A wok across Asia

As you might have gathered by this point I'm a bit of an Asiaphile, I love most things that come from the east from Kim-chi and Bulgogi to Schezwan Eggplant and Fried Rice to Sushi and Tempura. The spice mixes are interesting, flavorful and fresh when compared to the french sauces and preparations. This brings up the question of which fare from the east is my favorite, and that is where we hit a problem. I don't really have one, there are bits of each cuisine that I love and bits I could do without.

This is where "Chinese" buffets come into play, now there are some in St. Louis that really shouldn't be gone to, before it closed down China Star was a good example, another one that I would recommend shying away from would be Habachi Grill Supreme Buffet down on Watson... trust me just don't on this one food rests for hours on end, I've never seen the food checked on, service was... just bad... but there are some places in St. Louis that have reinvented themselves, Joy Luck buffet is a great example of this. For a long time it was the place to avoid in town, but a change of owners can be a wonderful thing. This is my go to Chinese buffet, but not my favorite, I go because of good qaulity, fair price and most impotently how close it is to my home.

Before I go into my favorite Chinese buffet lets go into what makes a good one. Decor while important isn't the end all be all, food has to be constantly coming out of the Kitchen, rotated often and seamlessly, the waiter or more likely waitress should be good at what they do moving quickly refiling drinks and clearing plates all the while smiling and laughing along. But most importantly is the Variety factor, the fact is that Chinese Buffet has for a long time been a misnomer, Far Eastern buffet would be more appropriate, a healthy mix of Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese built on a base of good Americanized  Chinese that we are all but force fed growing up.

In St. Louis the end all be all of the Chinese Buffet falls to Emperor's Palace. The thing is you don't go into a buffet expecting authenticity, it just doesn't work that way and Emperor's Palace makes no claim of that, they do claim and rightfully so a wide range of Asian dishes, a high turnover rate in the food and an atmosphere conducive to kicking back sipping hot green tea while laughing at the kids running around the chocolate fountain as you take a bite of Beijing Duck right next to a pile of Kim-chi and a half of a tuna roll.