8 Star Cuisine Review – All You Can Eat Asian Buffet

All You Can Eat Asian Buffet in Gibsonia

When visiting 8 Star Cuisine in Gibsonia, you will be best served with a plan of attack, as there certainly are a number of dishes to consider.

The menu includes a mix of authentic Chinese dishes (think mapo tofu, pig trotters, short ribs, etc.), a selection of popular dishes you'd find at American Chinese restaurants (such as General Tso's chicken or crab rangoon), a dim sum section, a Japanese sushi counter with sashimi and rolls made-to-order, baked goods, and an ice cream bar for good measure.

Naturally, I had to try a bit of everything during my lunchtime visit to find any standouts.

While I would say that, for a buffet, most of the food was fine, and the great variety certainly helps you get your money's worth (especially at lunch), I also wasn't terribly blown away by many dishes overall. Fast casual General Tso's, crab rangoon, and the like are, well, fairly straightforward and to-the-point dishes.

Will I eat my weight in these on an all-you-can-eat buffet? Absolutely. Would I buy an entree of these at a conventional restaurant? Probably not.

Still, despite that, there were a few standouts that should absolutely be on your radar when visiting. These include the coconut shrimp (with a flavorful, creamy sauce), the Dragon Roll from the sushi bar (which was quite light and delicate with fresh seafood), the tempura plate (also ordered from the sushi bar, which had a nice fried texture), and the sushi taco.

The sushi taco was perhaps my favorite item on the entire buffet, with a fried shell that had a texture like a wonton, a healthy mix of raw fish, and a tangy sauce on top. Although the flavors reminded me almost more of a ceviche than sashimi, I can't overstate how delicious this particular dish was. In fact, if I hadn't already gorged myself on some of the more familiar dishes on the buffet by the time this order came out from the sushi bar, I probably would've ditched my plans on trying other hot dishes and ordered three or four rounds of this one and called it a day- it was just that good.

For those who plan to visit for dinner (and all day on weekends), 8 Star Cuisine typically has an expanded food menu, with a more robust sushi roll menu (think more signature rolls with premium ingredients) and more entrees on the buffet, to name a few. That said, dinner and weekend prices were just under double the lunch-time price at the time of our visit, so it can get somewhat expensive in a hurry.

For me, however, the lunchtime price is where the value comes in. Although you miss out on some of the more premium food options that come with dinner service, the price-to-value is hard to beat at lunch, and I'll gladly make that trade any time when visiting. The markup for dinner is just a bit too significant for my liking.

Admittedly, I do wish that 8 Star Cuisine would lean more into traditional Asian dishes than they already have on the menu. This is more a personal opinion for the dishes I like (I did gravitate towards sushi, the mapo tofu, and dim sum above most others at this buffet), but either way, they do a good job of offering dishes that most visitors will recognize alongside others that may be new to you.

Finally, as with most buffets, we'd be remiss if we did not point out that 8 Star Cuisine reserves the right to add a surcharge for unconsumed food on a weight basis. So be sure to finish all the food you take from the buffet to not risk an extra fee on top of your admission price.

Overall, 8 Star Cuisine follows a fairly conventional all-you-can-eat Asian buffet mold, but the addition of sushi, dim sum, and more traditional Chinese dishes gives a number of options for those with all interests. While we'd personally stick to lunch for the value proposition, if you are in the mood for a feast, it is hard to beat an all-you-can-eat experience from time to time. Just don't forget that sushi taco!

8 Star Cuisine is located at 5375 William Flinn Hwy, Unit 14 in Gibsonia.