This new Asian buffet in Arlington is mobbed. It’s like Six Flags Over Sushi
The busiest new restaurant in town should be the flashy mussels place on Magnolia Avenue.
Or it should be that big-name chef’s new French bistro on Hulen Street, or the fancy sushi and Asian fusion restaurant in the historic downtown hotel.
But — no.
Only one new restaurant has lines noon and night.
That’s the new all-you-can-eat sushi, Chinese and Mongolian grill in south Arlington: King Buffet.
The new buffet in a former cafeteria at 300 East Interstate 20 is a 13,000-square-foot amusement park of Asian food.
It’s literally Six Flags Over Sushi. Along with simple Chinese fried rice dishes, there’s a large sushi selection, a made-to-order Mongolian grill, Cajun seafood, American roast beef and even Italian shrimp and pasta dishes.
So far, diners have reported waiting in line up to an hour.
Don’t do that. Wait a few weeks. Or go at mid-afternoon.
The full dinner selection is served fresh at 3:30 p.m., and there’s an early-bird discount Mondays through Thursdays for diners age 60 and over.
Once ubiquitous, Asian buffets have nearly vanished in recent years. The old ones were skimpy, or boring.
But restaurants such as the elaborate Asian King Buffet in CityView (not the same as King Buffet) and the table-service all-you-can-eat Japan House in North Richland Hills have proven there is still a market for fried rice or noodles, teriyaki chicken and plates loaded with different sushi rolls or sashimi.
Like its Dallas and Plano cousins, King Buffet offers 10 buffet tables loaded with appetizers, sushi, salads and desserts, far more than previous buffet tenant Furr’s.
The diners here are big families and big eaters.
For $12.49 at weekday lunch, $15.49 at weekday dinner and $16.49 on weekends — cheaper for children and seniors — diners roam the tables piling plates high.
This is dining anarchy. Diners jostle and bump going for the newest batch of crab legs or one more dollop of soft-serve ice cream atop the red-velvet bundt cakes.
But despite the kind of crowd unknown in Arlington anywhere besides Campo Verde at Christmas season, the food is actually off to a good start.
Simple stir-fry items were fresh and not overly breaded. Nothing tasted as if it had been on a steam table for long. The Mongolian grill offered a great selection.
The sushi and sashimi buffet offered more than 12 choices including basics such as tuna, crab, cream cheese and eel-avocado. None of the rolls was overly loaded with mayo or sauces.
The biggest draw was the table in the middle of the buffet labeled “Chili Sauce” with two dozen bottles of sriracha.
Each table also has a giant bottle of sriracha and also a fat bottle of Salsa Valentina.
Look, if you can fill up a buffet plate with food and then cover it with wasabi, sriracha and Salsa Valentina, it really doesn’t matter whether the teriyaki chicken is all white meat.
King Buffet is open daily for lunch and dinner; 817-465-8888, kingbuffetarlington.com.
(Even the website this week gave the warning: “Bandwidth limit exceeded.”)
