Buffet 9 – Rosenberg

FOOD

General Tso’s chicken gives Buffet 9’s prepared Chinese dishes a familiar sweet-and-spicy starting point. Fried rice and lo mein sit alongside dumplings and soups, with seafood and seasonal specials extending the hot selection. The meal has a clear Chinese-American core before the sushi or Mongolian grill comes into consideration.

The prepared dishes are useful together: a helping of chicken with broccoli and fried rice, noodles beside dumplings, or soup before the heavier plate. Crab rangoon and egg rolls bring the smaller bites into the meal. They’re easy to overlook when the griddle is busy, but they belong to this buffet’s everyday appeal as much as the cooked-to-order bowl.

At the Mongolian-style station, noodles, meat and vegetables become a stir-fry with the sauces you select. Staff cook the assembled bowl in front of you. The sauce goes into the dish as it cooks, bringing the noodles and other ingredients together on the griddle. It’s the most direct connection between choosing a plate and seeing it prepared, with the cooking handled by the station staff.

Sushi sits alongside that hot-food offering, with rolls, nigiri and sashimi in the advertised range. A few pieces of fish-topped rice or some sliced fish bring a different kind of eating after sauced chicken and a griddled bowl. Seafood dishes and the sushi selection rotate; the particular fish and shellfish are part of the day’s spread.

Salads and fruit give the plate a simpler accompaniment after the hot dishes. They also leave an easy step toward dessert, where ice-cream cups and pastries provide a modest finish. There’s no need for a grand final course here. A cup of ice cream after a stir-fry is quite capable of bringing an ordinary buffet dinner to a satisfactory close.