Red Rice Buffet - Port Hope, Ontario

Edit: We went back tonight, for a birthday dinner, and things were better. The food was hotter, and it tasted good. We went here as a family on Father’s Day. The food generally tasted pretty good, but it wasn’t as good as some other Chinese restaurants I’ve been to, like Golden ... Pine in Courtice, which is the pinnacle. The only real issue I had was the food temperature. We found that, unless you got stuff when it was freshly put out in the buffet, it wouldn’t be warm enough. The warners don’t do a good enough job keeping food hot. It was the start of dinner time when we got there. For $100, you want hot food. Read more

ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE!!!!!!! I do not recommend this restaurant to anyone who is looking for an enjoyable experience. Last night myself and 2 kids went for dinner at 6pm and our server was absolutely horrible. She was unprofessional, and made our experience the worst dining experience I have EVER had!! She continued to ... come to our table and was cross at me that my children were "wasting" the buffet food because they were not finishing the food on their plates. I explained to her that children can be wasteful and that they wanted to try new foods. She came back to my table several times telling me that my kids were wasting too much. I had a bowl of soup and a small plate and then she brought me the bill which was $63.25. We ended up leaving before I had finished eating as she had embarrassed us enough. Perhaps if the food was better tasting, my kids would have enjoyed it and not left food on their plates!!!!! I will be telling all of my friends and family NOT to eat here!!!!! Read more

Ate here a few years ago while passing through and thought I’d stop again. Should have heeded the recent bad reviews. Arrived just as they opened for lunch - contents of all the trays were clearly yesterdays leftovers, and to make it even worse the reheated ... leftovers were only lukewarm at best. The only enjoyable bit was the ice cream. Won’t be back ever again. Read more

Delicious food with a good variety. We've eaten here countless times for years, and held a great many special events. The hosts are gracious, accommodating, and expedient. They are always polite to customers, and appreciative. It's not a huge buffet, however it is good food and very reasonable prices.

It's a rather quaint little chinese buffet in Port Hope, one that my mother and late step-father used to frequent quite often. While it was my first visit to this restaurant, it was absolutely nice to see that one of the smaller buffets has survived the business killing pandemic. On to the ... food, while it's a smaller venue, they do have a decent selection of items, and honestly, how much do places like the Mandatin waste because no one's interested in X, Y or Z? Mixed Vegetables, on par with other locations that I love, admittedly I only rob the broccoli from this particular dish and it was impressive with flavor and cooking. Garlic Shrimp was also on par with other places but I will give them kudos on properly cooking the smaller shrimp, a lot of places overdo them. Chicken Wings, I was actually blown away by their breading, a very nice house blended batter that sat outside the norm of most other Buffet's I'm accustomed to, that being said, nothing beats Loon Ho's chicken wings in Peterborough!!! Chicken on a Stick!!!!? OMG, here's one that you don't find very often, in fact outside King's Buffet (RIP) I don't know where else you find this item, and there was 0 disappointments here, it was cooked perfectly and tasted great, though imo, they could easr off the Ginger just a little. Cheese Wonton was very impressive, I got my first servings of this item after they had sat for a slight bit and that honestly made them perfect for my pallet, I do not enjoy the taste of cream cheese, but a couple places do this quite well, my second serving was fresh out of the kitchen and the strong taste of the cream cheese knocked it down for me a bit, but I still enjoyed them. Egg Rolls, these are always hit and miss for me with the internals, and unfortunately this one was a miss. The strong taste of deep fried Ginger was a total turn off for me, but I do know that A LOT of people do enjoy this style of flavor. Chicken Balls were as you would expect from most anywhere that serves them. Breaded Shrimp was really nice as well, it was actually more of a popcorn shrimp style which is always nice, but I do miss the big bulky breading that some places have. While there were many more items to choose from like the norms: fried rice, General Tao Chicken, Lemon Chicken, Chow Mein, Soups and Salads and a desert/ice cream bar, I'm pretty simple wherever there's a buffet available. Now for the plea, and it's not just for this buffet alone, get back out there folks, visit your smaller local chinese buffets so they can bounce back from the throes of this god foresaken pandemic. If we don't get out and show our support then The Mandarin will be out only option. Read more