Palace Garden Buffet

So I came here for lunch and it was already pretty busy 30 minutes into opening. I can tell this place gets really busy. Kind of in a random plaza but there’s definitely a lot of parking nearby and if there isn’t, the mall is literally across the street. We had a party of 10 and when I saw the bill it wasn’t too expensive. In fact, I expected it to be way more than that. The food; well I’m not the biggest fan of buffets but I was surprised that the food was actually pretty good. I only didn’t like one thing and that was the salmon. But hey, someone else might love it. I personally thought it was too salty. The teppenyaki was probably my favorite part of it all and the tiramiso cake at the end :). If you’re looking for a bang for your buck and into buffets, I’d recommend it. Kind of weird that it’s ratings aren’t that great cause I personally didn’t think it was that bad.

Went last night. I haven’t been here since it was Minato. I looked pretty much the same, but my first impression was that it was hotter than hell in there and none of the food could possible be at the right temp. I would have left immediately if I wasn’t meeting someone there who was already eating. So I decided to give it a shot and was very wary. The sushi was horrible and hot! Don’t touch it unless you want to be sick like myself. They did have a few sushi items on the side over ice. They seemed ok but nothing special. The grill station never had anyone on it. The other cooked items and desserts were mediocre at best and everything tasted a little off of what it should taste like.
After I left, my stomach started to cramp up and hurt, and progressively got worse as i drove home. I thought I was going to explode. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the horrible night in the bathroom and bed from how sick I felt.

LET’S ADD TO THE MANY BAD REVIEWS OF THIS HORRENDOUS PLACE. Customer service= worst of my life, food quality= disgusting! I felt like I was being discriminated the whole time, the server was only paying attention to those who were of Asian descent and I literally had to beg him for service. Even when I thought after 30 mins he was going to refill my water, he WALKED BY ME AND WENT TO SERVE THE PEOPLE NEXT TO US while I thought he was finally going to pay attention to us. He didn’t pick up our plates throughout the whole experience, he didn’t say a word. I felt like he was mute, then I saw how friendly he was the Asian customers. The manager was the worst too, super rude. She claimed this server’s name was Diamond. I can go on how awful these employees are. Food was just cold, old and tasteless. Honestly, yes it’s cheap, however you are getting what you are paying for. If you really don’t care about quality of food, but just quantity. sure I guess come here. Otherwise, you are getting shit service and shit food. Food was simply old, gross. I’m surprised how busy this business gets.

The food here is okay. I miss when it used to be Minato. I was really sad because they have a chocolate fountain, but no strawberries or bananas to dip in. The price is pretty cheap though and the people are friendly enough.

This place is an Okay. I normally go for their teppanyaki, which me and my son enjoyed. I wished their sushi and sashimi are more fresh. It will be the best if you come here when there are a lot of people, because foods are more fresh. Watch out for some of their food has been sitting there for awhile, which has gone bad. Overall experience is an okay for the cheap price that you paid. Remember to get their fresh teppanyaki, which is delicious!

I used to come here all the time back when it was Minato buffet and even though the servers at Minato were incredibly rude, I kept going back because of the fresh salmon sashimi. When this place changed it’s name, it was such a welcome change. The service had improved so much and I loved it here.
However, as time progressed, service got just as bad as it was when it was Minato if not maybe worse. Servers try to get you in and out as quickly as possible, even if the restaurant is half empty. Servers come by and and throw the check on your table the second you serve yourself dessert and if you don’t leave right away, they walk past your table constantly, stare you down or find excuses to stand in front of your table awkwardly replacing napkin holders that are not even close to empty and replacing soy sauce bottles that are more than half full. It gets to feel really awkward when you know they want you to leave but you’re not done eating. It’s never a good idea to make your customers feel so unwelcome that you never want to come back.
The last time I was here was the last time I will ever come here. A server came to our table and whisked away my dessert plate while I was still eating it, fork in hand.
And to top all of that off not only are the staff rude, mean and unprofessional, the food has seriously gone downhill. The salmon sashimi, which was the only reason I came here isn’t fresh anymore. It is frequently dried and crusty, warm or tastes like freezer burn. The same raw fish just sits there for hours and it isn’t changed out at all. I will never come back to this place again after the terrible rude service and the way the food has declined so badly.

Food is great, but the servers here look mad or they either make a face when you ask for more water or soda.

DO NOT GO HERE
Okay so I’m here waiting for my family to finish their food. I was eating and I got my first plate. I got this like Bok Choy or spinach looking thing and i got a lot cause I love greens and so I’m almost finished with it and next thing you know I see this white thing and I thought it was a piece of paper. (I wish I took a picture before they took the place cause it probably sounds like I’m making this up but I’m not) and so I pass it around the table cause I think it’s a bug but I don’t tell anyone. I just asked what it was and then they all said it was a bug and that’s when I was instantly like «oh hell no» so that’s when I went up to talk to the supervisor and she just kept trying to tell me oh it’s okay. This is not okay. I am starving and I haven’t ate all day, but my family hasn’t had a problem with so I’m just sitting here writing this review and getting charged for sitting here. This is ridiculous. I didn’t even get an apology, all I got was an «oh ew» The service is bad also we walked in and they were asking for drinks and this girl with glasses that took our drinks was super rude and kept making disgusted faces at us. The only think I liked here was probably the water (pretty sure it’s tap cause you can see it foggy) and if not that the Mongolian bbq. Man I wish I can leave and get some food rn.
Update: just left and didn’t even receive an apology nor thank you
Another update: came to give this place another chance and this time it was even worse. I came in over an hour before closing and there was little to no food. So I asked the waiter if that was all the food they were gonna bring out and homework said yeah what do you want? Okay??? What kind of buffet doesn’t have food? So I was so mad that I wrote on the back of the receipt so the manager could see it but as I was leaving I saw them reading it and laughing at it. They instantly threw it away. How nice.

My wife and I were on our way to have lunch at Minato Seafood Buffet in West Covina, we’ve enjoyed eating here many times. When we arrived, to our surprise, Minato was no longer there. It was now Palace Garden Buffet. Well, we were ready to eat and it was 11am, exactly when they opened. Naturally, all the food would be fresh. As we entered, I was immediately impressed how clean and pleasant it looked inside. Plenty of booths and tables in two spacious dining rooms with wall mounted TV’s, one room could accommodate large groups.
The selection and quality of food was amazing. Featuring everything from appetizers to desserts (chocolate fountain). Including different types of fish and vegetables, chicken, duck, pork, clams, soups, sushi and much more. The salad bar offered a decent selection of dressings and toppings. We split a dish of chicken, noodles and veggies from the Mongolian BBQ grill section prepared by a cook on the spot. Everything we had was delicious! The polite staff picked up are the used plates and refilled our drinks accordingly. This family-​friendly restaurant was a wonderful unexpected discovery and highly recommended. The best part of this lunch was the price, $ 7.99!

So originally we were suppose to eat at Gen for dinner — but it was almost a 2 hour wait so my dad wanted to try this place out since its next door. This place use to be Minato — another asian buffet.
Asian buffets are usually amazing within the first few months their open — then it goes downhill from there. This place wasn’t too bad. Not sure how long its been open — they did change it up a little. Since it was the weekend — they had sashimi.
I think it was $ 12.99 for weekend dinner — which is super cheap if you ask me. Especially since they had crab legs & sashimi.
Service was okay, there was a lady at the front desk that didn’t acknowledge any of the guests when they were walking in. We literally stood by the podium for a good minute before she went over to us. But I mean, its expected — asian places rarely care about service.

Always a good time here. I love the look of the place. Marble walls and floors surround you. The staff is always friendly and the food is good. I come here not too often but when I do I always walk out satisfied and full. No ice cream tonight which was a disappointment. Best part is the price. It’s the cheapest price for Chinese buffet around. I paid $ 12.99 for a dinner on a Saturday night. It’s even cheaper during the week. Check this place out if you haven’t yet.

Love this place, meet up with my friends here, great food and service. It is very spacious and nice. The food are very fresh, and great variety. Definitely coming back soon

I’m not really a fan of buffets so I may be biased. The food was average – just like any other buffet. We paid $ 13 per person and pretty much just ate all the seafood we could. Oh! Forgot to mention there is a senior discount! ~$ 11 for seniors. Their Manila crab legs were extra meaty and plentiful. Their oysters were pretty good too. I didn’t have room for anything else so I didn’t try their desserts or the sushi. Service was great too – servers constantly came by and asked to take our plates away and to refill our drinks. We came out satisfied and happy… so that’s all that matters!

The food tastes fresh and good. The price is great. There is a large food selection. For $ 12.99 they provided giant crab legs and steamed oysters. There is a good mix of rolls, nigiri sushi, and sashimi. Overall it was a wonderful experience and am stuffed.

Ive been here so many time but the name has change probably as much. The food seems legit and safe. The décor looks a bit better than what it was before. The one thing that I kept coming back for was the dessert. Good solid Chinese food all around. Enough waiters to go around. But this seems to be the place to go after funerals… Just telling you what I see. Good solid buffet tho.

Average rating. Nothing special. We had what we paid for 10 $ for saucy, greasy, and flavorless food.
Lemon pepper fried chicken 8
Baked mussels 4
Singapore noodles with shrimp 6
Mushroom chicken 6
Green beans 6
Teriyaki chicken kabob 6
Stuff crab 2
Hot spicy soup 4
Broccoli and beef 5
Salmon 3
Deep fried shrimp 8
Manila clams 7
Carrot cake 6
Chocolate fountain 10
Almond cooking 10
Garlic bread 3
It was ok experience. Can’t rate any higher but at this point no stomach ache so that’s good

I was quite disappointed, came in during labor day. There was quite a bit of people, but not to say it was packed. We where greeted pretty well, but I was having a bit of issues understanding the waitress, no problem… We always do our best to understand… However, she was upset we had to ask a few times what she was saying. We all ordered water because our family usually doesn’t do the sugared drinks. She kind of looked at us funny when we did that, but I’m sorry we just like water. Since it is a buffet we can of course just get up and start at anytime.
I had a Mongolian, but the selection was not that large for that. The meat was pretty dry and not much flavor… This was after I added soy sauce, salt and pepper. So I went on to the sushi, it was pretty good. There selection there is pretty good, but the fish did not taste to fresh. My husband had the Salmon, the stake, fried shrimp, fried wanton, crab cakes, and, rice… A little of everything… He said it was all pretty good, but agreed on my plate wasn’t the best one. He’s a big guy so don’t judge him. Lol anyways my daughter had fried rice she didn’t like it to much, but it was alright. The fries she really enjoyed. My cousin tried the Mongolian, she was not a fan either. When it was all said and done you can imagine how many plates where on our table, but not one waitress had the decency to pick up these plates that where literally stacked.
Finally, I told my cousin to grab the plates and put them on the table next to us. As she was doing that one happened to be walking down and seen my cousin doing so and said «ohhh sorry, I’ll get that». I feel no one should be having to do that, but fine we continued on. At this point, you can imagine how long we had been there, so our drinks where gone… Yes, gone… Not about to be gone, they where done. Of course, when she picked up the plates she didn’t even bother to look and see if we needed more water. At this point my cousin of course is the one with the most view to the waitress and politely asked her to bring her water. The lady said yes, I’ll be back… with a pitcher of water in her hand. My cousin of course got upset and finally gave her a bad look and she returns as she seen that just to tell her «give me a minute, I will be back» why even return with a pitcher at hand to tell her to wait?
Took her another 10 minutes to return and finally gives us water, slamming cups down … Great. We decided to still try some dessert. Desserts make people happy, so why not… Grabbed my dessert and as I sat down boom!!! The check… Because you couldn’t wait. I don’t mind paying, but couldn’t refill our drinks, but can be quick to throw the check. By the way, I was there during lunch hrs and the check said dinners. I asked about it and she said «you didn’t see the sign on the doors, its labor day so it’s dinner prices all day. Wow! Labor day… Dinner prices all day… I don’t expect a discount, but truly can’t believe they expect me to read every sign as I come it. Mind you, they have a lot of signs… Two stars is about right. The service is lame, the food is not the best some good things and dessert sort of saved you because those coffee whip creams are pretty dang good, in case I didn’t mention them earlier. Won’t be returning, I’d rather go eat fast food next time. Cheaper and can feel good about bad attitudes.

This buffet spot has been turned over a bunch of times. Used to be Grand Buffet, then something else, then Minato Buffet, but changed now to Palace Garden Buffet.
I walk and see that the changes to the place was aesthetic. It has a flow to let guests go in. New flooring and wallpaper.
The food comes with the choice of many assortments of sushi that’s actually pretty good. There’s also sashimi as well.
The chinese food is good as well; the quality of the food can be of a 3.5 star restaurant. There’s the classic beef with broccoli to steamed fish to chicken kabobs. There’s a large selection to choose from.
Teppanyaki was also available. I had not make it, but two of my friends did, and one was more tasty than the other, so the chef had put less sauces for one of the plates. Hit or miss. It was good enough.
Overall, the place has a good vibe to it, customer service was on point and food pretty good. So a 3.5 star is the verdict for now and I would come back.

This place is not worth it. I’d rather be at hibachi buffet even though it’s far.
This place is very cheap in food.
Very poor in taste and not much selection.
I came with my family on a Wednesday.
The rice was very hard.
The crab legs were old (nasty taste)
The fish… The noodles… The meat…
Terrible experience.
A typical buffet where they only care about MONEY not food quality.

My friend and I decided to come here for lunch. My friend had received a coupon for this place due to their grand opening so we decided to give it a try. We decided to Unilocal this place but it was so new there weren’t any reviews. We decided to just try it out. Their location is right next to the West Covina mall. They are located on a pretty big lot which they share with a Subway, a few stores, and an upcoming Gen KBBQ.
Upon entering we were welcomed and ushered in. Since it was 3pm, that award time in which restaurants transition from their lunch to dinner options, it was fairly empty. They have quite an enumerate amount of seating which renders the food bars to look oddly small. Their selection isn’t huge. They have the usual: sushi, hot foods, western foods, fruits & desserts (with a chocolate fountain) and a teppankyaki bar & grill area.
I first sampled all the different assorted sushi. Note that sashimi is only available during dinner which was kind of disappointing. The raw pieces of salmon that came with the nigiri was quite fishy. It didn’t taste fresh and from prior experiences with bad sashimi, unless I wanted food poisoning I did not eat it. Most of the rolls had the imitation crab stick as the filling, which usually makes the preparations easier and cheaper. The veggie rolls weren’t good. I enjoyed the shredded imitation crab rolls.
I tried the hot foods next, sampling a little but of everything. The foods that did stand out were the cheese (they called then crab) rangoons, imitation crab cakes, and sweet chili chicken.
Some of the foods were cold, or have been sitting out for a while. The fries looked good but they were dry after biting in which means they’ve been made quite a while ago.
My friend had teppankyaki. She got udon noodles with an assortment of meat and mushrooms. They didn’t have any labels for that area, so you really so have to guess what kind of meat you’re getting.
Their chocolate fountain did not taste like real chocolate. It had a powdery, flour-​like taste which left a bad aftertaste. Their fruits were sweet juicy. I didn’t sample the desserts much as I’m not a huge fan.
All in all, selection is pretty limited. The seating area to food area ratio is way too big. It’s unecessary to have so much seating if you don’t have such a big selection of food. The bars were also placed a bit awkwardly, almost as if cafeteria style.
Food: 2 stars
Service: 2.5, usual: come to get your plates; one waitress did come refill waters without being asked to which was nice
Since they did just open, I won’t be too harsh. But first impressions are important and I don’t think I would be coming back.