5 Cheap London Buffets That Aint So Bad

BUFFET, what does that word conjure up in your mind. In my mind it means cheap moderately good food if you are lucky or if you not so lucky crap cheap food that only my dog would be happy with.

I have frequented numerous Chinese and Thai buffets during my 15 months of living in London and some of them have been nae too bad and some of them I cant even bring myself to write about because they were so fucking disgusting…

Not so long ago after a visit to the British Museum, myself and my African Princess were feeling a wee bit pekish. A couple of hours wandering around  in that place would make anybody hungry! As we walked around some of the side streets in the area, we stumbled upon a wee place offering a buffet. It was an…I was going to say an Italian buffet, because they had a selection of Italian dishes but they also had some disgusting looking British meat pies, so who knows what they were. Confused is what they were, as well as being empty…

Anyway we stopped outside to read the menu and peer at the food through the dirty window. In fact I just had to look at the dried up food to know that this place was a BAD JOKE. Just as we were walking away the owner came rushing out trying to persuade us to go in. We didn’t even give the guy the time of the day, we were out of there. I don’t think even Gordon Ramsay could have saved this place.

Fortunately I have came across a few places that are a tad bit better than the BAD JOKE. I suppose at the end of the day, when you are paying between  £5  to £10 for an all you can eat type of meal, you cant expect too much. However I do expect what I’m getting to at least resemble something that looks like  food and which has been cooked fairly recently..!

If only I could find a place to match the quality of the Jimmy Chung’s Chinese Buffet in London. It is a legendary place I use to frequent on a regular basis back home in Aberdeen, they are the fucking business…None of the places I have been to in London, with the exception of Aroma have came close to matching the quality offered by JC. Jimmy Chung I think you need to expand your empire to take in London, we need you here..

Today I’m going to feature the 5 best buffets that I have personally came across in London. I’m not saying that they are the best that this city has to offer, but the best I have found so far. I unfortunately haven’t received any free meals from any of the places mentioned, but I’m available for such offers..!

5 Cheap London Buffets That Aint So Bad

1. Aroma Oriental Buffet: I might as well start at the best that  I have been to so for in London and that is the Aroma in Shepherds Bush. I have been here many times over the years and for what you pay, I can’t really fault the place at all. Not the cheapest buffet out there but I guess you get what you pay for. Expect to pay from £7 for lunch and up to £13.95 for dinner at the weekends. The food is pretty dam good and I especially like the Tepanyaki Bar, where the chef will cook the ingredients in front of you. Aroma is cool place, which does good food, at a  fair price in nice  surroundings. I cant really fault it.

2. Kitchin: This huge place which is located in Kings Cross offers a fairly decent selection of Indian, Chinese, Thai and Italian food. Again it isn’t the cheapest buffet you will find, but if you want a better quality of food and a reasonable good selection of dishes you have to pay a wee bit more. Prices range from £7.99 for lunch up to £14.99 for dinner. I cant really fault this place or the price, just make sure you are real hungry when you go. Kitchin is a place I cant wait to go back to and which offers reasonable good food, for moderate prices in cool surroundings.

3. Mr.Wu (Wardour Street): This place is a legend and it isn’t for the quality of the food, which is not the best, but it sure aint the worst either. I first visited Mr Wu’s in Soho perhaps 10 years ago and again a few months ago. And nothing much has changed, they offer a limited range of food at dirt cheap prices,. It costs £4.95 for as much as you can eat. What could you get at McCrap or KFC for that and in my mind Mr Wu is a better quality than those fast food chain jokers…If you are skint and hungry you wont go wrong in this place.

4. Pizza Hut (Baker Street): I wouldn’t normally eat in Pizza Hut, I don’t rate them too highly, but my African Princess likes them a wee bit. Pizza Hut may not be in the same league as Pizza Express, but they offer a fairly reasonable lunch time buffet menu deal. “The Everything Buffet” deal is a fair price at £6.49  and you can eat as much pizza, pasta and salad as you want or can! Not the best pizza in the world or the most stylish surroundings to eat in but they are okay if you are broke and hungry at lunch time.

5. Water Margin Oriental Buffet: The restaurant truly is a oriental delight located at the O2 Arena, which offers  a wide variety of dishes from the Far East, including Chinese, Thai, Singaporean and Malay. The food when I was there was a hit or a miss, some of it was pretty dam good and other things I wasn’t too impressed with. But the plus side is that  they sold pints of lager and the restaurant itself was rather cool and stylish. I generally liked this place, but they need to improve on the food side, just a wee bit. Prices are from £7.50 for lunch up to £14.80 for diner depending on which day of the week you go.

I have been to a few Chinese buffets that cost between £5 to £7 and most of them were….. lets just say they were maybe cheap, but I will never return to them again. As far as buffets are concerned you generally get what you pay for.

If you are paying 5 quid for an all you can eat buffet what can you really expect….NOT A LOT. For that price as long as it vaguely resembles food you shouldn’t really complain, and if you wake up the next day without food poisoning you have had a good result…! If you are true skinflint and broke, I would recommend that you sample one of the lunch time buffets at a decent place, as opposed to going to  one of the  dirt cheap places….Just keeping it real…..!

 

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