Joy East Chinese Buffet 2410 East Riverside Drive, Austin, TX 78741

"The service wasn't quite the waitresses fault as she was dealing with a rather messy group while I was there. My main complaints are the atmosphere is not what you would expect of an Asian buffet. The restrooms offer no privacy as the stall doors are pantry doors with the slats. The food selection was seriously lacking in the choices and was barely warm or edible. For the size of the restaurant it seems they are more concerned about sitting people than feeding them a wide variety. They certainly have the space for at least one or two more steam tables, and should probably replace the ones they have. They had 2 fruit options, melon and orange, no beef broccoli, orange chicken, super greans, anything with banana, and many other items were missing that I've come to expect from the traditional American Chinese buffet, Or Perhaps I'm spoiled by the small town buffets."

"This place smells like dirty carpet when you enter the dining room. You can see where food has been spilled and never cleaned everywhere. The bathrooms are just as bad with tags on the walls broken items. The food was just okay. I was really not interested in eating, the surroundings are that bad. Looks like one time this might have been a great place. It is time for new flooring and complete make over. They can't maintain too long like this I will never go back. Buffett cost for a meal and ice tea $14.50. I was in the area just stopped in for lunch. I had to go look for someone to get a ticket to pay out."

"This was a tough one, but I have to be honest. If you don’t care about the clientele and cleanliness, and just want all the food you can eat for a great price; then this is the place for you. The food was good for the most part, nothing too fancy, okay to good flavor, I was surprised about some of the items that they had such as stir fry clams, bbq spare ribs, plantains, and even hot wings. But I know it’s to cater to some of those who wanted some other variety than just Chinese food, which is honestly not a bad thing. I actually loved the Buffalo wings, wasn’t too saucy or that spicy but bring in a bottle of franks hot sauce or crystals hot sauce and you’re good to go. My biggest gripe comes from the sanitary side of things. Walking in, there was a dominant clientele base in there and they seemed surprised to see an Asian person at a….Chinese buffet……yeeeeeeah. I heard one of them say “chinito” and being the only other Asian there other than the staff and cook, it wasn’t hard to determine who they were talking about. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable but I was there for the food and not them. Next, to the patrons using the utensils to plate their food, DON’T PUT THE UTENSIL BACK ONTO THE FOOD! For instance, the tongs where your hands would be weren’t off to the side but on the ribs itself! The ribs still looked good and were good, I just had to grab one from the bottom. I even saw this for the chow mein, and some other items but come on people! Next is that there were obviously kids in there, you can’t avoid that but parents should accompany the kids to help them, although these parents are the type to not care about what they do. I saw people wiping their hands on their clothes then reaching for another spatula….ugh! I guess I’m just too much of a clean freak but I am considerate of others and so if I have to go wash my hands, I will gladly do so. The bathroom wasn’t too great either while we’re on that subject but at least it worked. I only had one round of food and it was enough for me. I paid and walked out. For a lunch buffet with a soda, it was around $14 and I added a $2 tip so it was $16ish. Good food, good price, not so good clientele."

"Service was great, food was good not the best. my 5 year old and 7 year old didn't like the taste of the food . pizza , Macaroni and cheese watery after spending over $100 I didn't expect to have 2 kids crying that there hungry its a nice place lots of food selection just wasn't for us I guess."

"The food is good but the ambiance need to improve a lot. The staff are friendly and courteous. Lots of choices in entires, main course, fruits, soups and starters along with some sushi. The desert section is pale with only 2 or 3 choices."