Buffet 9

FOOD

The custom Mongolian/hibachi bowl is the most distinctive part of Buffet 9’s advertised offering. Noodles, meat, vegetables and sauces are selected before cooking, making this an individually assembled stir-fry within the buffet meal. The ingredients are brought together as a cooked dish, rather than being separate finished items taken from different pans. That gives the bowl its own place at dinner: it is a complete combination with the noodles, protein and vegetables considered together.

General Tso’s chicken provides a familiar Chinese-American starting point among the prepared dishes. In the usual style, it is a coated chicken dish with a sauce that balances sweetness and heat. The attraction of that style is the relationship between the chicken’s coating and its sauce. It is a different proposition from the custom bowl, where the combination begins with ingredients you select for cooking.

Fried rice and lo mein give the Chinese selection two substantial accompaniments. Fried rice gives you a different texture from the noodles in lo mein, while both work well alongside the sauced dishes. The two belong naturally alongside sauced chicken and dumplings. They can also be a substantial part of a meal in their own right, especially for diners whose enthusiasm for noodles extends well beyond a small helping on the side.

Dumplings and soups round out that Chinese buffet repertoire. A plate of dumplings makes a simple beginning, particularly if your attention tends to head straight toward sushi or the grill. They are also a familiar Chinese choice in a spread that reaches into sushi and cooking at the grill. Soup adds another course to the meal, a familiar part of a Chinese lunch or dinner. Together, these supporting dishes help explain the buffet’s Chinese identity beyond its better-known chicken and noodle choices.

The brand’s advertised sushi selection includes rolls and nigiri. Nigiri is shaped sushi rice with a topping; rolls combine rice with fillings, while sashimi is sliced fish served without sushi rice. Those distinctions are useful: sashimi is built around fish, while rice is a substantial part of nigiri and rolls. Sashimi and rice-centered sushi can make quite different contributions to the same meal. The assortment is representative of the operator’s concept, with the actual selection varying rather than following a fixed fish-by-fish roster.

Seafood, barbecue and seasonal specials also appear in the operator’s broader buffet description. Those categories leave room for changing dishes around the named Chinese classics, grill and sushi. For a group coming for the full buffet, the cooked bowl gives the meal its most individual element, while the rice, noodles and dumplings keep the familiar Chinese side well represented.