Drawn in by banners along the edge of County Line Road, Clyde and I make our way to the newest Chinese restaurant in Jackson: King Buffet. All but invisible — tucked away, in fact, in what used to be the Dollar Tree location in the shadow of Best Buy and Play It Again Sports — King Buffet is, hands down, Jackson’s best Chinese buffet.
The huge, bright dining area bristles with tables … which can seem a little odd, at the moment, as crowds are yet to discover this particular eatery. Unlike Peking or Sun Koon, King Buffet, in addition to the usual stand-bys, offers an enormous array of unusual dishes: thai peanut chicken, spicy shrimp or chicken with veggies, and even two kinds of steaming dim sum dumplings.
I enjoy Peking’s sushi bar, which serves up four or five rolls on a regular basis and delivers custom pieces on demand. By contrast, King Buffet’s sushi master keeps the bar loaded with fresh tuna, sweet shrimp, snow crab, vegetable rolls — things you must request (and tip for) when dining at the Peking. The sushi here is not as fresh or flavorful as Jackson’s best (found only at Haru), but as part of an all-you-can-eat $8.99 buffet, it’s a great deal. (The same price would buy two 6-piece rolls at Haru, or four pieces of sweet shrimp sushi.)
Soups, salads, and even bizarre choices (fried cheese sticks, french fries, baked potato skins with cheddar cheese and bacon) abound. Friends who dislike Chinese can come along for the seafood (crab legs, steamed crabs, crawfish, five kinds of shrimp) or steaks (small, but not as tough or flavorless as you would expect).
As with most Chinese buffets, dessert is the most disappointing course. In addition to the usual fruit and dry, pre-fab pastries, King Buffet offers a flat little Sysco cheesecake and a not-bad cobbler. For the more adventerous diners, there’s also a scoop-it-yourself ice cream bar offering eight different Blue Bunny flavors.
(Personally, I find the sight of other diners running their hands through ice cream tubs a bit off-putting … especially since so many seem to have the stuff smeared on the backs of their hands. I prefer the solution we saw at a similar buffet in Atlanta, where the health department forced the management to pre-scoop the stuff into single-serve plastic cups.)
The other restaurants in town see the handwriting on the wall: during both our visits, we saw management from Peking, Haru, and Ding How chowing down at tables in the back. The friendly managers, Susan and Karen, take it all in stride. “I told them already,” Susan whispered to me. “I’m going to steal all your business.”
And she may. In addition to Karen and Susan’s friendly presence (either or both will invariably stop by to chat as you dine), they’ve recruited an eager, capable staff who fill drink glasses and whisk away dirty plates like magic.
If you’re after variety, decent buffet fare, and all the sushi you can shake a chopstick at, I think you’ll agree with me that King Buffet is the Chinese eatery to beat here in Jackson. Hurry, though … once locals catch on, this place is going to be a madhouse.
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