Oriental Buffet Citrus Heights

Changes. First note-this place is now open as "Tokio Oriental Buffet"-which I'll cover later in this review...

I go here regularly-not really notable food, but it's cheap and usually well-made, on the bus line that runs past my house, and doesn't stress a single person taking up a 4 person table so you can eat and read your newspaper at the same time...and I could get all that done for usually about $12, including bus fare.
I was really craving Chinese food one Saturday afternoon a couple of months ago-during one of summer's hot spells-it was in the mid 90's when I got off the bus across Greenback from the restaurant, and as the bus pulled away and my line of sight opened up, I realized there were NO cars parked outside the place...and sure enough, after crossing the street and walking up to the door, there were signs saying they were closed for remodeling...and it's gonna be 30 minutes until the next bus goes by-I ended up eating Del Taco and being completely unsatisfied, as well as baked from walking the 1/2 mile or so to Del Taco.

So last month, I saw an ad saying "Grand Opening" of Tokio Oriental Buffet at this location...decided to stop in and see how it was...and found that it was pretty much the same, with only a few changes-instead of large bowls of fresh fruit and salad (which no one ever ate anyway-throwaway cost on that had to hurt the bottom linr) and serve-yourself ice cream and desserts, they now offer fresh made sushi rolls. In order to do this, they took the combination dessert/self-serve drink area and remodeled it into the sushi bar, eliminating the drink area and moving the stripped-down dessert offerings (think cookies, pudding and puff pastry) to the former fruit & salad area. One side affect of this is that you now have to wait on your server for drink refills, and they've added your drink as a separate charge-it used to be included in the meal price, so even though the meal prices didn't really change, the cost of the meal actually went up by $2, plus what you now feel obligated to tip your server-which trust me, will vary according to the service you get...other than that, the food remains exactly the same-I especially like the pot stickers and the Mongolian pork. Just one quibble though-if you're going to serve vegetarian chow mein, make sure you thuroughly clean your cooking surface before making it-the last time I was there, the chow mein tasted horribly fishy.

Still, i like the place, and eat there regularly.