99 on Sundays. There are no longer any coupons in their advertising but there is a 10% discount for Seniors. We went on a Friday night.

It was not crowded.  At one time this buffet was jammed on Friday nights.

We were seated and we went up to the buffet for soup. The wonton soup has the liquid in one hot pot and the wontons in a steamer. I opened the wonton steamer and they looked dry and yellow. I took one and some chicken broth. The broth was very hot - which is a good thing as this buffet in the past had problems with food not being kept hot enough while out.  The broth had little taste. I bit into the wonton and it was like biting into a small rubber ball. (This was my experience with several things I chose to eat here.)  A lot of chewing of the hard outer noodle wrapper and it went down.  My wife had egg drop soup and said it was OK - at least it was the correct color (she noticed the color of the wontons too).

I went up for sushi. The sushi was OK. There was not a large assortment - mostly it was salmon and tuna in various forms. The fish was cut thick. The soy sauce that was put out for it was excessively salty - far more so than regular soy sauce - even from other buffets. There was not much of each choice out - but there was a man at the counter making it to refill. I normally would have taken more of one or another but I did not want to empty the dish of any one of them.

Let's see... I took a dumping. I thought the wonton was like a rubber ball - this was more so. It was thick with hard spots that were impossible to chew. That found its way out of my mouth to the side of my plate. A grilled skewer of chicken was hard. Most of that got left. A scallop on the shell was not a scallop or even pieces of scallop. I would say it was chopped up fake crab = Krab. At least it was chew-able.

Shrimp out of the seafood delight was OK. Chicken out of the Chicken and Broccoli was rubbery. Teriyaki Chicken was OK. I was going to take Pepper Steak but the beef in this looked like dry, hard beef jerky chips (which likely is not something that really exists) but this was not anything one would want to try to bite - and no one was taking any. There were mushrooms in oyster sauce that was dried out. Along the way, someone from the buffet stirred it and it did not look as bad. I took two small mushrooms and they were really sweet from having sat too long in the sauce. I took lo mein and that was the most normal thing I had. It tasted pretty good but again it was sweet - which lo mein is not usually. I was tempted by a roast beef. I started to slice it and the large serrated carving knife was not cutting it. I walked away without taking any.  I took some fried rice - it was OK.

I next went up to the grill. There was thick slices of beef - thick enough to be a steak though about three inches (maybe) around. I took two and had them grilled. It was somewhat tasty though it needed salt and I don't usually put salt on food (unless it needs it) but it was  tough and chewy. I had to cut it into small pieces to be able to chew it.

Well - one thing that looked tempting when we had walked around the buffet were flat, hot apple pie sealed pockets. I had planned on that for dessert. When we went up to take them they were dried out and burned all around. We went to the dessert bar and took cookies. I also took a small rolled cake - commercial out of the commercial serving package. It was not good and I did not eat it.

I am not sure how they stay in business other than they are less expensive from what is across the street which has gone up in price since it opened. There I find things to eat that are tasty and edible (most of the time).  Before I left I could feel the MSG headache coming on - so something I ate had to have been loaded with it. I wondered if it was the steak as it came on shortly after.

SO - Chen's - No. I was hopeful - and disappointed in that.

Chen's Buffet is located at 3056 Hempstead Turnpike, Levittown, NY 11756.