Imperial Buffet

This place used to be known as Imperial Buffet but they have apparently changed the name to Mei Li Buffet International, even though their business cards inside still say Imperial.
I have been here twice, once close uto when they were closing and they didnt have much food out but i thought i would give them another chance during normal business hours.
I went today and was extremely disappointed. The service there is horrible. I went with my wife and baby, asked for a high chair and was left standing at the table holding my son for atleast 5 mins while the lady who claimed someone was bringing the high chair, sat about 4 more famlies. Then she finally asked someone after lying saying she did but not before i had to ask again, several minutes later someone brought one.
On top of this, the waitress sucked and any place that puts raw oysters right next to pudding ought to be shut down. I dont know why it is so many of these chinese buffets put raw meats and seafood sitting within inches of desserts and such. Do they not understand that some people can die from shellfish? Not to mention the bacteria that can go along with it. What if someone dipped out some oysters and brought the spoon across the pudding, letting oyster water drip into it and contaminating it for people who are allergic? Lawsuit waiting to happen but they dont care. The place is slightly overpriced also i feel. I dont really want to go back.

We chose this restaurant because it offered beer & wine. When my sister asked what kind of beer they had, they said no beer, only soda. We left without eating and went across the road to Chili’s. Can’t comment on the food since we didn’t eat there. Just wanted to give a heads up that even though Unilocal says it has beer & wine, it doesn’t. FYI– This visit and review was done in March 2012 and saved but never posted. May have changed. Low score was for not what is advertised and not the food or service since we didn’t stay to eat. We went for dinner and a beer or glass of wine which was advertised on Unilocal but they didn’t have.

We used to order take out from this Chinese restaurant and it was ok. We then stopped in one day to eat the buffet. BAD IDEA. This place is DISGUSTING. There is a pretty huge variety of food, but nothing looks clean. The food looks like its been sitting their forever. The food didn’t taste good. The only thing I could eat was the dessert (I can’t remember what they called it but it was essentially a sugar donut). I wanted to throw up the entire time I was there. I was so grossed out by the place that I won’t even order take out there. I go to the Publix next door to this place weekly and every time I see this restaurant I gag — and I’m not exaggerating.

This just cheap oriental buffet food. Nothing special at all.

By far my favorite place to eat in Winter Haven if I am super hungry and want to get ALOT for my buck, The service could be a bit better, but come on its an all you can eat buffet so they pretty much just bring your drinks and clear your table of plates. There are six buffet tables to choice from, one is a desert table, one is american food, and the rest are all your favorite chinese foods. Including egg rolls a large varity of sushi and seafood, sweet and sour Chicken, pepper steak and my personal favorite peanut butter chicken. This is the only place I’ve found that has peanut butter chicken on the buffet. If you come for lunch you can feed yourself and a date for under $ 20 dollars, if you come at dinner you can feed the two of you for just over $ 20 dollars. All and all I give the Imperial buffet four stars because it really is one of the better places to eat in Winter Haven.