A year or two ago on the predecessor board, a wise individual (in all probability ipsedixit) admonished Westsiders and others who lived west of downtown who complained about having to make the trek out to San Gabriel to get the real, authentic Chinese food. He stated that with the locus of Chinese food marching eastward that the Westsiders would one day look back to when they only had to drive to San Gabriel for the good stuff as the good old days. Well my friends, for me that day has arrived. I had a clue before going there that Hong Buffet might be something different, as their web page is largely in Chinese. Hong Buffet has stuff I’ve never seen in a Chinese buffet on this continent. Gua bao (you can make your own and skip the bun if you want). Chicken feet. Turnip cake. Round slices of cold chicken encased in chicken skin in a wine and gelatin sauce. Chicken broth with sesame oil (I had two bowls, even though isn’t soup isn’t the best utilization of resources at a buffet.) They have a small but excellent choice of desserts–wonderful green tea egg tarts, red bean pastry and coconut tarts. There’s a Chinese vegetarian table with two bitter melon dishes–stir fried and stuffed. Other notable dishes include spicy glass noodles, spicy napa, and black fungus. Of course this is a buffet and not gourmet food, and the teppan grill is quite ordinary. But for those of us who like an occasional high volume, high value meal, Hong Buffet is great. It’s in the 99 Ranch Shopping Center on Chino Ave. and Peyton Dr. in Chino Hills. Weekday lunch is about $12, but during the current holiday special it’s only about $9.
damn, for a second when I read the fucking body of your post I seemingly thought this joint was in West LA ???
I guess not.
In our dreams!
This place is always dead on a Fri night.
Was it busy? I know the lunch does well. Dinner not so much.
Very busy at lunch today. Probably because of the 25 percent discount. I think the dinner might be too pricey for the locals.
Hahaha. Too fucking pricey.
And what in fucks name were you doing in Chino.
An illustrious late hound once described it glowingly perhaps as a “dining wilderness”.
Not a dining wilderness since the Chinese moved in. A lot of places have set up shop there including 85 Degrees, Yunnan Garden, Green Island, Tasty Noodle House and the pioneer, 99 Ranch Market.
They are open Thanksgiving day if you are really looking for somewhere to go.
Per Google translate they also have something called White Castle…
Sounds good. I’ll make the fucking trek over there if I have nowhere else to go which is highly likely. 
How far is chino hills from la?
About 35 miles east of downtown. Take the Pomona Freeway to the 71, get off on Chino Ave. and head back to Chino Hills.
A true Angeleno asks, “How long does it take to get there?”, right?!?!
The ubiquitous answer: “About 20 minutes.”
So true. 20 minutes to just about anywhere when traffic is flowing, double to triple that during rush hour, and half that on Saturday or Sunday morning before 8AM. Real life word problems. And who says we’ll never have any use for stuff we were taught in school?
Why are the Yelp ratings for the place so low with three stars? Is the food too Chinese for all those Yelpers?
Unless, like me, you live in the South Bay.
Then the correct answer is 45 minutes!
Because Yelp ratings of Chinese restaurants are meaningless.