I came to this buffet not expecting much but don't expect the outside decor fool you. Arriving about 30 minutes after they were open on a weekday, I found the food fresh and better than average quality. We all started out with seafood, myself with some chilled seaweed and greens with lima beans, and shrimp and mussels. I was surprised at the variety of seafood and fish dishes my friends brought back to the table while I was chowing down on my first plate. They had like 4 to 5 different kinds of fish on their plates.I then picked up some miso soup, which was decent. Wasn't too salty nor too watery. The only thing missing would've been some green onions to round out the taste. My second plate was from their sushi bar. I wasn't expecting much and therefore wasn't disappointed. The tuna sashimi was fresh but a bit stringy. The pickled ginger was delicious and I thought the inari, or stuffed rice in tofu, was actually pretty good.My third plate was a little bit of everything from their meat sections. Overall they were ok nothing really stood out in terms of taste but they weren't bad. I tried out their teriyaki chicken, some pork, and one or two other things.My fourth plate was full of veggies. Their broccoli with beef was excellent though a bit too salty maybe for some. It was fresh, nicely season, and crisp. The stir-fried string beans were as good as they looked, crisp, with a satisfying bite ending with a bit of sweetness.My last plate was of fruit to cleanse the pallet. I wasn't expecting much because I figured some of the stuff wasn't ripe yet and I was correct. All the fruit were freshly cut and looked fresh. The strawberries were the best but then again it's about time for strawberry season. =3 The pineapples were also pretty good, tangy and sweet and not unripe at all. I didn't try the grapes but I did try the honeydew melon and as I figured, they weren't ready yet. Overall though, everything in their salad bar looked fresh and I'm sure if I had tried their salad that I would've enjoyed it.I was also impressed with the expediency of removing old dishes from my table. The price was really a bargain when compared to the freshness and large variety of food available. Most of the dishes were average but a few were pretty good. Personally, I prioritize freshness and variety when it comes to buffets. Without that, I would've probably given it a 3. Would definitely go again.

I never thought I would be this impressed with China Great Buffet. We came on a monday night where the price was $10.99. At a buffet, their dishes usually taste the same...but not at China great. I started with king crab leg and crawfish. Sushi was just average..I wasn't expecting a high grade sushi. Miso soup was good. Orange chicken was good. Everthing I tried was above average. For $10.99 this is a great deal.Service was also good. The wait staff made sure there are no dirty plate and our sodas was never less than 1/4 of a glass empty.I"m a fan and will come back

Cheap, a-ok, AYCE chinese buffet.From the name of the restaurant, I already knew that this place would not be a "great" buffet. My dad had convince me to come here to celebrate my brother's birthday since it was cheap and had a good variety. When I heard "cheap", I instantly knew that the quality of the buffet would be lacking since its hard to make money now a days without lacking quality. My family and I arrived at the restaurant at 7pm on a Saturday night. It was very busy and there were many parties ahead of us that had large parties. If you do not want to wait a long time for a seat, I highly recommend that you come with a small party. My family was a party of 6 and all the smaller parties got a seat before us, which was very upsetting.The price of the buffet varies depending on what time of the day you come and what day of the week you come. Its $12.99 for the weekend, $10.99 for the weeknights, and $9.99 for weekday lunch.Food (2 star): This buffet had typical your Chinese food that is cooked in large portion without a care into the flavoring or quality of the food. For example, they had a dish that was similar to walnut shrimp without the walnut, so basically it was just battered fried small shrimps slabbed on with a large amount of mayonnaise. There was also a mongolian grill where you get to choose what to put into your plate of noodles (e.g. mushroom, egg, beef, chicken etc) and watch the chef cook it, this did not take too long to cook. As for the dessert, the best thing there was almond cookie, which is sad since you can just buy these cookies at your local Asian market. There was jell-o, a variety of cake, plenty of fruits, and Asian desserts ie coconut with tapioca. Drinks are not included into the cost of the buffet. The best thing there was the baked mussels. My family loved the crab legs but it was not king crab legs.Service (3 star) : The waitress was busy waiting on numerous tables but I give her props for always taking my plates away before I came back to the table with a new plate.Ambiance (3 star) : It was very loud in restaurant since there were so many families and young kids. We sat next to a party that had 2 kids that were done eating and just ripping a bunch of napkins constantly.Overall, I would not come back here again. The price is cheap but the quality was lacking.

Good place to go when you feel hungry but you dont know what to eat lol. They have good foods with good prices. Its pretty close to my home, so i'll always go there for my dinner.

I have been coming here since they opened. Definitely one of the better buffets in the area right now!In the beginning it was great but it went downhill from there for a couple months, that was when I gave them only one star... Gave it another try yesterday and although they still dont have oysters, everything else is alot better :)! They even have mongolian noodles now but even hometown buffet has that now lol. I love that they have shrimp though!I was going to givee them 4 stars but minus another star because their sashimi had bones and I poked my tongue... ow! :(

I have to say this place was very tasty. I came here for CNY celebration with family. I have never heard of a Chinese buffet in El monte so that caught me off guard. Although I didn't pay for dinner I think it was very cheap like $12-13 after tax. I can tell this place was good when I drank the hot and sour soup and it actually had flavor. Most places make it terrible but this place was good. I had the mongolian bbq, the sashimi, the seaweed and all were pretty tasty. I was very impressed with our waitress and she came often and refilled our drinks. We had two large tables and she did her best to accommodate all of us. If you do decide to come here during busy time, go early. When we left there were huge groups of people waiting.

El Monte has an excellent Asian buffet and I'm shocked I didn't find out about this place sooner.This place is an absolute steal at $10.99 for dinner! Their selection is pretty enormous and the food quality is not lacking (with the exception of the soft serve machine). My buddies and I hit this place up for dinner and we were not disappointed.Their Japanese food mainly consist of nigiri and cut sushi rolls. The fish to rice ratio is fine, and the rolls aren't drenched in sauce. They served tuna and snapper sashimi and that was decent as well. Some of my favorite items include the beef ribs smothered in BBQ sauce, the prime rib, the endless sea of crab legs, and a very tasty French beef (black pepper beef) that went amazingly well with the green beans. Their coconut shrimp is a guilty pleasure, but a little too sweet. Their orange chicken has a bomb crispy breading too, but you're mainly going to get breading.They have a Mongolian BBQ grill that was very busy when we went. They offer the standard soups (hot and sour, clam chowder, miso, egg drop), desserts, baked fish and salmon, mussels, clams, and even craw fish! I'm positive that you will find something to enjoy and chow down on if you are into Asian buffets.This place has a lot going for it and I wouldn't mind coming back every other Tuesday after a long day of community service!

The restaurant is very open and clean and its one of the better asian buffets that i've eaten at! The food selection is great and it ranges from king crab legs, coconut shrimp, clams, mussels, baked scallops and even baked oysters! so yummy! If you can't dine in, they actually give customers the option of buying a to-go box and stuffing it with dishes that they want to eat! good deal! (: I also like their variety of fresh fruits and desserts as well, but as for their sushi they can improve on that department because the sashimi tastes frozen.The service is really helpful and attentive here which is something you don't see a lot of in other buffets, but our server was always asking us if we wanted refills on our water and brought us new utensils if we accidently dropped our chopsticks or forks. They also clear the dishes from our table very quickly so that we can have more room to put our new foods. Very excellent!Overall, i really like this buffet and would definitely come back during lunch hour! Baked oysters are my favorite and they got plenty here (:

Is a hit and miss area, sometime is good while the other is not, weekend tend to had better quality, but weekday most likey frozen sashimi. Dessert is still bad, butt hey are quite genorous with the snow crab legs, come here if you love seafood, if not go elsewhere.

The straw that broke the crane's backTo be fair, December was full of Chinese buffets, and all were terrible. Being invited to the China Great Buffet, I thought I was in store for a different experience, but sadly, it was the same as the other ones. Because of this experience and the ones before it, I will never go to another buffet. They are just all terrible.But, before I go into the negatives, the few bright spots were the wait staff and the ... well, I can't think of anything else. The carpet is dingy, the tables are old and sticky, and the food is yucky. That's the best word I can use to describe it. It's not gross, but it's far from appealing. I mean, if I was starving, and I've never eaten good Chinese food before, I would find it edible. In my case though, every plate I came back to the table with had food on it when I was finished because of stuff I just couldn't eat any more of after one bite.I've come to find out that Chinese buffets are just as terrible as American buffets. Food cooked in mass quantities and left under heat lamps is just not good at all. People shouldn't be exposed to this. We're better than this as a species to accept this as satisfactory food.Again, this review is more of a critique on all Chinese buffets in the LA/Orange County area, but the China Great Buffet fits in.PS: It's my experience that restaurants with the word "great" in their name usually aren't in any form.

Went there for a weekend lunch buffet for $12.59 per person. My expectation was low so it turns out to be a surprise. The hot snow crab legs is really good here so I had many plates of it. Besides, the clams and the cooked fish/shrimp are pretty good too. Stay away from the sushi because they are all rotting. Watch for dirty table and utensils.Good: Snow crab legs, clams, shrimp, Chinese veggie, cooked deserts.Bad: everything else.food: 5 (only for the crab legs)service: 3price: 5ambience: 2

i like the section here! and i dont have anything bad to say but the restroom but i go to a buffet for the food not for the restroom so yeah, this place is good for the price you pay for dinner!

Eh, this place is alright. Pretty much like any other typical Asian buffet. The sushi wasn't that good in my opinion. My favorite things were the ribs and some banana dessert thing. I like how they give you a fortune cookie at the end of your meal though. Don't think I'll ever return.

"It's like China and Mexico formed a treaty and decided to hold their meeting here," says my brother.Food quality is better than most around 626. I think I touched base with each platter and everything was pretty good. The stuff that I went back for:Baked baby crabsBaked musselsSushiParking is hard to find. The floors were a bit on the sticky side, so it wasn't very pleasant to walk around. And the aisles are pretty small too, on top of the place being crammed with people, lots of elbows were out. They were really quick to take our plates, but it could be because we were right next to the dirty plates station... and they had this muddy bucket of water right next to it; if I had to take a guess, it was the water they used to clean the tables.

They have a fairly wide variety of food, even sushi! But at this price, don't even expect it to be fresh. It was super crowded and packed, forcing me to maneuver back to my table with a plate full of food. It's better than Zen Buffet and it's in my own backyard. The price is great, especially with the coupons they send in the mail. I will definitely be back.

$13 ayce is un-complainable!The place is surprisingly clean and not small and they have a good variety of Asian food.When I went with my family and cousins during dinner time there wasn't too many people there so we were seated right away.The food wasn't too bad, which surprised me due to the location of this restaurant (El Monte)

Came on a weekday for lunch, 7.99/person is a good price. This place was packed during lunch hour.they have a lot varieties of food. a salad bar, seafood, fruit, sushi, dessert, hot food....the sushi are not fresh, but hey, what you expect for this price. I'd say its fair quality of food for this price.

It was alright, nothing to rave about but at the same time it wasn't bad either. People were seriously grubbing on those crab legs. They were going to down town with it.Everyone mentions about the coupons, my family loves this place, wished I got a coupon. My favorite is their fruit / salad bar, I really liked how they had peaches and lychee. Some of my favorites.I'm pretty sure I'll be back again.