Asia Buffet is located at 6901 Lee Highway. Click to enlarge.
photo by Janet Wilson
On our first visit, the Asia Buffet at 6901 Lee Highway, already had more customers than we had ever witnessed at either of the two predecessor establishments. They have done some rearranging and it looks nice, as well as being a nice, clean restaurant.
The buffet area is quite large; they refer to it as “the largest Asian Cuisine Buffet in Chattanooga.” We were there for lunch and the food was fresh, with nothing appearing to have that dried up look buffet food gets when it lacks attention.
The salad bar included shrimp-in-the-shell, crawfish and mussels, but no oysters or crab legs as advertised. The shrimp had good texture, not the usual mushy/watery consistency a lot of restaurants seem to specialize in. There was a sign at the door mentioning they offer all-you-can-eat-steak for dinner, so we missed that (maybe that’s when the oysters and crab legs are served, although that wasn’t mentioned). Also on the salad bar is a variety of fruit.
The Asia Buffet had a nice, fresh, set-up of sushi – all rolls – although the menu pictures what you conjure up when you think “sushi” (the piece of shrimp lying across the sticky rice, etc.). I did try the Mongolian Bar, selecting a mix of pork, beef and chicken, along with noodles, sugar snap peas, bamboo shoots, onions, mini-corn, and a few other concoctions, letting the chef prepare it for me on the Hibachi. They offer five different sauces, and I chose the Garlic Sauce. It had a nice smooth flavor, and the garlic taste wasn’t too strong.
In addition to the usual Hot ‘n Sour, Egg Drop and Won Ton Soups, we also noted Miso and a Hot Seafood Soup. To me the Seafood Soup wasn’t anything to recommend. It was basically a LOT of sliced onions with shrimp (with the shell still on). Some people might enjoy it, but I don’t care to be picking shrimp out of my soup so I can take the shells off. Cocktail shrimp is one thing, but if it is prepared with seasonings, etc., and you have to pull it out of your soup bowl, just skip me.
There are several dishes which I personally have never seen on any of the other Asian buffets in town, and they do seem to offer a very good variety of items. According to the menu, they offer 200 “fabulous items daily.” The only problem we noted was that the temperature on the buffet does need to be turned up a bit. The soups were very hot, but the other items were more warm than hot. This is the same problem shared by the previous buffets located here. Hopefully they will fix it and not go the way of the others because we feel their food is much better and deserves a chance.
Service is excellent – the servers are constantly removing items from your table and refilling the drinks – and they were smiling and making cordial conversation. In fact, the only person I encountered as not being personable was the Hibachi chef.
One complete buffet is nothing but desserts – from one end to the other – little cream puffs, specialty cakes, cookies and even apple pie. They also have an ice cream machine.
We would definitely go back if we were in the mood for a Chinese buffet. Prices are very reasonable: $5.55 for lunch from11:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. (Sunday $6.95); dinner buffet is $9.95, 4:30–9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The dinner buffet on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays is $9.95 (4–10 p.m.).
The Asia Buffet is open seven days a week, Monday through Thursday from 11:00 a.m. until 10 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. Dine in or carry-out.
cdojanet@chattanoogadineout.com