Cuisine: Chinese
Restaurant Features: Lunch Buffet, Dinner Buffet, On-Site Parking
Locations: Maplewood & West St Paul, MN
Addresses & Maps:
Maplewood- 2950 White Bear Ave Maplewood, MN 55109 (651) 704-9801
West St Paul- 1200 South Robert St. West St. Paul, MN 55118 (651) 554-0558
Hours: Sun-Thur 11am-9pm Fri-Sat 11am-10pm
Atmosphere: Both the Maplewood and West St Paul locations are located within strip malls. Each restaurant has a large, open space for the dining areas. Silk Kimonos adorn the walls and here and there you will see silk plants as well. Rectangular-shaped wooden tables are placed close together throughout the space, easy to accommodate larger groups.
There are four large buffet islands, with additional tables for dessert and also a separate stir-fry section at the West St Paul location. Each buffet island has about 10-12 food items.
The West St Paul location also has a custom stir-fry area. Similar to Khan’s, choose your frozen sliced meats, Vegetables and sauces and the chef will cook it up in front of you on the Mongolian BBQ.
Menu: Appetizers include Egg Rolls, Cream Cheese Wonton, Cheesey Potatoes, Sweet Biscuits, Sesame Cakes, Pork Sausages, Egg Foo Young, Roast Duck, BBQ Ribs, and Steamed Dumplings.
Soups include Hot & Sour and Wonton. There is also Lo Mein, Fried Rice, White Rice, Rice Noodle and String Beans.
Chicken dishes include Black Pepper Chicken, Roast Chicken, Sesame Chicken, Moo Goo Gai Pan, Chicken with Broccoli, Chicken Chow Suey, General Tao’s Chicken, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Chicken Wings, Chicken Sticks, and Chicken with Cashew.
Pork dishes include Mopo ToFu, Hunan Pork, Butter Potato, Double Cooked Pork, Hunan Triple Delight, Pork with Mushrooms, and Boneless Ribs.
Beef dishes include Beef with Broccoli, Mongolian Beef, Beef with Mushrooms, Peppered Beef, and Beef Ribs.
Seafood (most items served at dinner only) items include Mussels, Fried Codfish, Salmon, Popcorn Shrimp, Butterfly Shrimp, Salted Shrimp, Coconut Shrimp, Shrimp with Lobster Sauce.
Desserts include Soft-Serve Ice Cream, Cake, Fresh Fruit
Price guide: Lunch Buffet $8-9 Dinner Buffet $11-12
What I Ate: My visit was at lunch time with a group of colleagues, but I still wanted to try a selection of foods. I had Cream Cheese Wontons, Boneless BBQ Ribs, Steamed Dumpling, General Tao’s Chicken, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Fried Rice, and a Rice Noodle dish with veggies. The cream cheese wontons were the biggest I have ever had! They were stuffed full of a cream-cheese mixture that was slightly sweet. The steamed dumplings were very good, with a flavorful pork/onion mixture. The meats that I tried were okay, but I would not say these use high quality meat. The Sweet and Sour as well as the General Tao’s Chicken was kind of fatty and gristly and the batter was soggy.
I wasn’t quite satisfied with what I actually ate from my first plate, so I opted to wait in line for my own custom stir-fry. I chose beef, broccoli, pineapple, onions, pepper and mushrooms with noodles and several scoops of all the different cooking sauces. There is only one cook making stir-fry and he only cooks one dish at a time, so I had to wait at least 10 minutes for my plate. I was only able to get a few good bites in before it was time to head back to work, but I was very happy with my stir-fry dish.
Service: At Great Moon you must pay for your meal before you enter the dining room but from that point forward, there are many servers ava
ilable to take drink orders, clear plates, etc.
Overall Impression: Huge buffet with many options, but I would say food is just slightly better than mediocre in taste and quality. Make-it-yourself Stir-Fry option at West St Paul is a big bonus.
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Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
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Captain absolutely loves this place! Lots of variety to eat., and one can eat to their heart’s content!
I like the food too, especially the salad bar. Lots of toppings for the varities of lettuce they serve. Not just iceberg, but Ceasar, and Mixed greens.
VERY noisey is my only gripe. Price is okay. I would hope that their lunch prices wouldn’t have gone up( now they’re $8-10) so much though. $6.99 seems more appropriate., and that should INCLUDE the drink. Lots of kiddos and heavy eaters. Noise. The place is usually pretty clean, lots of windows, music is ok too, not too loud.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Our family ate at the West St. Paul buffet last Dec. and we are looking forward to eating there again during our next visit up from Florida during the holidays. I have eaten Chinese food over most of the U.S., the UK and Europe and I must say this is about the best I have eaten. Of course you can do better at a custom order restaurant, but you will definitely enjoy their food as long as you remember it is, after all, a buffet.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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i love great moon buffett and i brought my friends to it and they loved it
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
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I love great moon! Especially now that they have an awesome SUSHI BAR!!!!! I loved it before, but now I LLLOOOVEEEE IT!
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OMG! I love their sushi and their food is the effen bomb!
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My family has enjoyed the Maplewood resturant for many years. But since going to the one in St Paul we prefer this one. We come from Wyoming-North Branch area just to eat there. With me being dietbetic the freshness of the BBQ (and the few minute wait) is worth the drive. And the price is just right for all that they serve. Anyone would be foolish not to try it.
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Hi. You should try Mongo’s in Maple Grove. It’s closer to you and it’s super healthy with a lot of choices. About the same price.
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I love you pople
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great moon is one of my favorite restaurants, the service is great and so is the food although i perfer the one in maplewood sin ce tnhey now hav a new sushi bar and the service is better and the food taste better, and they also serve crab legs every friday night.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Old Country Buffet has been renamed to the Slop Hole. They have the worst food in town. All though the one in Roseville is quite good. But I would still go to Great Moon Buffet, at least there I know what I am eating.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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dont hate on this asian food buffet! i think great moon tastes better than old country buffet! because of the variety =)
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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I love great moon me and the fam eat there 2x a week. When we walk in they no that we are the family that want the circle booth in the back.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
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I used to go to this place in Maplewood when I worked right next to it. I never really liked it and considered it to be the Asian version of Old Country Buffet, being that the quality of food is not that great, but I always like the variety of buffets.
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