Joy Luck Buffet, Brentwood - Visited December 2012

I remember when the Joy Luck Buffet first opened up in Brentwood many years ago. I was pretty excited to have a Chinese buffet so close to home and also to work at Wash U. The location had been a Ponderosa restaurant before and was near the Brentwood McDonald's, Po' Folks and Memphis Best, all of which have since moved and been replaced with "lesser" nearby food establishments like PopEye's and Sonic.  In fact the Rally's that used to sit between Sonic and PopEye's has shut down... but Joy Luck remains! One of the reasons for its long success has been its ability to draw TWO different crowds there for their food - 1) more typical American over eaters who like unlimited, nondescript Asian buffet food and 2) Chinese clientele who appreciate more authentic Szechuan cuisine directly off the menu. Luckily for me I fall into both categories!

And for our holiday luncheon, my fine departmental staff at the university decided to visit the Joy Luck for lunch, and the department would even cover the rest of the bill after we each chipped in $5 a head. That sounded like a good deal to me! I know we would not have enough time to order off the Szechuan menu, and I was fine with some heavy duty buffet grazing since I actually had not done so in a long time despite my online reviews of many of a buffet from the 1990's and early 2000's. In my later middle aged years, I have cut down on my buffet gorging, but I believe I will still try to compete with buffet hounds years younger and many pounds heavier than myself!

Checking my online reviews, it said we had not been there in 6 years, and I can tell they have completely changed the buffet layout. Now they have a sushi table on one side with raw meats and vegetables that a chef there will stir fry for you, as well as the four buffet serving tables in the middle, and the ice cream and soda machines on the side. I noticed the first table looked like a salad and fruit table which I pretty much skipped all together. The table on the far end (nearest to Manchester and also our large round table) had a bunch of desserts which also looked unimpressive. So I concentrated on the appetizer table (mostly fried stuff), the main entree table in the middle and the sushi bar. The sushi was mostly all rolls, but there was some inari sushi, cut in smaller pieces. I do not think anyone else in the whole restaurant at the time even knew what inari sushi even was, so I believe I ended up eating most of it myself. I, in fact, skipped most of their sad looking desserts and had more sushi for dessert. I think my coworkers think I was crazy, but they already think I will eat anything.

So for "all you can eat" sushi rolls and some pot stickers and some reasonable main entrees, I think Joy Luck is just fine, even without having to order off the "real" menu. I really do have to drag my family there again and also compare it to the new "Dynasty" place opening up on Clayton near Big Bend.