Review of Super Buffet - St Cloud, MN

I try to go to restaurants with a very objective view of the establishment, untarnished by other experiences. Sadly, without hearing a word about the Super Buffet, I was influenced simply by the name…SUPER. I blame them for raising the bar far beyond what I came to experience while eating lunch there.

Food: 7 (High marks for variety, but not outstanding)

The best thing about the Super Buffet is the unique additions to the St Cloud Asian buffet. I say Asian because there were definitely some dishes that seemed of varying origins. A couple of the more surprising items included massive salmon fillets and…forgive me for not knowing the proper terminology on this one as I don’t often eat raw fish…sushi wrapped in rice. I plated what I thought was some sort of chicken in something like a sesame sauce but it was actually a sweet peanut buttery sauce….mmm, yummy.

Probably the most remarkable thing I found in the buffet was something quite unremarkable, sliced pieces of hotdog. What makes this remarkable is that they are fully catering to the finicky tastes of the American toddler. If every restaurant had hotdog as an option then most families would have a far better experience dining out with little ones. Goodness knows, our family would definitely have avoided a number of toddler blow-ups. Kudos.

Now for the downside. Nothing was outstandingly awesome in the taste category. The peanut sauce was the only surprise. Also, enen though I was impressed by the presence of salmon, it was a little overcooked, but what can you expect when it sits in a warming tray for a few minutes beyond prime done-ness.

Service: 5 (Nothing beyond way is necessary)

I am torn here because there are cultural morays at play when it comes to service. Once you have realize that there is a service/sociability difference that often is exhibited in Asian restaurants, it is hard to view things with truly “Average Joe American” eyes. Since the audience here is more than likely the type of people who would view service in this way, I am bound to judge it in generic American perspective.

Here is what I experienced. The wait staff does what it needs to do. Is your glass empty? Has that dirty plate been sitting on your table for 5 minutes without being picked up? That’s about it. I tend to appreciate my dining experience more when the server or host makes an effort to cater to my needs more than just assume my needs are the same as any other animal coming to the feeding trough. I like personality. I like people going out of there way to please me.

Atmosphere: 5 (Score Suffers due to cleanliness issues)

If you’ve read a previous review you will have already known my philosophy of a buffet includes a crowbar to wedge people in to a big room with lots of tables. Super Buffet has dividers and tries to break it up some, kind of like how a lot of McDonald’s differentiate themselves by decorating their restaurants in a different way…its still feels like a McDonald’s no matter what you do. Lots of gray, a few more wall hangings, but nothing really eye catching.

What this place really needs is a good cleaning. Dirty carpeting that is many shades darker than it was originally needs to be cleaned. Glass booth divider tops need more cleaning attention as splatter and hand prints were not isolated to just one booth. This tells me either one naughty little kid intentionally got their hands dirty and walked into each booth with the sole intent of getting all the crane relief frosted glass to bear his mark. Better yet, how did this splatter marks get up there, the idea is to dine not gorge. For not being thqat old of a restaurant I expected more effort to make it look nice.

I was a little disappointed, but the overall experience was satisfying…maybe only because I know that I can take my 3 year old there for hotdogs and I can have salmon without much fuss. I may seem over analytical to some, but at least you know what you are getting into before you go.

This entry was posted on October 12, 2009 at 13:34 and is filed under Grub Reviews - OLD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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