Adventure 3: Yummy Buffet

Yummy Buffet (no website)

411 W Gilman St.
3 Adjectives: plain, cheap, plentiful
Price: buffet(6)
Authenticity:
Atmosphere:
Overall:
Veganness:
Other Opinions: badgerherald, madtownlounge, judysbook, yahoo
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Last Friday, Tossy, her friend, and I made our way through the snow over to Madison's most notorious or best (depending on who you ask) "Chinese restaurant," Yummy Buffet. One of the reasons I deftly avoided the place in the past was because I wasn't interested in eating at yet another at best, good bad Chinese food, or at worst bad bad Chinese food restaurant. Although Yummy fitted most of my fears of Chinese food in America, there were a few perks to dining at the restaurant.

First, I want to state that I am rather sensitive to good Chinese food because I get an amazing sample whenever I go home. Therefore, I am a bit of a Chinese food snob, tending to consider most of the Chinese food in the US "good bad Chinese food" (NYT article about good bad Chinese food). In essence, there is a lot of food that is not reflective of real, delicious Chinese food, but tastes acceptable. In particular, I am disappointed that there are no amazing Chinese food restaurants in Madison, just bad to okay food offered at a wide range of noncorrelative prices from Panda Express (horrible but cheap) to Imperial Garden (okay but overly pricey).

The exterior of Yummy Buffet looked questionable; on the day we went only the word "YUMMY" was lit up and large sheets of fog obscured the inside of the restaurant. The interior of Yummy Buffet mirrored its outside. The restaurant was not noticeably clean and the lighting, foggy mirrors, dull walls, and open space made the place feel more like a train station than a place to dine. After paying at the door a nice and cheap $6, the cashier handed each of us a spoon and fork wrapped in paper towel, arming us with the necessary goods. We were ready to chow down.

The selection at Yummy is plentiful for a cheap buffet yet the food left much to be desired. While it is certainly worth its price, some of the food looked (and probably was) old and untouched for hours - the egg drop soup had hardened to a thick paste and a bowl of bobbing and floating carrot slices looked quite suspicious. Amusingly, it was very apparent the owners tried to make the food as cheap as possible. The only "seafood" in the seafood medly was imitation crab. The beef dish was gone but there was no attempt to make more. A lot of the food was dry while some of it felt like it was doused in vegetable oil.

However, truthfully, given the price of the meal, I really can't complain too much about the quality of the food. Some of it was even near the margin of being tasty, like the lo mein and one of the stir fry pork dishes. In addition, I was surprised how many dishes contained meat.

Yummy Buffet is a great place to go if you are starving and looking to consume a large quantity of good bad Chinese food or to go with good company to take your mind off the food. Given the quality, the best deal would to be at least to get your money's worth. If you are looking for much tastier (but less variety, and obviously smaller portioned) Chinese food on campus, I highly suggest checking out the boxed lunches served at Gum Seng by Union South.


Mmm! Skunks, even vegan skunks, are not that picky when it comes to crappy Chinese food. Especially when the deal is all the crappy Chinese food a skunk can eat! Tossy really loves fortune cookies, vegetable rolls, lo mien, fried rice, and mushrooms. Even if the later three appear to be floating in grease. However, there was no deep-fried tofu available the day that Tossy went. Tossy was like, what's up with that? Deep fried tofu is a vegan must-have at any authentic non-authentic Chinese anything! But Tossy will return.