Crazy Buffet – South Orange Blossom

FOOD

Crazy Buffet’s seafood is substantial enough to make a meal of its own, stretching from shrimp and mussels on ice to crawfish and sauced fish. Sushi, hibachi and pho broaden the choices further. The useful distinction here is the range of preparations: chilled shellfish, hot seafood dishes, rolls, noodles and soup give you quite different things to try. The selection varies, so treat these as examples of the spread rather than a fixed daily menu.

Sushi has a counter of its own, with simpler rolls alongside versions finished with toppings and sauce. That gives roll enthusiasts somewhere to begin before exploring the rest of the buffet. A few pieces can serve as the first course, or sushi can be the main reason for dinner, with hot dishes added as you go.

Hibachi noodles, grilled chicken and pho offer another way to put together a meal. Chicken with sauce can accompany a helping of noodles, while pho adds a soup option beyond the sushi and shellfish. There’s room here for someone who would happily spend dinner on rolls and someone who came hoping for noodles and a bowl of soup.

For shellfish fans, shrimp and mussels on ice provide a cold starting point. Shell-on shrimp give diners something to peel, and crawfish with potatoes and sliced green pepper add a more substantial preparation among the rotating dishes. If picking through shellfish is part of the pleasure for you, there is plenty of reason to explore this section.

The hot shrimp dishes include peeled shrimp with green pepper and onion in sauce, along with a preparation featuring pepper strips and green onion. These offer a change from the chilled shellfish, with the peeling already done. They also make it possible to try shrimp in more than one preparation without committing the entire plate to the same dish.

Ginger and scallion accompany both whole fish and white fish fillets in sauce. These give the hot seafood selection more substance beyond shrimp and crawfish. Choose whole fish if you enjoy that style of preparation and don’t mind working around bones, or try the fillets for a simpler serving alongside your other choices.

Then there is pernil, the roast pork among the dinner selections. A welcome surprise at an Asian buffet. Together with grilled chicken and bone-in ribs with sauce, it gives meat eaters several options beyond the seafood. The Latin addition is one of the details that makes this particular spread worth a closer look.

Pepperoni pizza, corn, chicken and noodles give diners plenty of familiar choices alongside the seafood. That helps when one person has come for crawfish and another would really rather have pizza. Family dinner does occasionally involve negotiations.

Cantaloupe, honeydew and peaches offer a lighter finish, while little pastries and several flavors of ice cream leave room for something sweeter. A pastry beside a scoop? Entirely reasonable.