E-Star Asian Buffet

FOOD

Short ribs give E-Star’s hot line a substantial meat dish alongside the chicken and noodles. They are one of the more useful named choices here, especially for someone whose idea of a Chinese buffet begins with the cooked mains. The seafood gets plenty of attention, but the ribs make a case for looking beyond it. The selection changes by service; the dishes below describe the buffet’s range, including rotating seafood.

Baked salmon is a notable part of that seafood menu. An oven-cooked fish main gives the meal a different emphasis from fried shrimp or sushi, with salmon at the center of the dish. There’s room here for someone who enjoys seafood but would rather have cooked fish than rolls. It also helps explain why E-Star’s seafood offering deserves more consideration than a quick glance at the sushi display.

Cheese-topped mussels bring shellfish and a rich topping together. The mussel shell makes this a recognizable buffet preparation, while the cheese adds a creamy element quite different from a plain piece of baked fish. Shrimp extends the shellfish selection. The seafood part of dinner can take in baked fish, topped shellfish and fried choices, with quite different preparations to consider.

Crawfish and fried crab are further examples of the buffet’s seafood breadth. Crawfish involve peeling and working around the shell; fried crab brings another shellfish preparation into the hot-food selection, often with a salt and pepper preparation. They give this Houston Chinese-American buffet a connection to the region’s appetite for shellfish. Their place is within the changing spread, alongside more familiar fish and shrimp dishes, rather than a separate seafood-boil meal.

California rolls and more elaborately topped rolls bring sushi into the selection. Some rolls include cream cheese, which adds richness to the rice, seafood and vegetable fillings. That is a useful distinction for sushi eaters: this buffet includes the fuller, creamy style of roll as well as familiar, approachable California combinations. The sushi is part of a wider cooked-and-cold seafood offering, with plenty of dinner still coming from the hot line.

Fried chicken wings and crab rangoon keep that hot line firmly in Chinese-American buffet territory. Rangoon encloses a creamy filling in a fried wonton wrapper, a richer starter alongside the wings and other chicken dishes. Lo mein contributes soft noodles, while hot-and-sour soup adds heat and acidity. These familiar choices help complete the meal beyond its headline fish and shellfish, particularly for diners drawn to the Chinese restaurant staples.

Small baked sweets and cookies fill part of the dessert display, with fruit and self-serve ice cream offering other finishes. The individual sweets suit the buffet format without requiring a full slice of cake after dinner. Fruit keeps the choice simple; ice cream makes it cold and sweet. Dessert is an easy last stop after a meal whose more distinctive interests lie in the short ribs, baked salmon and shellfish.