More places to eat should be like Jumbo Buffet

A drive from where we live, there's this joint called Jumbo Buffet. It's conveniently located next to Saar's Market Place (which we've been shopping more at — better prices and selection than Safeway), and we've been there a couple times. Already, it's a favorite.

There are a lot of good reasons why: first, AMAZING LOW PRICES. I don't exaggerate, because lunch per adult person is US$6.95. There's a lot of fast food combos that don't get that low, as my wife observed. And dinner — after 4 PM — is US$9.95/person. It's worth the 3 extra bucks, because they add a few more dishes to their assortment, like crab legs (a personal fave), shrimp, and prime rib roast. (This is true for at least the one time we had dinner there, yesterday.) Compare that with Todai's US$25.95+ dinner buffet, which is a relative rip-off.

I'll expound on the food quality too: the selection is pretty good, aisles of mostly Asian-oriented selections of the Chinese (all your stock expectancies from chow mein to won ton soup to General Tso's chicken) and Japanese kinds, but some pan-cultural dishes too. It reminds me a lot of growing up and going to buffets… and I've gone to a lot of them. They've got a mini sushi bar and the rolls are smaller-sized than you may expect, but fit well in small mouths, and taste good to me. They've even got a makeshift Mongolian grill. And yesterday in the dessert section, they had watermelon mmmm. Not as saturated and sweet as I'm accustomed to, but bundled with everything else, I can't complain.

I was definitely excited, and really had a good time eating with my wife. Even better, their staff are friendly and attentive — let me tell you about this one time where we were sitting at an Olive Garden and felt forgotten because we were ready to leave but the appointed waitress didn't notice, ugh. Contrast that with how observant the Jumbo Buffet folks are: at least one waitress who served us both times, noticed we had reached the dessert phase of the programme, and promptly passed us fortune cookies and the bill early with no wait. Now that's how you attract repeat business.

I like a well-done "all you can eat" because the food is ready to go. One thing that chafes me about à la carte is wasted time waiting for food. Sure, you can converse with your fellow diners, but as a man who isn't exactly drowning in free time, I like sagely saving and spending all the time I can get.

Criticisms? I wish soda pop was included in the buffet price. I didn't get the exact extra cost, but my Mom (and I agree with her on this) once said that it's a better idea for buffets to include pop, because it's cheap sugared water and can fill you up fast, meaning it's good for business. I note Todai's doesn't include soda either, and for that price, shame on 'em. (Soda tends to wake my brain up and I drink a lot of it.)

But all in all, fantastic experience and we're looking forward to eating at Jumbo Buffet again. I don't know if they're part of a larger chain, but I hope so. Looks like they've been open 3-something years, so I hope they don't do a Sizzler with their quality or go out of business. From the casual Googles I did, there doesn't appear to be a lot of press about it on the Net nor "restaurant reviews", so let me put my good word forth and click "Publish".

Tagged as: General, Reviews